Birthday Four - The Sword in the Stone

Whew. We finished the party and we're all pretty much exhausted. It was lots of fun.


A has been Really Excited about the party for the last five days. He and M spoke about it instead of falling asleep. And this morning, in a Shade of Christmas to come, A woke us up at 5:30 to talk about his party some more.
















A said he wanted a "Sword in the Stone" party. So... we invited folks to dress in medieval clothing and to perform a magic trick. M and I worked on the party over the week. I drew a knight on some butcher paper and made some construction paper shields for a game of "Pin the Shield on the Knight." M worked really hard on the yard and yard furniture & procured a tent. M watched A while I made a "Joy of Cooking" cake batter. M and A went shopping for party favors. M painted a dragon and a castle for a kind of croquet game.














A, of course, was ready for his nap at 11 AM when the first guests arrived. But he perked up. Grandma J and Grandpa H came, as did Aunt M and Uncle L. And the W's, J and S, and KB also came. Just the right number of kids from pre-school showed up, and for once, A wasn't the only child at his own birthday. All of the kids were great: kind, encouraging, and fun.







M and I split up duties: I played the harp inside and greeted the guests while M hosted in the backyard. The magic tricks were a big hit. We had buffet sandwiches, then A decided it was time for cupcakes. All of them had little cocktail swords sticking in them. A slightly anvil shaped cake had a larger sword with 4 candles. (I was going to make the 4 candles into swords, but it would have been too much like serving my child a "Four of Swords" Tarot birthday cake... which would have been a little odd symbolically.














After cupcakes, it was time for the Pin the Shield game. Everyone took turns, and my Mom handed out medals (with color co-coordinated ribbons) once the shields were on. There was some milling about and then M decided to read "Caps for Sale," staring me as the cap peddler and the kids as the monkeys.

Once all the kids had left, A pretty much crashed, leaving the adults to trade stories. And clean.