Another Happy Birthday!

If any of you read my last Five Minute Friday you would know that last Friday was Elizabeth's birthday and also that we went out to dinner for her birthday and it didn't go so well.


However, lest you think that our dearest oldest child was forgotten and ill treated on this, her turning-into-a-teenager birthday, I will fill you in with the activities from earlier in the day.

It was all a covert operation.

In the past, I have taken Elizabeth out of school at least for a half a day and we have done something fun or interesting like go to the zoo or the aquarium or something like that.  I told her this year, though, that I was not going to take her out of school because now that she is in middle school, it is much more serious and she can't be missing days and classes just because.

So, she knew that she was not going be leaving school early.

I only thought it was fair to let her know ahead of time so she was not sitting all day watching the clock expecting to be freed from her prison.

But, what to do?  What to do?  I had to think of something different and fun for her birthday!

Well, it just so happened that I found out that one of her friends from church went to a different school that was going to be out of school for spring break on Elizabeth's birthday.  So, I cornered him and asked him if he would like to come over in the morning and help us make some cupcakes and decorate them to take them to Elizabeth's school during her lunch period.  He agreed, and so the plan was born.

Then I got to thinking that we really needed to make the cupcakes the night before so that they would be cool enough to decorate the next day because Elizabeth has lunch very early...at 11:40.

So, how do we make millions of cupcakes the night before without her getting curious.

We can't.

But, my mother-in-law said that she wanted to make cupcakes and asked Elizabeth to help her, so together they made 48 of the little guys!  Elizabeth probably figured they were for her, but she didn't guess that we were going to come to school with them!

So, the next morning, Jonni arrived at our house at about 8AM and after playing with Jo for a while, he was put to mix the color into the icing (and get it on his shirt!)

(It was Jo's bright idea to lick it to get it out of his shirt.  He did and it did come out, at least mostly.)



Then, we set up the design...

And used double sided tape to stick the cupcakes down so they wouldn't move and slide around during transportation. (I don't know why I never thought of doing that before!  They always just slid around and then I had to arrange them again when we got where we were going, but this time, I had a light-bulb moment and a solution was born!)

Next came the icing....

Followed by the decorating...

And then the final product!!!

For those of you who do not know, Elizabeth is a big Real Madrid fan (for those of you who really don't know, that is a professional men's soccer team) and this is the jersey for her favorite player, #7, Cristiano Ronaldo

(for his athletic prowess, of course!  No other reason, I'm sure.)

 

 (And for those of you who were wondering where Jonni was during this time, I will tell you:  He was supervising.  Just ask him.  He'll tell you.  It would have been mayhem without his watchful eye...or maybe it was mayhem anyway...on second thought, don't ask him...and don't ask about the cupcakes nor how many times Jo had to go and wash her hands or why...)

When it was time, we loaded into the car and thanked our lucky stars many times that those cupcakes were stuck down and not flying around the car nor out the window...

 (and no, that is not the grass in my yard.  Yes, it has been that tall before, but never this early in the season!)

and we finally made it in one piece to Elizabeth's school and made the teachers and office staff drool both for 'our' cuteness...

 and for our cupcakes.

Finally, the bell rang and it was off the cafeteria...

where we were descended upon by both people we know...

(and there were also some pretty weird ones we didn't know!  One kid came up and Elizabeth was like...ummm...I don't know you.)

And then the cupcakes were gone!  (I would have taken another picture, but I think they ate the board, too...some of those middle schoolers are pretty monstrous!)

And that was the story of Elizabeth's birthday.  We sang, we caked, we friended, and we didn't barf!  Well, not until later, at least. 

See, it wasn't all bad.    :-)

Happy birthday, Little Lizzie!  I can't believe how the time has flown!  We love you!