Patrick's Birthday Bash!

Patrick turned eleven today--or technically yesterday--because I write my posts the night before.

He said it was his "best birthday ever" which always warms the heart--especially because this one was pretty low-key compared to some of the over-the-top extravaganzas we've had in the past.

On Sunday night (night before his bday) we went to one of those Japanese restaurants where they cook at the table. We used to go here fairly frequently until Pickle had a major freakout when they set the shrimp on fire. She was just a little baby--but there was a fiery explosion at our table and when I faced her in another direction after she freaked, another explosion at the next table--and she couldn't recover. Don and I spent the whole dinner trading places with her in the lobby as she sobbed.

But we ventured back for Patrick's birthday dinner and she was fine. She wasn't crazy about the shrimp fire, but she kept it together.

Safe with mommy--but keeping an eye on that fire!

Pickle loves soup!
Here are the boys in the booth. Teddy was tryng to ruin the picture on purpose!
Then today I brought Dunkin Donuts over to school for Patrick's treat--that was a big hit! And after school I set up a secret surprise for him--a chocolate fountain! My sister gave it to me for Christmas but I hadn't used it yet and thought that Patrick's big day would be the perfect excuse to break it in.

Of course, things didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped. I read the instructions for the fountain and there were two ways of putting the chocolate in-- "warm or cold." I interpreted that as meaning either you could pre-melt it or melt it in the fountain thing. I chose the latter as I figured I could skip the melting step.

So, so wrong.

I knew something was amiss when I turned the motor on and it sounded like an old car with a bad muffler. This just couldn't be right!?!

I guess I had missed the part of the instructions that read under no circumstances use anything other than melted chocolate. Make certain there are no lumps.

No lumps? The whole thing was lumps!

So I had to spoon it all out of the fountain (fun!)--all the while getting panicky that my perfectly-timed birthday presentation was ruined and that Patrick would come home--not to a delicious treat--but to a crying mother covered in chocolate and a broken piece of machinery.

Luckily, it didn't break and I was able to get the molten brownstuff flowing freely.

Next glitch: the marshmallows.

I had JUST bought a bag of marshmallows only to find, upon opening the bag, that they had somehow melted and fused into one big horrible sticky marshmallow. I tried to salvage a few but then gave up in disgust.

Look at this mess!!
Despite my plans being foiled right and left--I managed to pull off my chocolate-covered surprise!! Here you can see the fountain in action, strawberries, pound cake, pretzels and the disgusting marshmallows. Also, that balloon in the pic sings Happy Birthday every time it is jostled. I told Patrick that if he hears screaming later followed by a loud pop--it's me stabbing the balloon with a knife!

Anyway, he LOVED his surprise! Here's Patrick with Andy (that chocolate may NEVER come out of his braces!).
Close-up of the fountain!
Dr. Hoppy with the fountain:
Chocolate-covered Pickle!
Then he opened his presents and loved every one. One of his very favorites was seeds to grow the World's Hottest Chili Pepper--apparently they are "a million times hotter than a jalapeno." Yikes! Then we had pizza.

Happy Birthday Patrick!!
Oh, the Barney hats were from a long ago party--the kids thought they were funny!