Birthday Party Planning and a Lesson in What Really Matters

 I am planning a birthday party for my soon-to-be-five-year-old and I've decided to make it a robot theme. Actually, we're throwing two parties. One for his school friends and one for family.

I've been perusing Pinterest for robot-themed party ideas, as my sister mentioned in her recent blog post. I've practised making blue and silver cupcakes, I've watched a howdini video on how to make a robot cake a half-dozen times, I've been scanning dollar stores for robot trinkets for loot bags and I've even purchased some robot stickers for decorating. Using duct tape, cardboard and some bottle caps, Cole and I made a card box shaped like a robot. We're really on a roll.

This weekend, the party-prep project was a poster. This poster...

From this site.

Isn't it cool?

So I bought some Bristol board and I got out my pencil and I sketched it carefully. Then I took a permanent black Sharpie and I started to outline it into permanency and add some details.

Cole saw what I was doing. He climbed up onto the dining room chair next to me. He uncapped a big red marker and he lifted it into the air.

"Uh......" I began to say.

He brought the marker down onto the paper right in a spot where red was not called for.

"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Drawing a bolt," he pointed to the spot on the computer screen where a shadow looked to him like a bolt. We debated the presence of a bolt for a few minutes.

Then I tried to divert his attention. Classic parenting technique.
"I know, Cole! How about I make you ANOTHER robot and you can colour IT?"

He looked up at me, not buying the game at all, and he said carefully, "Mommy? Remember how this is MY birthday...?"

Oh yeah.
So the finished poster is not how it appears on Pinterest.
But my son feels important. And he feels part of the planning of his own party.
And his mom got a reminder about what is really important.