Kieran's Birthday, Day Three

The big day dawned...several months ago, after watching "The Sound of Music" for the second or third time and attending the singalong Sound of Music, he announced that he wanted to have a Sound of Music birthday party. I was all for it--who doesn't love Maria, the feisty nuns, and the musical children?

Take a look at these Sound of Music lovers in this video:

Well, at first my little producer wanted to actually do the PLAY at his party, similar to his "Wizard of Oz" party for Age 4. That was a bit different, because mostly adults and older children attended that party. I gently explained that it might be difficult to stage a play with kindergarteners, many of whom I suspected had never seen the movie! So we decided instead that we would actually WATCH the movie. He decided to go along with my plan when I agreed to let him dress up as "Kurt" and offered to find him some lederhosen! I also found an authentic Austrian dirndl for myself (on eBay)!

Kieran chose his guests very carefully--beyond family and his godparents, he invited his kindergarten classmates who would get along well together and would go along with the whole "Sound of Music" routine. One classmate with whom he has had several playdates was deemed too "rough and tumble"!

We made popcorn and lemon cake, and also bought apple strudel at Trader Joe's.

I was standing on the stool to retrieve the coffee maker, when my mom snapped this strange pose! Now I know why German and Austrian women look like they are falling out of their dirndls! It's like wearing a pushup bra!!

Our dear friends Brad and Catherine, one set of Kieran's godparents--apparently the book Maria was one of Catherine's favorites as a young girl!

The birthday cake--I was hoping to use a much more colorful photo for the cake...but Kieran insisted on this one, because it shows Kurt and Friedrich in their lederhosen!! As I was decorating, Kieran kept bumping me, and I told him he'd better be careful or I would end up writing "Kurt" instead of "Kieran." Of course, he was delighted with that idea...so there it is.

Here's a funny story about the "edible image"--the frosting photo that goes on top of the cake. We had it done at Dairy Queen, and when Mike went to go pick up the completed edible image on Friday, the employee went into the freezer to retrieve it and returned with an image of a nearly-naked, hairy man! (When Mike told me the story later, I thought at first it might have been for a bridal shower, but then he told me that it wasn't a very nice-looking man!) He informed her that this was definitely not THE image, but he did have a crazy thought of bringing it home to me and seeing my reaction!

Apparently all the little girls (of which there were many) wanted to sit by the birthday boy

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

This is one of Kieran's favorite scenes--when the captain calls all the children with the whistle!

We were a bit worried about (1) the length of the movie and (2) how Kieran would react if the kids didn't want to watch the whole thing. As it was, it was him who jumped up and declared they should go play! He turned out to be very flexible about the whole thing...

Brad and Catherine with lederhosen boy

"What do you mean, I don't get any presents????"

Admiring the cake

Singing happy birthday

Grandpa with my nephew Ryan

Chris emerges from the study (where he was hibernating for most of the party) to eat cake and pose for a photo

My sister Nadine and her husband David

Aren't they cute?

Many of the kids I didn't know beforehand...and I didn't know most of their parents either. I enjoyed talking to all of them--they were very nice (the parents...but the kids were nice too!).