Party for Two

This time of year is packed with birthdays in our family. Mark was born June 21; 5 days later is Jacob's birthday on June 26; and 5 days after his is Dylan's birthday on July 1.

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To keep costs down, we always alternate who gets the party each year. Last year was Jacob's year, but he worked at Camp Geronimo all summer and missed out.

This is Dylan's year, and turning 12 is a big deal. He'll be a full-fledged Scout and become a Deacon in church.

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On the other hand, Jacob will be 18 tomorrow. You only legally become an adult once in your life.

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The boys put their heads together and decided to solve the problem by having a joint party this year.

These pictures show the top and side views of my attempt to create a cake to commemorate the occasion for both boys, with two complementary designs.

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I'm no great talent at cake decorating, but I think I achieved an (ahem) unique look! 18 candles on the left for Jacob and 12 on the right for Dylan, with motifs to match their candles, sort of.

We had their party yesterday because they both had friends leaving town before their actual birthdates. Jacob and Dylan planned out the party themselves.

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We began at noon with Jacob grilling hot dogs, and then their guests enjoyed a lunch of hot dogs, chips, and soda.

This is Jacob with his Little Brother, Dylan. Not his actual, related-by-blood little brother Dylan, but his official Little Brother from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.

It's a bit confusing with Jacob's little brother and Little Brother both having the same name, even spelled the same.

Dylan (my son, not the other boy) was excited to have his own Big Sister, Chanda (also from the Bigs program), stop by his party.

Thank goodness her parents named her Chanda instead of Sarah or we would really be confused!

Actually, we've known Chanda's family since before Dylan was born. Her mom Charla has the real cake decorating skills! Hi, Charla!

After lunch, the boys headed outside for water games. It started with water balloons and soon involved super soakers, hoses, and buckets of water. I don't look forward to my next water bill!

The younger boys lined up on one side of the yard and threw everything they had at the teenagers.

The older boys mostly just ducked and covered in the beginning.

However, they retaliated later with a sneak attack when the younger boys were filling up another batch of balloons.

Once everyone was well soaked, after about an hour of water play, they decided to come in and play a rousing game of Super Smash Brothers Brawl on the Wii gaming system while they dried out a bit.

Then they moved on to a new game, Balloon Stomp. There's a game that will burn off some energy! I filmed a 1-minute video of the action, which I'll attach below. They loved it so much, they played 3 rounds!

By this time, Dylan was itching to open his presents and see what his friends brought him. Jacob graciously allowed him to go first.

Dylan got several nice gifts. His favorite was a new pack of 60 Pokemon cards, which he immediately filed into his Pokemon binder. He's very into that stuff. I'm always amazed by how he can tell you every little pocket monster's name, battle attributes, and the new monster it will evolve into.

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After Dylan was done, Jacob took his turn. Among his gifts were a new fishing pole and fishing supplies.

His favorite, though, may have been this teddy bear and box of Godiva chocolates from his girl buddies, Chelsea and Jamie, who stopped by briefly.

This is an extremely rare photo of Jacob smiling with his teeth showing! He dislikes his smile, but I think he's very handsome. And I'm not biased at all!

Lastly, it was time for cake and ice cream.

In order to avoid burning down the house with all those candles, we took turns lighting them.

Since Jacob's birthday comes first, we lit his 18 candles, sang "Happy Birthday to You," and watched him make a wish before blowing out the candles.

Then it was Dylan's turn. He was so fast at wishing and blowing that he had all the candles out before I snapped the picture!

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The massive energy of all these boys finally began to wind down as they sat to enjoy their chocolate cake. (Jacob and Dylan are always in agreement when it comes to choosing cake and frosting flavors.)

For ice creams, they selected cookie dough and chocolate chip. Personally, I would have gone with rocky road and mint-chip.

The party ended at 4pm and the guests gradually dwindled away. Three of Jacob's friends stayed an extra hour. Several of Dylan's friends returned that evening. The house always seems to be full of boys.

We got ice cream smears off the counters, cake crumbs off the table, tortilla chips off the carpet, and muddy footprints off the kitchen floor. Then I sat back to breathe a sigh of relief.

A two-for-one completed in 2009. That means 2010 will be my year off, right? Uh...right?
***Let's do the Balloon Stomp!