Last week, we celebrated Caleb’s 4th Birthday. This is the first year where Caleb was old enough to make significant birthday decisions.
1. Invitation List:
Instead inviting Tenille and my friends, Caleb got to create the invite list and invite 9 of his friends from church, playgroup, neighbors, etc. Tenille and I had some concerns about being able to return all the kids back to their parents without significant injury… We recruited my mother, my grandmother, our friends – Kay and Emi, as well as Kay’s mother in law – Cindy. The kid duty recruitment paid off, and there were no significant injuries to report. A few tears shed due to sharing incidents and homesickness, but not injuries.
2. Food:
Caleb chose his favorite foods: Chicken nuggets and hot dogs… He likes to eat just the hot dog without the bun. His guests, however, did get a hot dog bun if they opted for one.
3. Gift:
In the Hyun home, we get choose our own present for our birthday. We stopped by a game store one day, and Caleb had his mind set on getting a Praying Mantis kit for his birthday. This was a bug kit, where you order Praying Mantis eggs, and watch them hatch and grow in a small netted-cube, praying that they do not escape and make a nest in our bed… After some reverse-psychology/jedi-mind-trick, we were able to talk him down to a butterfly kit. $20 for a netted-cube… then we found out we have to pay another $10 for the caterpillar eggs… This bug company is making a killing…
What did not change was the puppet show. We have been putting on a puppet show for Caleb’s Birthday every year. Usually, it’s fairly elaborate, but this year Tenille talked me down to putting on a show of a story that all kids already know, like the Three Little Pigs. I sat down to plunk down the script for this well-worn children’s classic, but I just couldn’t let good enough alone. The script took a major detour and started with the third (brick) pig… Her brothers were just eaten by the wolf. She goes on a quest with her good friend zebra (dictated by our puppet selection) to find Dr. Tiger, who can hopefully extract her brothers from the wolf. I won’t spoil the ending in case we’re able to sell the major motion picture rights to the story… The fun part this year about the puppet show was that we made a nice puppet stage (like in Sound of Music). It was made from a PVC Pipe frame and draped with King and Queen size sheets from Value Village, and it even had a nice red curtain that opened and closed. After the puppet show, all the kids got to make their own puppets out of lunch sacks and break them in using the puppet theater. That was pretty fun. Admittedly, most of the shows were about one puppet eating another puppet…
During arrival time, and departure time, we also played some lawn games – Duck Duck Goose, Red Rover, Red Light Green Light, etc. The games eventually ended in a herd of children chasing each other randomly around the lawn. They might need a few more years to fully grasp the concept…
Tenille made a fun cupcake cake in the shape of a pig which the kids enjoyed. Caleb got a mountain of toys, and all the guests seemed to have enjoyed the party. All in all, a pretty good party as we made the transition from adult party to little boy party.
Hyun Family 