May the Force Be With You

Max turned 7 today. Where has the time gone. He is growing so fast. His birthday is always a time when I reflect about how lucky we are to have him. Two days from now will be the 4th anniversary of finding out that he was sick. In so many ways at this point, it seems like a long ago bad dream. He has been doing so amazingly well. Two more weeks and we go for his 6 month appointment. I am trying not to think about it so that I go into the stressed out and unpleasant to be around mode. Easier said than done.
Max wanted a Star Wars birthday party. He actually wanted a costume party, but I was worried that it would be too hot for people in costume so we made it costume optional and no one, including Max, wore costumes. It was hot, around 90, though cooler than yesterday. Max wanted a Slave 1 (Janga and Boba Fetts' ship) cake and pinata, but to me, Boba Fett is the guy who tried to kill my hero in hotness Han Solo, plus there was nothing on the internet showing me how to make a Slave 1 cake, so I went for R2D2 instead as Max still really likes R2D2. (He painted a paper mache pinata and called that Slave 1, so he was happy). I got some crazy idea that I would make a 3D R2D2. I had first planned to surprise Max but decided to include him on it, and am very glad that I did. First of all, it would have been really difficult to hide it from him, and secondly, he helped decorate it and really had a good time doing it. Even I had a good time. Somtimes, it is hard for me to let go of my idea of doing things "right" and just let the kids things the way they want to do them. We used fondant, which I had never used before, and the kids really enjoyed using it. So did I, for that matter. I still think it is tastless but I get why people use it. It was really fun to work with. Max LOVED the way the cake turned out and I was pretty pleased, too. It was far from perfect, but that is okay. And it was yummy. :) Just ask James, who we found sneaking cake and frosting while we were decorating at another table.

For the rest of the party, we did a Jedi Training Obstacle course, but mostly they just ran around the yard. Max had a blast and it seemed like everyone else enjoyed it, too. I don't do this whole super planned out party thing well at all but I tried. It was a really nice day. Sorry for picture overload.