Birthday of a 2nd child just days after Christmas

It's begun, poor kid.   I was warned it was typical with a second child and gets worse with each subsequent sibling.  Yet I didn't think it would happen my child.   In many families the birthday celebration of each child gets significantly smaller with each child that is added.  And now I found myself doing that exact thing.

JB's birthday was the 30th but on the 1st we were going to friends to bring in the new year so I thought I'd bring a cupcake, throw a candle in it and we'd at least have pictures to say we sang and celebrated in some way.   I have to admit I was just feeling lazy after the craziness of the holidays. 

Then I got to thinking how I used to love to make a fun cake for Lucas' birthday. Back then I had a good friend who was a cake decorator, so yes, they usually turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Everything from dinosaurs to pirate ships.  Then my cake decorator moved away and I was on my own.  Still I persevered.  My creations were much sadder but Lucas was always so nice and supportive of my efforts.  I made the "Pirate-Chef Cake" one year, which was supposed to be a pirate but really did turn out to look like a contestant for Hell's Kitchen. Do not ask me how.  And my mom and I made a fantastical castle one year.  Crazy looking but loved.  And my first-foray-into-fondant Lego cake from last year was quite sad looking but 10 year old boys DO NOT care. It was sort of a Lego and that was all that mattered.

So at the last minute I decided to take on one of Jonah's favorite things... a fire engine.  Why not?!  It something I enjoyed and it would be a new challenge.  Bring it on.

And it was coming along great until I took a break to check out our new working shower in our renovated master bathroom.  I had closed the kitchen door but...

It's hard to tell in the pictures but there a finger prints every where, wheels taken off and put back on, ladders broken ... and yes, that's a kitchen knife sticking out the back.   I didn't even get to finish it.  Jonah thought it was divine.  

 We decided to take it to the party as is, knife and all.  But the destruction didn't end there.  Apparently sitting on a warm shelf for 2 hours wasn't conducive to the construction of the fire engine's cab which subsequently made a dramatic exit all over the kitchen floor. 

This is what we sang to him with....

Knife still sticking out the back...

And he loved every minute of it.  I realized the back-to-basic attitude wasn't just out of laziness, but the wisdom of knowing what it takes to make your child feel special and loved, right?!  ;) Most of the time it doesn't require much.  Cupcake, ruined fire engine, whatever. And in my infinite wisdom I know that the pictures and story of it all would be more than memorable and even better than if everything had turned out perfectly. ;) At least that's what I keep telling myself.

And the riding Thomas the Tank Engine didn't hurt the day either.