Landon's 5th birthday morning started like any typical kid's birthday morning, with a twist. We had hoped to be back in the United States for his birthday, but in reality, we were still in Vietnam for a few days afterward, and then on vacation for awhile before heading back to the U.S. I decided to pack a few books with us to give him for his birthday, because we had no idea how long we were going to be in Vietnam, and fresh reading material in book form vs. Kindle is a big deal for him. I knew we would not be back for awhile, so I wanted to give him his presents on his birthday, and have a party, and be done with it. It was certainly more difficult to do so in Vietnam vs. America, but I think he loved his birthday anyway. To make things more complex, Landon requested that I make a scavenger hunt for him to find his presents. He was so excited he woke up and found all of his presents using the clues right away, and then couldn't wait for Austin to get out of the shower to open them up. He specifically asked for a playdough ice cream making set, and then I got him a pretty good quality fake small LEGO set from China, a war plane and cannon. He was really excited about all of his gifts!
Of course, right away Landon wanted to put together his LEGO set. I have not put together a LEGO set using directions for years. So, it was rough going for a little while. I finally convinced him to take a break to eat breakfast, and then we got ready to go to his birthday activity- the play place the nearest supermarket, about 20 minutes away from our hotel by taxi. Of course, we enlisted Mr. Taxi to drive us there. I helped the road wives that were with us in Vietnam to pick out gifts for Landon that would fit in our luggage, and picked up a few last minute snacks for our travels later in the week. Mr. Taxi watched the kids at the play place, and then he bought them a bunch of tokens for the arcade games outside of the play area. Owen loved the cars and the horse, but only stayed on for a few minutes at a time. There were several car racing games that Landon enjoyed- it was hard to pull him away when it was time to go back to our hotel!
Through some prior planning, I "ordered" baking chocolate and powdered sugar from Hanoi through crew members that were going to a special western grocery store. I also ordered eggs and food coloring from our hotel, and then asked for permission to use the restaurant's kitchen to bake a cake for Landon. Our friend and fellow road wife, Liz, came over to watch Landon and Owen while I worked on baking and decorating Landon's cake. Landon requested a Lightning McQueen cake, because he was really excited and had recently watched Cars 3. I packed up a big bag with all my supplies, and the cooks were first very wary of letting me use the kitchen, but instructed me on how to use the pizza oven and then left to take their mid-day break. I couldn't find measuring cups, so I had to estimate on the recipe, and then tried to find pans in which to bake the cake. There were several different cakes at breakfast, so I just assumed that they baked them in house, until I saw the cake packages in the refrigerator from the store. The only suitable pans I could find were deep dish pizza pans that were made out of heavy, thick metal and seemed to be home-made and welded together. I poured my batter into two pans, and then, fearing that the batter would spill over and ruin the oven, split the batter into three pans. I put them in the pizza oven to bake. It was the right temperature, but the oven was just built differently and since there was not much batter in each pan, I totally over-baked the cake. While the cakes were baking, I mixed up the frosting. About this time, one of the cooks came back in to "supervise" me. He was just standing there, basically, watching my every move. He did not speak much English, but he asked me the ingredients for frosting. I put the cakes in the freezer to cool down quickly, and then started building my car. The cook just stood there at my table watching me struggle to craft a 3D race car out of crumbling, dry chocolate cake. I used frosting to patch it all up and stick it together, but did I mention that there was no air conditioning in the kitchen and it was over 90 degrees with high humidity that day? My poor frosting was melting, and when I went to frost the cake, the frosting kept melting off of the cake! Finally, the cook left me alone with my drooping race care cake. I had to put the cake and the frosting in the freezer/refrigerator three times to cool it down so it would stay on the cake!
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| The whole group after presents |
After the cake was all done, Landon chose to eat dinner at the restaurant with Austin's co-workers. Most of us ordered deep dish pizzas, which take forever to bake, so we ended up retrieving the cake from the refrigerator and doing cake before dinner. Landon loved his race car cake, and even though I had such a tough time making and decorating it. I found "birthday candles" at a stationary-type store in Nghi Son, but they were in actuality large sparklers. We lit them outside while we sang "Happy Birthday" to Landon. I put the sparklers on the extra cake just in case it got ruined somehow. Quite a few of Austin's co-workers came and gave Landon presents. He was so happy, although he was kind of scared of the sparklers!
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| It kind of looks like Lightning McQueen... at least a melting version... |
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| A little scared of the sparklers! |
After cake, Austin helped Liz set up a pinata of sorts. Liz is Mexican-American and was really excited to try to do a pinata for Landon's birthday. I had seen some pinata looking things in one of the shops in Nghi Son, so we walked over and picked one up. Only later did we learn that these cardboard vehicles were actually for funerals and part of funerary rites in Vietnam. They were made out of flimsy cardboard, so they were different from a normal pinata. Well, Landon beat a funeral car full of candy with a stick and had a marvelous time. Everybody grabbed a few pieces of candy, and we bagged up most of it to give to kids in the neighborhood around the hotel.
