Rager

As birthdays go hand in hand with celebration, here comes the party! San Francisco is a city complete with micro climate, we chose potrero hill playground for the festivities as it is the warmest spot in the city next to the mission. My parents had flown exclusively from Hawaii to witness Hunter’s, their 13th grandson, first birthday. Shane was very adamant about making Hunter’s birthday cake. He carried his mom's tradition birthday themed cakes. His pithy remarks towards store bought cake said it all. Friday night we had a few close friends celebrate his real birthday in hopes to prepare for tomorrow’s big kaboom. The girls were responsible for cupcakes and the gift bag. The boys were accountable for the creation of the cake which would be in the form of a train.

My idea to distribute rubber ducks to one year olds expanded to organic juice and airplane graham crackers which was than met with a packaging dilemma. That’s where Vanessa “Martha Stewarts” protégé and McGyver’s student comes into the scene. She quickly scoped the room for wasteful decoration. She snipped ribbons from Hunter’s birthday ballons and punched holes into brown bags. She proceeded to run the ribbon through the hole and decorate the outside with the rubber ducks. She than rewrapped the airplane graham crackers with the tissue paper from Hunter’s recently opened present. I bequeath you Vanessa Pena from hereonin you shall be known as Martha McGyver I.

After a few glasses of wonderful margaritas and slices of pizza, we were off to make his birthday party preparations. Shane had baked his cake the night before and I had already made the frosting. The girls were done glossing the strawberry cupcakes. We chuckled at the intoxicated men’s attempt to creativity. In the meantime, Hunter was being entertained by his two cousins in his playroom. At first, the cake did not resemble a train, but a tank. In an hour and ton of laughs, the tank began to take form of a train. It was exactly as Shane imagined and what a child’s cake should resemble. Peanut butter oreo cookies for wheels, red licorice for the grid, vanilla wafers for the smoke stack. It was beautiful.


We were met with a hint of a hangover on a beautiful sunny day. We raided the grassy end of the park with barbecue grills, ice chests, balloons, chairs, and picnic blankets. I had the pleasure of meeting Hunter’s play buddies. The different age kids ventured the playground and the adults noshed and nibbled food. Shane manned the barbecue grill with beer in hand. The men gathered on the basketball court and other’s attempted to battle on the tennis court. Unfortunately, Hunter’s not used to all the attention as he immediately took to tears to the tune of Happy Birthday. He enjoyed a spoonful of his choo choo train cake. All in all, it was gratifying to have friends and family gather today to celebrate a day that makes life worth living.

This is Shellie bidding everyone good day back to you Bob at the studio!