One Hand Old

As we approach the big day when my MS will turn 5, it makes me think of my favorite little twins, Coleman and Caden back in December of last year when they celebrated being "one hand old." MS has certainly been thrilled about this event.

I was amazed that he didn't choose a snake cake this time (since snakes are still his favorite thing in the world and he is still begging to receive one). Instead, he asked to look at several cake possibilities on the computer. At first we were looking at reptiles, but then he saw a picture of a dinosaur cake and decided to go with that. He watched the video and emphasized what the demonstrator had said, "it is very easy to make." Thankfully, he was right.



I did panic when I removed the french vanilla cake from the pans. The two 9 inch round cakes turned out to be only one inch thick, which I thought would make for an anorexic dinosaur. Thus, I baked a second cake, in chocolate, and layered both parts. Knowing my MS would request either the head or the tail, I cut those portions from the vanilla cake and made the body from the chocolate cake.

I think I would have liked the placement of the head and tail better if I hadn't been trying to squeeze it onto my transportable cake pan, but since the cake was bound for Chuck E. Cheese's, I scrunched those appendages in (I think it looks too much like a dog-shape, but I'm probably just being too critical). I'm pretty sure MS's favorite part about this cake were the chocolate chip and Hershey kiss decorations. He helped line the back with the Hershey kiss spikes and place them upside down for large spots.

I was a bit anxious about the party because we don't really know anyone very well. MS invited one boy, Devin, from his preschool class last year and two kids, Evan and Andrea, from his preschool class this year. Plus, we invited his old preschool teacher and her three sons (unfortunately, they couldn't come).

I'm often sad to recognize the difference between the experiences of my ES and my two smaller sons. When ES was this age, he had parties full of kids we knew really well. Poor MS and YS, like me, have much fewer friends here in Indiana. I'm sure that will change once they begin elementary school. And, I'm equally convinced that MS was just happy to have a party at CEC.

I was happy to have table duty for the entire evening. Each guest received a goodie bag filled with 25 tokens, two tubs of Play-doh, an airplane and an Airhead. One of the parents mentioned that the place was mobbed when they had their older son's party there earlier in the week. We lucked out and the place was almost empty. I think everyone had a very good time (even though one boy, with food allergies, couldn't eat the pizza or the cake, so he munched on a cookie which his mother had sent along). And, the cake was so delicious that it is almost completely gone already.







When we arrived home, ES handed MS a wrapped present. It was so touching. ES gave MS his old game-boy and games. For the rest of the evening, we couldn't pry that out of his hands.

Tonight, he received another gift that we cannot pry out of his hands. His daddy took him to the pet store to pick out a pet. I was thinking they were going to pick a rabbit, because my husband had told me they were very easy to care for and gentle to hold. They returned home with two white mice. Apparently, the deciding factor was cost. The mice were $1.25 each and the rabbits were $20. But the rabbit cages were far more expensive than the equipment for mice.

Hubby said he requested two females, since the females are more docile. MS had already named them, while in the car on the way home. I laughed out loud when he told me they are "Jessie" and "Sammie." These are the names of two girls who have been ES's girlfriends (and thus, as MS confirms, his girlfriends, too).

Alas, when my hubby took them from the box to place in the newly outfitted aquarium, he noticed that one is a male and one is a female. Just great. Now we will be hosting mice babies, as well. Hubby assures me we can sell them back to the pet store (this is what he did when he was a boy and had pet mice).







MS says the names will stick (although he did almost change the name of the male one to be his own name - ha). At this point, the male is Sammie and the female is Jessie. All three boys are crazy about the new pets. I can see that these first few weeks are going to be challenging, because they seem to want to spend every minute holding the mice. We already lost one under the couch tonight. I made an executive decision at bedtime and decided the mice must sleep on the shelf in the closet at bedtime (I had visions of YS waking in the middle of the night and releasing the mice). At this point, all the boys in my house are tucked in bed, and at least one is dreaming of how fun it is to be all of one hand old.