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| Landon, Owen and Liz with the candy! |
After all the cake, presents and pinata excitement, our dinner came but both boys were too tired to eat much. All in all, Landon had a great birthday, and we were so grateful to spend it with such an awesome crew. We were lucky enough to have crews to celebrate with for three of Landon's birthdays on the road. We love our road family and will miss them (although they are welcome to visit us in Chicago whenever they are back in the office!)
Landon's 5th birthday morning started like any typical kid's birthday morning, with a twist. We had hoped to be back in the United States for his birthday, but in reality, we were still in Vietnam for a few days afterward, and then on vacation for awhile before heading back to the U.S. I decided to pack a few books with us to give him for his birthday, because we had no idea how long we were going to be in Vietnam, and fresh reading material in book form vs. Kindle is a big deal for him. I knew we would not be back for awhile, so I wanted to give him his presents on his birthday, and have a party, and be done with it. It was certainly more difficult to do so in Vietnam vs. America, but I think he loved his birthday anyway. To make things more complex, Landon requested that I make a scavenger hunt for him to find his presents. He was so excited he woke up and found all of his presents using the clues right away, and then couldn't wait for Austin to get out of the shower to open them up. He specifically asked for a playdough ice cream making set, and then I got him a pretty good quality fake small LEGO set from China, a war plane and cannon. He was really excited about all of his gifts!
Of course, right away Landon wanted to put together his LEGO set. I have not put together a LEGO set using directions for years. So, it was rough going for a little while. I finally convinced him to take a break to eat breakfast, and then we got ready to go to his birthday activity- the play place the nearest supermarket, about 20 minutes away from our hotel by taxi. Of course, we enlisted Mr. Taxi to drive us there. I helped the road wives that were with us in Vietnam to pick out gifts for Landon that would fit in our luggage, and picked up a few last minute snacks for our travels later in the week. Mr. Taxi watched the kids at the play place, and then he bought them a bunch of tokens for the arcade games outside of the play area. Owen loved the cars and the horse, but only stayed on for a few minutes at a time. There were several car racing games that Landon enjoyed- it was hard to pull him away when it was time to go back to our hotel! 
Through some prior planning, I "ordered" baking chocolate and powdered sugar from Hanoi through crew members that were going to a special western grocery store. I also ordered eggs and food coloring from our hotel, and then asked for permission to use the restaurant's kitchen to bake a cake for Landon. Our friend and fellow road wife, Liz, came over to watch Landon and Owen while I worked on baking and decorating Landon's cake. Landon requested a Lightning McQueen cake, because he was really excited and had recently watched Cars 3. I packed up a big bag with all my supplies, and the cooks were first very wary of letting me use the kitchen, but instructed me on how to use the pizza oven and then left to take their mid-day break. I couldn't find measuring cups, so I had to estimate on the recipe, and then tried to find pans in which to bake the cake. There were several different cakes at breakfast, so I just assumed that they baked them in house, until I saw the cake packages in the refrigerator from the store. The only suitable pans I could find were deep dish pizza pans that were made out of heavy, thick metal and seemed to be home-made and welded together. I poured my batter into two pans, and then, fearing that the batter would spill over and ruin the oven, split the batter into three pans. I put them in the pizza oven to bake. It was the right temperature, but the oven was just built differently and since there was not much batter in each pan, I totally over-baked the cake. While the cakes were baking, I mixed up the frosting. About this time, one of the cooks came back in to "supervise" me. He was just standing there, basically, watching my every move. He did not speak much English, but he asked me the ingredients for frosting. I put the cakes in the freezer to cool down quickly, and then started building my car. The cook just stood there at my table watching me struggle to craft a 3D race car out of crumbling, dry chocolate cake. I used frosting to patch it all up and stick it together, but did I mention that there was no air conditioning in the kitchen and it was over 90 degrees with high humidity that day? My poor frosting was melting, and when I went to frost the cake, the frosting kept melting off of the cake! Finally, the cook left me alone with my drooping race care cake. I had to put the cake and the frosting in the freezer/refrigerator three times to cool it down so it would stay on the cake! 
After cake, Austin helped Liz set up a pinata of sorts. Liz is Mexican-American and was really excited to try to do a pinata for Landon's birthday. I had seen some pinata looking things in one of the shops in Nghi Son, so we walked over and picked one up. Only later did we learn that these cardboard vehicles were actually for funerals and part of funerary rites in Vietnam. They were made out of flimsy cardboard, so they were different from a normal pinata. Well, Landon beat a funeral car full of candy with a stick and had a marvelous time. Everybody grabbed a few pieces of candy, and we bagged up most of it to give to kids in the neighborhood around the hotel.
Happy Birthday Landon!!! WOW! 5 yrs old. And what a great cake!!!Yummy!!!
ReplyDeleteWe Love you and see you soon, Great-Grandpa Karl & Great-Grandma Betsy
Kids always enjoy such funny and entertaining birthday rather than lavish ones. Kid's carnival in our city last month was a huge success. One of the spacious event space Chicago was fully occupied with food stalls, swings and games. Best was the circus show arranged. Tickets charged by them were also reasonable.
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