Trophy Day

Today was crazy. I hate those days when Daddy and I have to "divide and conquer" just to get to all the activities we need to get to, but today was definitely one of those days.

It began with the opening ceremonies for Mam's softball league. Although I knew this would be a dismal affair, as the team manager, I felt like I had to be there, so I was. It was cold and damp, but sunny.Although she was dry, Mam was cold and not nearly as sunny as she looked in this photo. She declared the proceedings "boring". And yeah, they kinda were. I could have saved myself some gas, but at least I felt like I did my duty.

Mam's basketball team was celebrating their last game today with a pizza party at 1:30, but that got nixed when we drew a 1:30 softball game for opening day. Mam was peeved, to say the least. She would rather have had pizza with her old team than played with her new team. But again, I'm the manager. I felt like I needed to be there. So, we were committed. Somewhere in all this scheduling craziness, Smunch decided (after I foolishly mentioned it to him) that he wanted to compete in his first chess tournament today. And Mam's last basketball game was at 3. *sigh* Yes. It can be done. But gosh, how silly it is that basketball and softball even overlap!

So, Daddy took off with the Smunch around 11. The tournament was in the nearest large city, so it was a little ways away. Daddy sent me updates from his iPhone until Mam and I had to go. At least I was reassured that neither of the scenarios I'd feared were going to happen. The first would have been that Smunch was so completely overmatched that he couldn't win a single game. He was winning his warm-up games, so I wasn't too worried that he wouldn't win any. My second fear was that it would be just a few kids and Smunch would beat them all and his tiny little ego would become unbearable. That didn't happen either. There were 23 kids in the "egg" (beginner) category with him. No chance he was going to steamroll them all. Still, Daddy conveyed that Smunch's first opponent, a little girl not much older than Mam, was reduced to tears when she lost. I'm told that Gavin was gracious in winning and even complimented her on playing well. Can't ask for much more than that.Back on the home front...Last Fall, Mam sported little ponytails for soccer. She's been wearing one big ponytail or a single tiny one for basketball. New sport? New hairdo.Cute, huh?

Mam and I went to softball, which was...well...it was hysterical really. Our team, The Unicorns (naturally, since unicorns are often grey and red), had never actually played outdoors on a field. Our two practices to date have been rained out, so we played in the multipurpose room. It was nice to finally be out in the sun, but having to play another team at the same time may have been a bit much to ask!I have no doubt that in the coming weeks there will be a lot of work done on running after hitting the ball, throwing to first base, and not creating a dogpile of girls in the infield every time a ball is hit. Considering how much progress Mam's basketball team made this season, I'm sure there is hope here.

We accidentally cut our softball game short due to some misunderstandings about the rules of play, but that suited me just fine. We went back to the mommymobile and dressed Mam for her next game...getting to the Y just in time to appreciate the ice cream social in the courtyard. Mam appreciated it quite a lot, which accounted for her blue tongue and lips during the game.

When other members of her team arrived, Mam was given the trophy and certificate that all the other girls got at the pizza party. It made me a little sad, especially since there was no ceremony to go with it.Then again, another trophy is just what my house needs, right? Hey, but check this out...AirMam!The game today was kind of a bummer of an ending to a really great season. The girls on the opposing team were tall! I suspect they were mostly first graders, where our team was mostly kindergartners. In the last quarter, Mam (#8) was assigned to cover the other team's #8.I wish I could describe just how funny it was. I've never seen my little girl look quite so much like a gnat. Her opponent took it all in good stride. She seemed like a nice girl, who was slightly amused/slightly annoyed at the little munchkin guarding her with gusto.For Mam's part, she could barely reach the top of the girl's head with her fingertips, much less guard against her shooting.

The game ended with little fanfare, but somewhere near the beginning of the game, Smunch had called me with the results of his tournament. I couldn't hear him very well, between the bad connection and the noise of the basketball gym, but I heard him say he won second place and he had a trophy.Daddy and Smunch arrived at the game before halftime and Smunch was absolutely elated. He made Daddy show me the picture above right away. When we got home, he called his grandparents in San Diego and talked to Aunt Karen. If it weren't so darned pointy, I'm sure his trophy would be under his pillow right now.I may not need more trophies in the house, but this one is different. All the rest are for "participating". This one was truly earned. He won seven games, lost one and had one draw. Daddy said Smunch was polite, poised, worked hard and refused to give up, even when things weren't going his way. He found a way to turn things around more than once. He was as gracious in losing and coming to a draw as he was in winning. He earned this trophy...big time.

