I had been preparing Whittaker for a birthday post-move as a simple event for a few weeks now. Knowing that in his mind he could likely be conjuring up all sorts of expectations for festivities, I planted the bowling idea in Wyoming as a great and novel idea. He accepted it easily. Once that was decided I returned to moving mode and didn't give it much more thought. Once we were moved in (unloaded), the birthday countdown loomed. I wasn't worried; we had decided on bowling. I made a few calls, changed from the night before birthday to the night after and a party was set up at the bowling alley. All I had to do was make cupcakes and show up!
On actual birthday he requested waffles for breakfast. (probably because he saw the waffle iron when it was unpacked after a year in storage!) He also requested a cookout. We determined the reason for the cook out was just to roast marshmallows so we roasted them over the grill with much excitement. The three boys flew a kite, we played a few rounds of tensies and we had a very low key day.
A little overconfident at how well it was working out, the next day since all I had to do was make cupcakes and be at the bowling alley by 6:30pm, after lunch I pulled out the mixer and the ingredients feeling very pleased that my kitchen was mostly functional and I could easily make simple cupcakes. Until I only had half the amount of sugar the recipe called for. I don't have all my food here yet... I searched a few boxes and found exactly the amount we needed. whew.. carry on!
The batter was good, and the muffin cups were filled without any mess. The oven beeped it's preheat sound and in they went. Plenty of time to spare. I pulled out the cupcake carrier and put the chilled base in the freezer. How organized was I? I set the timer, made the icing and then went back to unpacking. (the bathroom I believe) The timer dinged. The cupcakes were still very gooey. I gave them 5 more minutes.. still gooey.. 5 more minutes... still gooey.. oh dear. I'd seen an oven thermometer among the camping gear just the other day. So out to the garage to dig through camping gear. Found it. Headed back to the house... still gooey. The oven thermometer only read 125 degrees! No wonder they weren't cooking. By now they've been in for 45 minutes, double the time they needed. I only had one hour before we needed to leave! Not sure what to do with the gooey mess in the oven I pulled them out and poured the remaining batter into a cake pan.
After turning up the heat and finding that 450 on the oven was 325 on the thermometer, I baked the cake, checking it regularly. I put away the cupcake carrier and the chilled base. I pulled out a clean cookie sheet to transport the cake on. We put a lid on the icing and found some plates and forks. We grabbed the hot cake out of the oven and Duncan balanced it on his lap. We drove the 40 minutes to the bowling alley and were even a few minutes early. Good! Time to ice the cake.
We came home to the gooey, hardened mess but birthday boy and the cousins had a fun time. Tomorrow we'll be trying out the new slingshot he received as a gift!! yikes!
The birthday reminded me of another birthday boy who was content with the simple life only a few weeks after moving. (Almost twelve years ago, we moved to the 3090 house) Miles birthday was on the horizon and I had purchased his gift months earlier and had to be careful not to lose it in the move. He requested a solar system. He received it, but it took us a few years to finally put it together! An orange cake request was granted and even among the chaos of 7 small children, a move, and working full time we celebrated Miles 6th birthday. We even tested out the pump rocket in the snowy backyard.
