How we celebrated William's birthday

I don't know what is moving faster, the weeks or the years - how can it already be William's birthday?!  How can he already be 10?!  This boy loves bacon so continues the traditional birthday chocolate bacon bar.  

Another fun fact about William is he loves cherry flavored frosting, but he doesn't love the color pink.  I like how he got creative with his birthday cake.

William also loves to make small piles of burnt cheese - so I thought it was time to introduce him to fondue.  This is the old fondue set my Dad got in Switzerland over 25 years ago, I remember using it with my family as a child and now the thrill continues with my own children....... and there is nothing more thrilling than sharing fondue with a big hungry family.

Here is one of his favorite gifts that Peter picked out for $2 at the PTO thrift shop, it was a buffalo trophy kit from cardboard safari.  And here it is now assembled and hung proudly in our home.

And since this was a year of birthday parties we pulled something together with a handful of his cub scout friends.  It doesn't take much to entertain young boys outside, the party plan was simple:  toilet paper dodge ball, pinata and campfire.

William helped make the pinata the day of the party and it was still drying as it hung up on the tree waiting to be hit.  Apparently we didn't make the hanging wire strong enough because it only withstood a few hits before falling flat on the ground.  It didn't break though, so the kids took turns going at it with a stick on the ground, it reminded me of that classic scene from Office Space where the employees were hitting the computer with baseball bats.  The pinata finally split and this activity ended in a pig pile and pockets stuffed with candy.

I had also planned for cake filled campfire oranges but it was getting windy and cold and the kids seemed happy enough roasting hot dogs and marshmallows along with their pinata loot - tooties rolls, starbursts and candy bars.

Instead of gifts the party guests contributed small amounts of money that William will donate to Heifer International to buy a flock of chickens for a family in another country.  

After the party we were left with bags of oranges and a bowl of unused batter so the next day we continued the birthday celebration as a family and made the campfire cake filled oranges.  They are simple, scoop out an orange, fill it with cake batter, wrap in two layers of foil and place in coals for 15 - 20 minutes.

Carefully open and enjoy!

Not everyone loved this combination but William did. Maybe we'll recreate it for his birthday next year, or maybe we'll just try roasting some bacon with our hot dogs and marshmallows instead.