Happy Birthday!!

There was  flurry of activity in our household as we were getting ready to celebrate our darling Lanes' fifth birthday!  However, running up to the birthday it seemed like all my plans were unraveling. I had to get people without passports across borders, revive myself from an accidental poisoning, and put a derailed freight train back on track.

Lanes was longing for all her cousins to come to her party to meet her buddies. None of her cousins live in Canada, and considering my nutty sister is the only family member we have that does not live across an ocean, I convinced her to bring my nieces over for the big day. Of course the day before the party, they realize that my younger niece's passport has expired.

I was exasperated mainly because this is not the first time they realized someone had an expired passport right before a trip. How many times can this happen to one family? Before I had a regularly scheduled nervous breakdown and listed out desperate ways for them to sort it out, they quickly chimed in that to cross over to Canada a birth certificate would suffice since my niece is a minor.

The throbbing vein in my head would have appreciated being left in the dark about this suitably averted crisis. To make things worse, their garage door jammed as they were leaving and they couldn't get the car out. My brother-in-law had to leave work and come help shove it open and eventually they were on the way North. 

Needless to say, I was anxious until they crossed the border.  After that I think they got lost in Surrey, but I didn't care because a.) our family always gets lost in Surrey--it's tradition and b.) at least they were roaming around somewhere in Canada. Worse comes to worst, I'll eventually send my trusted spouse, P, to rescue them.

I was in a tizzy because it was a long week for me already and I had a lot on my plate.  Lanes wanted me to make her birthday cake.  Since I recently discovered that I can bake and that kitchens are for cooking and not extra closet space, I was excited to make the cake and icing from scratch. 

I was thinking of a nice round double layered chocolate affair with colorful frosting. Then she tells me she wants it to be a purple and pink Dora cake. That's when the palpitations began.

The cake thing caused me many a sleepless night. I decided it had to have some height, so at least two to three layers. I also had to work with the baking pans I had. Too much television watching got me worried that if I stack the cakes I'll cause the ones on top to collapse into the one below. 
After much talking to myself I did the best I could, as seen below.  It was not something I was proud of, but it was done with a lot of love. In between constructing the cake and beating the icing manually, my hands were red and blue--because of the food coloring--and my back and arms were paining (because that's what my bones like to do).


Closer to the day, the guest list kept rising so I decided the Dora cake might not be enough to go round.  I supplemented it with a flower shaped cake. I must say I'm rather proud of how I sculpted it--it's simple, but I'm a simpleton when it comes to these things. I can barely cut an apple, let alone a circle cake into a shape.

My nutty sibling adores Lanes and she had wanted to make her a cake too. I fail dismally when it comes to judging quantities, square feet, physics and geometry so I asked her to make some cupcakes just in case.

She's a good sister and a fabulous aunt. I need to keep her busy this week so she doesn't read this blog and catch the compliment. However, as she went to pack her car, her dog (also known as my nephew), stole three cupcakes and in the process contaminated an entire batch.

My niece, sensing the cardiac arrest I would have upon hearing of this news and fearing that the incident would turn an avid animal lover like me into Cruella De Vil, rushed and made another batch of cupcakes. 

Crisis averted, but for good measure I did go into an entire woe is me harangue as soon as I was told about the ruination of twelve cupcakes. Lanes gets the drama gene from her Mama.

Meanwhile, after my cake was iced and stacked, I had gone to several stores and could not find a Dora cake topper so I called my trusted sibling to go on a quest.  She goes through great lengths to 'rescue' me from these little conundrums of mine, particularly if it has anything to do with her beloved Lanes.

She went to a couple of stores and then claimed she found some Dora items. I was really excited and envisioned great things for the cake. And then I heard what she found: a tent, underwear and a carry on luggage. 
 

What did she want me to do? Put the cake on top of the luggage inside a tent and make flags out of the underwear? That alone will justify Lanes putting me in the old folks home (or loony bin) when she is older.

Eventually, she found me some icing Dora heads that I could put around the sides of the cake, but we were out of luck for a topper. Luckily, Lanes, an avid eavesdropper on phone conversations, quickly produced a Dora toy she inherited from her cousins.

So a little bit of tape here and toothpicks there and presto, a cake topper was born and all was well. I then turned my attention towards making a nice dinner and cleaning up the apartment for my sister and nieces since they were coming all the way to make Lanes' day.

I thought why not clean the burners with oven cleaner while I'm at it? I was on the phone with a friend and thought I'd multitask and accidentally inhaled way too much of the fumes.  My nostrils, throat and lungs were burning.

I approached P to tell him of my folly before he found me in a heap in the living room. However, as I started explaining my latest antic to him, I started to see lots of electric turquoise spots before my eyes. While I was marvelling at how pretty the flashing lights were it dawned on me that maybe I should take it outside and get some fresh air.

P was not amused and wondered why these things only happen to me, and I guess by default him. As I stood with my head out the balcony I got no sympathy from him (although I caught him eyeing the warning on the can) so I called my nutty sister to tell her I might expire. Instead they consoled each other for putting up with me. How rude. 

Apparently, I had nearly offed myself with bleach once before. I don't remember that. Then again, I don't remember many things--must be the fumes. I'm foiled by household cleaners once again. I think P put them out of my reach. Sadly, that does not mean we have enrolled the help of a cleaning service. We just will have to go green instead.

When I was not inflicting involuntary harm upon myself with toxic chemicals or giving myself carpel tunnel mixing icing manually, I was frantically keeping tabs on a UPS package I was having sent to my sister's house.

Lanes has been longing for a very specific Jack in the Box for a long time. I could only find it online and P got it sent to Seattle for my sister to bring. It was set to arrive the day she was leaving for Canada, but what happens? The train it is on got derailed somewhere in the middle of Montana!  Hopefully, the Jack in the Box is not Splat in the Box now.

The other thing Lanes really wanted was a robot, particularly one with a remote control. I had no idea about these things, but luckily, I had mentioned this to my brother-in-law and between him and my sister they found a cute three inch robot complete with a remote control. Not only that, he was orange to boot (her fave colors are orange and purple)! 

In the end I was unnecessarily disappointed about the Jack in the Box. What made Lanes really happy on her birthday was having my sister and her cousins and all her friends show up for her and she had a grand old time with all of them. I'm glad she values family and friends.

She is growing up so fast! Lanes returned from preschool with her first loose tooth this week! As if my week was not emotionally charged enough, I felt utterly overwhelmed when she told me. I was not at all ready for that. Not one bit.

She is also rather on the clumsy side so I assumed she might have bumped herself but her teacher and she both say it started to wobble over lunch. I guess that's how nature goes.

When did she go from baby to little girl? I hugged and hugged and hugged her and she said 'Mamma, don't worry. I'm going to be fine. I'm just growing up!' I think that was my cue to realease her from my clutches, but I just squeezed her even tighter. She will always be my little baby to me!

So as this week goes by, I'm rather pooped from all the built up excitement. Lanes is fabulously five and I'm so proud of her! She is eagerly waiting for the Tooth Fairy and wondering how long it akes for a tooth to come off already. She has been coaxing it to no avail.

My nutty sister has returned to her home and my package just arrived, so she has custody of a well travelled and surprisingly undented Jack in the Box. What an adventure he has had. I guess we will have to keep it for Christmas!  More musings from BC next week where hopefully no bloggers will be harmed by seemingly mundane household products...and please do leave some comments...