Game Day

Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday and it was a great football game, but before the chips and dip came out, we had an entirely different set of games to play. You see, although I'd originally scheduled Smunch's birthday party for the 13th, too many of his guests were going to be out of town, so we rescheduled for Superbowl Sunday, with the goal of being done a good 90 minutes before kickoff...because even if the guests and their families had no interest in watching the game, I knew the guest of honor would not appreciate missing it. Not for anything!Originally, Smunch requested a chess party and I agonized about that a little bit because not all the guests were avid chess players. Somewhere along the line, I realized that I could still include chess if I made it a board game party.

So, after getting the cake all put together, strung the kitchen in streamers and picked up balloons, we whipped out the fun kid games - chess, checkers, Connect Four, Uno, Sorry, Jenga, dominoes, and Twister. I wasn't sure how it would all work out, but it turned out to be a great idea, especially with a couple extra volunteers to help.

We started off the party by having each of the kids make their own English muffin pizzas (wish I'd thought to take pictures of them!), then they went and played (or watched) a game of their choice while I popped their cute little pizzas in the oven. We supplemented with some fun football-shaped pretzels, popcorn, strawberries and carrots, with fizzy pink lemonade. It all went over pretty well!

After lunch, Daddy facilitated as the boys (and Mam) played Twister. I knew it would probably be a fun game for them, but it was truly hysterical.Most of the boys had very good humor about it...all, but Smunch, who hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. He confessed he'd woken up at 5:45 and had a ridiculous tantrum the first time he fell over playing Twister. Still, I don't think it dampened the fun for any of them.Shortly before cake time, Daddy took the more active kids out to play soccer in the front yard for a little bit. A few of the "quieter" kids stayed in and played with the dominoes. They weren't technically "playing" dominoes, but building things with them and screetching as they fell over.I took lots of photos of the cake in its final moments. After all, it's not much to look at afterwards!And then it was time. The kids were all excited to get to taste some of the chess pieces, but not before some singing and candle blowing.Of course, it turns out that this cake wasn't the least bit easy to cut! With the solid chocolate checkerboard on the top, I sort of had to chisel my way through.It worked out though...and the cake was pretty yummy too. Of course, it was huge, so it was only half gone when the boys were done. Then Daddy took all those boys, all hopped up on sugar, out for a game of tug-o-war in the front yard. It was the perfect end to a pretty great party!Each of the boys left happy with a little bag of chocolate chess pieces and a box of checkers, chess and backgammon. And now another week and a bit before I actually have an 8-year-old!

You may have noticed there were a lot of Daddy-facilitated activities at this party. It's true. I totally let him take on the brunt of the during-party work. By the time I've got the party favors figured out, planned all the food, gotten decorations and made yet another ridiculous cake, I'm apparently worthless. At least I managed to take some pictures!

Checkmate!

In retrospect, it was probably fortunate that Smunch decided he wanted a "chess party" for his birthday this year. Because, if you know me, you know the first thing on my mind is how I'm going to make a chess cake. I thought about it for a good, long time because I just wasn't sure.

Yeah. I could make a bunch of chess pieces out of fondant, but I don't play with fondant that often and I had no faith that I could make a set of relatively uniform chess pieces by rolling the play-dough-like stuff in my hands. Fortunately, I had an epiphany that there must be chocolate molds for this sort of thing. Ah, the internet is a wonderful thing!I spent the last couple of weeks putting together life-sized chocolate chess pieces a few at a time. I also got a chocolate mold that made quarters of a chess board. I found myself a 16" square cake pan and some high quality cake mix that I've used before. Finally, by the end of this week, it was all coming together. The two layers of cake (one devil's food and one white) were baked and Friday afternoon, I put the cake together with chocolate mousse in the middle and a "crumb coating" on the outside. This morning, I put on the final coat of crumb-free frosting.I added the chocolate chess board quarters. Unfortunately, they bowed a little as they hardened, so they weren't perfectly flat, but close enough.I added some chocolate bead borders to hide some imperfections and tidy things up a bit.I had a vision for how I wanted things to go from there, but it looked so neat and tidy that I almost chickened out and left it as it was. But I'd bought some plastic frogs and bugs to add and it really didn't make a lot of sense without a little greenery. Originally, I thought I'd go for grass, but I opted for leaves instead and added just a few flowers...not too girly, just decorative.After all, a snail and a frog cancel out the flowers and butterfly, right? And the finishing touch, of course, was to add the chess pieces.
Not sure how we'll do this in the end. I may have Daddy set the cake up so it looks like a game is being played rather than having the pieces set in their starting positions. It should be a fun party...even if we'll be winging much of it!