The four-day long birthday

Middle Child's Star Wars birthday on Saturday went swimmingly. The three kids arrived and I introduced myself as a Jedi Master and they were all Padawans here for Jedi training. The weather held up and we did a lot of running around outside. We only went in to play "Pin the Staff on Yoda" (which I did a damned good job drawing). This way, Husband could fire up the Wookee Cookies (hamburgers) with no fear of kids running into the hot barbecue.

I made a cake. Just a sheet cake with white frosting but I got some stuff that's like black spray paint for cakes. I made a stencil of Darth Vadar's head, sprayed it and then piped the details in black icing. Not quite as divinely creative as the cake I made to look like a box of crayons (with iced twinkies as the crayons!), but Middle Child was very tickled.

The next day, my parents, sister L, and sister V and her whole crew came over to celebrate Father's Day/Middle Child's birthday/my dad's birthday. I wore a dress and got a ton of backhanded comments. Anyway, sadistic humour runs on my mum's side of the family, a bunch of big-time teasers. We had middle child open all his presents and promised him that his Auntie V got him something extra special. He opened up a couple of pairs of shorts and a striped shirt. We made it look like that was it for his gifts and I asked him to stand up and make a speech of thanks. Then, as arranged Daughter and my neice, in Oscar-worthy performances, announced they found another gift under the table. He opened up his most coveted Darth Vadar Voice Changer mask. And all was well in the world.

The next day, Middle Child's real birthday, he woke up and asked to open his gifts from his immediate family (and grandparents from far away). A change from tradition, but it worked out because when he came home from school, he konked out on the chesterfield.

That put a damper on our other family tradition of the Birthday Dinner. This is where the birthday person gets to choose what they want me to cook or go out to a restaurant. So we saved that for yesterday where Middle Child picked a diner that serves Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes. This kid can pack away a half-dozen pancakes, I swear.

And all this and my friend and I put together the elementary school's yearbook and put it to press. Crazy.