Party prepping

Sophie's birthday is just around the corner, and party planning is in full swing. Originally, we were just going to have the whole thing catered, but now it looks like we're going to be doing most of the cooking. We've come up with a good list of simple but elegant dishes that we can serve for a party of about 30 people. The one benefit of hosting it at my in-laws' is we don't have to worry about the clean-up afterward or having to eat leftovers for an indefinite period of time.

I'm trying not to stress over it, but I do have a lot to accomplish before we leave for the States. I've finally started the consultancy role with my old agency to do some new business development and am trying to bang out a first draft of a new credentials deck before I leave.

Packing for the States is going to be a nightmare as well because Herb and I will definitely argue over what we should and shouldn't bring. We don't really have much in terms of toys, and we need to take into consideration certain items that the kids are really attached to (pillow, crib mobile, stuffed animals) and things that we really don't want to buy duplicates of, like Ethan's potty. Sophie's crib in Baltimore has been recalled, but my cousin was nice enough to let us borrow his daughter's since she's outgrown it. We'll be able to get credit from Wal-mart and put the money towards daily essentials, like formula and diapers.

I've also been organizing our roadtrip to Boston and New York on the first weekend that we arrive. As much as I would like to wait a few days before taking them on a trip, we have to rush through to accommodate Herb's schedule as he'll be flying back to HK eight days after we land. It'll be hard to say goodbye for more than a month, but that will be when things start to get back into a routine.

Then there's the party planning, putting together the slide show and picking out the birthday cake. Ethan just had a regular fruity birthday cake - I really wanted to get him a cartoon character of sorts, but the bakery just bakes a cake and sticks a chocolate plate with a picture of the character and charges a lot of money for what? Licensing??? With Sophie, however, I found this great Sanrio cake with My Melody, and I'm probably going to order this one.

At least this one takes a bit of effort to put the character together. And at least it's not Hello Kitty. The only problem is that her party ware is all Winnie the Pooh. They don't make cakes with Pooh on them, and Herb will probably be against a My Melody themed party. Oh well - no one will notice anyways!