This was the first party that Ex and I have planned since the separation. Before, the parties were sort of her element. The highlight of a birthday had always been making some sort of a fancy cake though. We’ve had Dora, Cinderella, Blue, etc. Ex has all sorts of cake decorating supplies. We used to stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning the night before each party, her doing the cake, me mixing frosting colors, washing dishes, and hanging decorations. So, since I’ve helped, or rather, witnessed it plenty of times before, I volunteered to make the cake this time.
Ex was glad to let me do it. She planned the party, which was to be an outing at a nearby park, and took care of inviting a couple of friends from Bronze’s preschool class, along with family. I took Bronze to the party store and let her pick out the My Little Pony themed plates, cups, etc. she wanted. We got some My Little Pony pencils, stickers, and bubbles for some of the favors, and I printed out a few coloring pages and word searches to include in the goodie bags as well.
As a kid, my mom would always make really cool cakes for my brother and I. That, combined with the awesome cakes Ex had made, made me feel like I had a lot to live up to. I designed what I thought a My Little Pony cake should look like, how I’d need to cut it, and how to decorate it. I borrowed the decorating supplies from Ex and went at it.
I baked the cake mix, cut it, and got it all laid out on a piece of covered foam board. However, one thing I hadn’t considered was how incredibly difficult it would be to spread frosting onto the side of a cut piece of cake! The frosting just kept grabbing onto the cake and trying to crumble the pieces instead of spreading nicely. I finally came up with the idea to stick the frosting into the microwave so that it’d almost run onto the sides instead of me needing to spread it. Brilliant!
I amazed myself with how well that worked out, so much so that when it came time to do the blue frosting I’d mixed up for the eye and the butterfly, I thought I’d try it again. Except I forgot to consider that instead of having a huge bowl of pink frosting, I was only working with a tiny bowl of blue, so I ended up boiling it. Not sure if anyone realizes what happens to frosting after it’s been boiled, but it sort of crusts into lumps of very hard frosting. And trying to squeeze hard lumps of frosting through a small frosting tip is nearly impossible. I kept having to clear the tip with a toothpick and what should have taken about 5 minutes, took nearly 30! Eventually I managed to get something resembling a butterfly and an eye though. Bronze helped place the licorice hair while I sprinkled on the red sparkles, and it was finished. Bronze said she loved it, which of course made all the effort worth it.
While I cleaned up, Bronze insisted on licking the knives and spoons clean, and I let Azure have a couple too, which they went to town on, getting frosting all over their faces.After a quick bath for them, we were off to the party store once more for balloons. I had decided to splurge on the giant $10 mylar heart shaped pony one, along with a few pink and red regular ones to go with it. Driving after that was quite difficult, as the balloons took up most of the inside of my car. I’m sure it made for quite a sight, as I was leaned over close to the drivers window, a balloon pushed up against my side, unable to see either kid, only able to get a clear view of the front of the car and my driver’s side mirror. At one point, I even had to ask Bronze if she could see any cars out of her window next to us! I was pretty sure there wasn’t anyone in the next lane, but still, there’s nothing like letting a 5 year old check your blind spot.
We got to the park and the kids took off to play. As I carried the cake to the seating area, the incredibly strong wind was whipping all around me. I went back to the car to get the balloons and just as I got back to the picnic table, a big gust came along and pulled the giant one loose from it’s string. I watched in horror as it swooped down and away, unable to do anything to save it. I couldn’t believe my luck though as the wind carried it directly into the next picnic table over, where it lodged itself safely up against the end of the table, with the seats holding it firmly in place. I ran over and grabbed it, took the entire bunch back inside the car, and retied the string with about 15 knots.
The kids played for a while, then had cake and ice cream sandwiches. Bronze was the last one at the table, as everyone else had finished and went back to playing. Finally she looked up at me and said that she wanted to be done. I said sure. It was then that I noticed that she’d eaten all of her ice cream sandwich and all of her licorice, but only one tiny bite of cake. She said, “Sorry Daddy, but I don’t like the frosting.” I assured her that it was ok, and to just go enjoy herself. I chuckled to myself though, thinking about how just a few hours earlier she’d been licking the frosting off of everything, with a pink nose to boot. Oh well!
The kids had a great time playing, climbing, swinging, and digging while I just enjoyed my time with them. Ex mostly sat at the table with her family, talking etc. while I stayed with the kids. Toward the end, once just the 4 of us were left, she spent 10 or so minutes on the phone with her new boyfriend. I was at the other side of the park, in the sandbox with Azure, while she was pushing Bronze on the tire swing, so I’m not sure who called whom, but either way, it felt odd to me on so many levels, especially watching her tell the kids a couple of times that they needed to wait a minute for her since she was busy on the phone.
Once it was time to go, I went with them back to Ex’s house to play with the kids and try out a couple of the new games she’d got for presents, while Ex’s parents were in the backyard assembling the sand and water table they’d purchased. I didn’t realize it at the time, since I was playing, but they ordered pizza. Once it came, before I even had time to think about it, Ex and her parents started saying goodbye to me. I gave my hugs and kisses to the kids and slinked out the back door while they all sat down to eat together. What a strange feeling. I’m not sure how long until it isn’t so weird, but for now, I just had to chalk it up to another perplexing experience.
It doesn’t matter though, as Bronze had a happy 5th, and we managed to not screw it up with any grown up drama.
