Ethan and Alyson's Birthdays

Ethan's 8th birthday was on May 19th.  Alyson's 11th birthday was on May 24th.  Having their birthdays so close together makes for a very hectic week for me.  It means that within the week I make two birthday cakes, two classroom treats, and I plan two birthday parties.  It's a whole lot of baking.  Every year on May 25th I swear I will never eat frosting again.
Normally I throw a "friend" birthday party every other year.  We usually invite the whole class and  then try to go to the park (it always rains here in Montana in late May), and then we play games and eat cupcakes and I make the guests goody bags for when they leave.  In an effort to simplify things this year, I asked the kids if they wouldn't mind having lower key parties where they will only invite two or three friends.  I told them I would take them to a movie or swimming or something.
Alyson thought that would be fine, but Ethan was afraid that he would hurt someone's feelings by not inviting them. 
So Ethan invited everyone in his class plus a few extra and went to the park (no rain for the first time in 5 years), and guess how many of his friends came?  Three.  That's right, three.  Oh well, I guess nobody's feelings were hurt.  I didn't plan too much, I brought a whole lot of silly string and balloons and they played for quite a while.  I can't post pictures of it as my camera ran out of batteries at the party.  He had an "R-4" cake.  No simple R2-D2 for him, no, he wanted R4.  So that was interesting.  I stacked 2 cupcakes on top of each other and and frosted them white and then I made "red" frosting and tried my best to make it look like R4.  While I was making the cake, Ethan came in and said "R4 is supposed to be red, but I guess pink is nice too."  Always trying to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone's feelings.  I told him that red frosting is hard to make, but I was trying.  He was quick to explain the pink frosting to anyone who saw the cake.  I think he was a little embarrassed by it.  It did look kind of sad.  He seemed to have a fun day though. His presents included: "The Riddler's" car, a marble run, and a plasma car.
Alyson invited three friends and wanted to go swimming.  So I found a hotel in town that would let us swim for 6 bucks a person.  I brought a couple of Little Caesar's pizzas and, viola, party done.  I read a book and snapped pictures while they swam.  The hotel had a water slide and a bouncy house.  There was no time limits either so they swam for 3 1/2 hours.  They had a really good time.  Alyson wanted a digital camera for her birthday and she also got a slip-n-slide, and a reading lamp for her bed. 
I was glad she got the digital camera for her birthday, it's nicer than mine and she has all the cords so I can post here from her camera.  THANKS ALYSON! 
After reading my cousin Natalie's blog, I used her idea for an ice cream cone cake.  We had eleven cupcakes that were the scoops of ice cream.  It turned out really cute.  One of my best cakes ever (that's really not saying a lot).  We took some pictures of it with Alyson's new camera.  Then Neil was fiddling with her camera trying to learn how it works when he said "uh-oh."  Turns out he had just erased the pictures of the cake and we were half done eating it.  So there's no evidence that I made a cute cake.  
Anyway here are some pictures of Alyson's birthday party.

They are a cute bunch of girls.  The first picture is Hallie and Zoey, the next picture is Jena and Alyson.