The Party

I must be insane.  That's all I can figure when I realized we had over 15 children at Seth's party, plus parents and siblings.  This is what happens when you live too far from family--your friends get to substitute!

I was probably in a little over my head.  Besides Seth's cake, I had two other cakes to make that weekend.  One was a simple cake for a friend's daughter.  The other was a bridal shower cake that ended up being a lot more work than I originally anticipated.

Basically, what this meant was that by the time guests started showing up, I was still in the kitchen trying to make cute little star cake pops to match Seth's rocket cake (curse you, Wilton Candy Melts!).  My kitchen was a disaster and I had absolutely no makeup on.  No pretense here!

(I had big plans for these pops, but they were foiled by Wilton)

I think the party turned out well, despite a cake disaster the night before and my lack of a cute centerpiece (once again, curse you, Wilton Candy Melts!).  Yes, it was sheer chaos in our house, but I think they had fun.  We'll just skip the part where Seth turned to Jon and asked, "Birthday party all done?  Friends go home now?"  I promise he was much happier once we got everyone outside where we weren't all standing on top of each other.

Here was Seth's official guest list (minus Angelina, Victoria, Jack and Emma, who couldn't come):

Eliana

Lianna

Sierra & Brooklyn

Brandon, Nathan & Austin

Owen, Tessa & Everett

Garrett & Tristan

Brynn, Kennedy & Shea

Brie

Stryker & Hunter

Gabe

If you keep in mind that Brooklyn, Hunter & Austin are not much older than Catherine, it doesn't seem quite as crazy.  Right?  Okay, it was still crazy.

It was a simple party--as soon as the guests arrived, we set them to work on decorating their 'rockets' (2 liter soda bottles).  

Once all rockets were decorated, it was time for candles and cake: 

The rocket cake

(lemon cake with lemon/lime icing--obviously Jon & I chose the flavors)

It was supposed to be taller, but the bottom layer fell to pieces on me.

I think I salvaged it fairly well.

(Me, in my au natural glory)

Seth was not entirely sure he liked the candles.

Or all the people singing.

He didn't want any of his rocket cake.  

Just a cupcake and a hunk of fondant (gross).

Brandon, Stryker & Nathan enjoy their cupcakes

Opening his awesome gifts.

He is a very spoiled young man.

After gifts were opened, we headed outside to launch our rockets.  Since it was ridiculously hot & humid outside, I supplied the partygoers with waterguns and otter pops (which melted within minutes).

Tristan, Tessa & Brie watch the rockets

Aaron & Jon make a great flight crew

Hanging out in the shade

Seth retrieves his rocket

If you didn't watch the video posted previously, you should.  Our rocket launcher is AWESOME.

Seth wasn't entirely interested, but the 5-11 age group was VERY into it.  

Guess we can use it again here in a few years.

Once all rockets were launched, our guests headed home.  Garrett & Tristan stayed to play for a little bit, which made for a happy Seth (until Tristan tried to play with his new tractor.  Then it was fairly obvious that he had skipped his nap that day).

I did find one straggler after everyone else left that night.  

At first I thought it was the top of a strawberry or tomato, but no: 

Don't worry--I had Jon kill it.  

Because that's what we do to guests who overstay their welcome.

Thank you to all who came to celebrate Seth with us.  I apologize (again) for the chaos, but I hope you had as much fun as we did!  

(Many thanks to Katelyn, Eliana's big sister, who graciously took pictures for me so I could do everything else I needed to!)