Feb. 11: Katie’s magic birthday

I realized yesterday that Katie’s birthday this year was her “magic” one—she turned 9 on the 9th—and I forgot to point that out to her. That’s bad, huh? I’m sure when she figures it out someday that I’ll be chastised sufficiently.

She chose a dog theme for her party this year. Katie’s an animal lover, but she has a special fondness for dogs. The only ones she doesn’t like are the giant poodles groomed like aliens, and I’m quite sure that’s due to my influence. There’s one in our neighborhood—though it’s not groomed all weird; it’s just huge—and every time we see it I say, “That’s not a dog!” Now, if I can just get her to adopt my always-right political views, I’ll have succeeded as a good mother. (Shut up, Darby.)

As always, once the party theme is decided upon, I go nuts looking for everything party-related to that theme. This year I definitely appreciated that Katie prefers dogs over, say, GOATS. I found all sorts of fun dog items for the goodie bags, as well as pawprint balloons and headbands with dog ears. The invitations were fun to make too:



Party guests were some of Katie’s classmates (Amaya, Bethany, Parker and Sophie), our sweet neighbor friend Lauren, and annoying baby brother Jack and his buddy, Alec. This was the perfect number of guests, I decided, especially because most party goods come in sets of eight.

We had everyone meet at California Pizza Kitchen, where the kids chose a dog ear headband and immediately started acting like that freaky giant poodle in our neighborhood. Once they settled down a little, we got a tour of the kitchen and the kids got to make their own pizzas. Although I thought the kitchen tour was interesting, it was a bit too “field trip” for a fun birthday party. The kids’ favorite part—really, the only semi-interesting thing to them—was the walk-in refrigerator. They liked making their lunch, too; Jack loved that they didn’t make him use sauce. When the pizzas were slid into the wood burning oven, our hostess said they would cook for four minutes. Bethany set the timer on her watch, and when the pizzas were brought to the table she announced that they were one minute late.









Side note: CPK’s birthday party celebrations are $10/kid and include a “meal” (pizza) and dessert, CPKids souvenir cup (big whoop) and free refills, what they call their “super-duper fun Adventures in Pizza restaurant tour,” a CPKids chef jacket for the birthday child (this was actually an apron, and kinda lame), and a certificate good for a free kids’ meal on a future visit. Overall, I thought the CPK birthday party celebration was a little underwhelming, but the food was good and worth the cost. The strange thing? They never offered food to the adults. We weren’t given a menu to order from—which made some sense, as the restaurant wasn’t open yet—or even asked if we wanted one of the kid-size pizzas. I was willing to pay for it, geez! Victor and I sat there, very hungry, as the kids gobbled up their “meal,” and when we pretended to stack the plates we snuck all the uneaten bits and pieces. Hope none of the crust-hating party guests had cooties…

After the pizza we headed to the north side of the mall to see the movie “Hotel for Dogs.” The Other Lori (Parker’s mom) and Parker’s sister met up with us there, and when Parker saw them from afar he said, “I am NOT sitting next to my mom!” Katie and her invitees sat together in a long, noisy row, while Vic and I sat with Jack and Alec right behind them, ready to knock heads if they made us look like bad party chaperones to The Other Lori. They did just fine, though, and everyone seemed to enjoy the movie. I have to admit, it was cuter than I thought it’d be. The Other Lori and I confessed to each other that we even got a little teary at the end.

We spent some time in the arcade and I whipped Katie’s arse at air hockey. I probably should’ve let her win, huh, being the birthday girl and all? At least she didn’t curse at me like my sister does when I whip her arse at air hockey. I’m pretty good at air hockey.

It didn’t take long for everyone to get bored with the arcade so we made our way back to CPK to meet up with the parents again. Here we passed out the goodie bags, which were not so much “goodie bags” as “poop bags.” Yes, I used dog waste collection bags for all the dog-themed treats the kids took home. They were inexpensive and totally funny, in my opinion. Vic thought I was an idiot. I’m sure some of the parents weren’t too impressed either.



Alec came home with us so he and Jack could play their nerdy Star Wars games for a few hours. When Vic took him home, he dropped by Parker’s to give him the party goodies he’d left with us, and Parker was still wearing his dog ears. Have I mentioned that I love Parker and I totally hope Katie marries him?

On Monday, Katie’s actual birthday, we had a smaller celebration with Darlene and Wellington in the evening. I made the pasta Katie’s been begging for (more on that in another post) and she got to open gifts from the family. She got several American Girl gifts and a few Nintendo DS games and accessories. As she opened the card my grandma sent, she said, “I always love what Nana sends me!” I thought, “Oh yeah, Nana’s a real peach.”



We closed the celebration as all good birthday celebrations should end: with birthday cake.