Natalie & Ryan: Minion Party

It's a known fact that my mother is a kid at heart. Her favorite thing right now are the minions from "Despicable Me". Basically everything I got her for Christmas had something to do with minions. While wandering Zurcher's for Susie's bridal shower decorations, I made a mental note that they had an entire Despicable Me section, and that it was very convenient that my mom's birthday was coming up. So what if it meant the third week in a row of throwing a party. My mom will always be worth it!

With this next week revolving around Jack and Susan, I wanted to make sure we made a big deal out of mom's 50th birthday. Sorry, mom, I know I wasn't supposed to spill the beans, but no one's going to believe me if I say you're 29 for the 5th year in a row. I called in the troops, mainly my step-sister, Tami, to help put together a surprise party. Tami's baby shower was the same day, but she was more than happy to share the day and help out. I only had about 2 hours between parties to get everything together.

I recruited Tami to make sure all the family came, and Jeff was assigned to mommy duty. He was in charge of making sure mom was out of the house for a few hours, so I could decorate. Earlier this week, I slaved away and made a minion birthday cake and a bunch of minion cupcakes. The cupcakes were a cinch and turned out great, but that dang cake made me remember why I hate and suck at baking. The concept was easy enough; just bake a cake, cut it into the shape of a minion, and decorate. Bake a cake, check! Dump it out to cut into a minion...epic fail! As I tipped the cake pan over to dump it out, the cake was sticking to the pan and promptly crumbled into a big mess on the counter. I contemplated whether or not to scrap it and just rely on the cupcakes, but I decided to go on.

After trying to piece the cake back together into something that resembled a cake, I started the task of frosting it. Do you know how hard it is to frost a crumbly, cakey mess? The frosting looked like colorful cottage cheese. I just chuckled, but kept going. The color of the yellow frosting threw me off, too, and at times, it felt like I was frosting the cake with mustard. I don't know how, but I somehow managed to hide as many of the flaws as I could, and ended up with a cake that looked cute, but probably shouldn't be eaten. Definitely NOT going on my "Nailed It" Pinterest board.

It wasn't until about 11 o'clock that Jeff finally decided what he was going to do to keep mom busy. He took her shopping at the Traverse Mountain outlet mall. I was at their house, decorating in a flustered hurry, since I didn't have much time, and was super upset that my crock pot mac and cheese wasn't turning out how I wanted it to. All the while, I was getting texts from Jeff, saying "we're at Cabela's, so I'm going to figure out a way to waste time," and texts from my mom, saying "we're at Cabela's, and I can't find Jeff, so I'm going to sit in the car, since my feet hurt." Ha! It was hilarious to see both sides. Jeff said he just ended up finding a comfy chair to rest in.

Back at the house, everyone had a job. I was decorating. Jack was hanging lanterns. Susie was testing the mac and cheese. And Ryan and Lilly were peeking out the window, waiting for mom and Jeff to come home. It was perfect timing on Lilly's part, when she distracted Ryan with changing a poopy diaper, making him miss the second they pulled into the garage. We were still able to surprise mom with a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" as she walked in, confused. I hope she loved the minion theme. Everyone was asking me why I didn't do an "Over the Hill" party, but all I could say was "um, cuz minions are MUCH cooler."

I was particularly excited about the gifts. Part of my cahooting was getting everyone to chip in for a KitchenAid stand mixer. My mom has been talking about how nice it would be to have one, so I went in search of the perfect red one, since that's her favorite color. Jokingly, I also got some flame decals. It's always been mine and mom's inside joke that she wanted to put flames on the side of her minivan, so I got her some flames for the mixer. When she opened the mixer, literally the first thing she said was "can I put flames on it!!" I died! It was totally unprovoked, and I was so glad she said it. She hadn't opened the flame stickers yet, so all I said was "there's more to unwrap!" Oh, mom, I love you!

It was a great party with all of our minions. A big thanks to all of Jeff's kids for helping and coming to show my mommy how much she's loved! Mom, let's get our mixers together for a play date!