On Bangs and Birthday Parties

As I was decorating the cake for Jared's 11th Birthday Party, my thoughts drifted back to 1987 when I was in middle school and my mornings were spent in trying to tame my bangs into that perfect 80's wave. You know, curl bangs with curling iron, style the top half of bangs up and back, spray with aquanet until a stiff wall forms, form the bottom half of bangs into a perfect curl going down toward forehead, spray with aquanet, put every stray hair in it's place, more aquanet, when sure that bangs are perfect, spray more aquanet. After years of early morning frustration, some time in High School, I stumbled upon the concept that my hair actually looked a lot better if I would just let it do what it wanted to do. I distinctly remember getting compliments for how my hair looked with friends asking what I was doing different and I would reply that I just let my hair do it's natural thing. So, other than reflecting on my personal responsibility for the deterioration of the ozone layer, what does this have to do with birthday parties you might ask.

I used to try to create what in my mind was the perfect birthday party experience for my children. You know, a theme with decorations, games, goodie bags and cake all based on the theme. But, somewhere between the volcano cake and the Barbie dress cake, I lost my love for cake decorating and actually shed tears as I threw the Barbie cake in the sink and started over. Since then, the cake part of the birthday party has been very stressful and I usually have a friend come over, if not to help make the cake, just for moral support. Then it happened...on the day that I made the worst cake of my career as a mother, Jared, after seeing the cake for the first time said, "Mom, you did it again!" And I thought, "What, ruined another cake?" But upon further questioning, he said something to the effect that I was the best cake decorator ever. In that moment I realized that to make the perfect birthday party experience for my children I could really lower my expectations considerably. So, ever since that day, I have let the cake decorating happen naturally, just like my bangs. However, although not aerosol, a can is still my favorite creative tool. I know many people will cringe when they read this, but I just love frosting in a can, not for the taste, but for the ease in which I can create what my kids deem as the perfect cake.

Happy Birthday Jared! I hope the $1 foam swords and frosting-in-a-can-cake really made you as happy as you looked. As for me, I was much happier than in past years and really enjoyed the no stress party.