Party Time!

Ethan had a jam-packed week!!  Not only was he at Scout Camp the entire last week, but mere hours after getting home on Saturday, we held his long-overdue "friend" birthday party.  A pool and pizza party was in the works, and THANK GOODNESS the weather cooperated!  I was more than a little worried considering we had rain/thunderstorms almost every day of last week.  But cooperate it did, and Saturday dawned beautiful, sunny, and HOT.  :)

It probably goes without saying, but a 12-year-old-boy's birthday party is a LOT different than an 8-year-old-girl's {or a 5-year-old-girl's, for that matter}.  Hahaha.  There was no need for banners or balloons or streamers this time around, and neither was there a need for planned out "activities" for everyone to do.  In short, it was kind of awesome.  Easily the lowest-stress birthday party we've thrown around these parts.  The only big to-do on MY list was making his requested Rubik's Cube cake. 

Knowing I'd be busy Saturday morning at a baptism, I went ahead and made the cake portion and crumb coat the night the before {then stuck it in the freezer}, and finished the decorating part on Saturday afternoon right before the party started.  It certainly wasn't the execution I had envisioned before hand, but it was recognizable enough for what it was, and we were all good with that!  As for the cake itself, I am huge fan of the cake mix hacks I googled on Friday night.  Hahaha.  To make it taste better than your standard box mix, I combined a Betty Crocker brand Devil's Food cake with a Pillsbury brand box, replaced the oil with melted butter and the water with whole milk, and added an extra egg.  I have to say that it was REALLY good.  Of course, you can never go wrong with homemade buttercream frosting to top things off, but still.  I was sufficiently impressed with the results, that I think I'll go this route EVERY time.  :)

We started the party at our house, and while waiting for everyone to arrive Ethan pulled out our party pack of Tenzi and let the games begin.  Scott took all our other kids {minus Alex, who couldn't be pulled away from the idea of cake} to the pool to get them out of the way, and once all the guests had arrived we were able to have cake and ice cream and presents in peace.  Although I will say for the record that 12 year old boy presents are boring!  Hahaha.  Nothing but money and gift cards, with one solitary ACTUAL present -- a cool 3-D puzzle thing, but of course, Ethan was MORE than happy with all of that.  :)  

 The Crew 

{minus one who wasn't able to join us until we were at the pool}

 

 Everyone wanted a piece of the cube.  :)

After the cake was eaten, we walked on down to the pool and the boys did their thing while I ordered pizza,  played photographer, and tried to keep from melting in the heat.  Haha.  Scott was a sport and stayed in the pool keeping the rest of our crew happy and away from the party-goers, and all in all, I'd say the pool party was a hit!!  Minimal effort on my part plus happy campers on their part? Yes please!  Hahahaha.  Too bad ALL of my kids don't have summer birthdays.  :)

The other added bonus was that all that swimming wore the kids out and we enjoyed a relatively painless transition at bedtime for all parties involved.  Winning!  Hahaha.  Now if you'll just stay tuned to see if I can convince Ethan to do a guest post recapping his Scout Camp experience...  :)