The Omnidroid Birthday Party

We have entered the world of themed birthday parties.

About a month before his birthday, R asked Scott what kind of birthday cake he would like. She fully expected Lightning McQueen or Spiderman. Scott surprised her with his response: "The Incredibles robot." If you are familiar with the Pixar animated film, you know what he's talking about. Mr Incredible and his superhero family face off against a giant spider-like robot created by an evil mastermind. The robot is called the Omnidroid and there are various models that were tested against numerous ill-fated "supers" in preparation to wreak havoc on the world.

My reproduction of the Omnidroid 6000

While we were a bit surprised by Scott's unique selection, we immediately recognized the potential for birthday fun and we set about planning. We talked about having an omnidroid cake and I began devising ways to make a spherical cake complete with legs and a laser eye. From there, I conceived the idea for an pinata -- a must-have for any birthday bash. After one balloon, some black spray paint and a stovetop covered in paper-mache paste, we had ourselves a pinata. Then we needed something to put in it.


We didn't want to stuff it full of high-fructose corn syrup, but filling such a large pinata with things like toy robots or Kinder eggs would be terribly expensive -- on the other hand, using ketchup packets swiped from Burger King would probably be the opposite.

Ultimately, we came up with t-shirts. We already wanted to give each child some kind of swag, since it's no fun watching somebody else unwrap loads of new gear while you get nothing. We figured t-shirts would be fun -- one in each of their favourite colours. I first went to Michael's art and craft store to buy the shirts and iron-on transfer paper because I had a 40% off coupon.

When I got there, I found red, blue and pink youth-small shirts on sale (which looked a bit big) and the same kind of iron-on paper we used for our Halloween costumes (which cracked and peeled immediately) plus another brand. I asked the girl at the till if she knew which type of transfer paper was best, and she said that their stuff is awful and she buys hers at Staples Office Depot. So, it turns out that I couldn't use the 40% off coupon for the shirts because they were on a 17% off sale, which irked me a bit. I won out in the end, because I found shirts that fit really well at Walmart for less than half the price -- except that all the red ones were gone so Scott had to settle for white with red trim.


Scott had a Jolly Rancher in his mouth just before this picture was taken. In the photo, his candy had just fallen out and landed in the dirt.


While the Omnidroid represented the theme for the decorations, the theme for the presents was quite different. All the gifts were things that Scott could use to either play outside or to do craft / activities inside -- there were hardly any toys, really.

For outside, he got a helmet for his tricycle, a velcro baseball glove and ball, a plastic bat and ball, an inflatable bounce house, and a backpack to hold his various essential. For inside, he got some books, some board games, a craft desk with 2 chairs, some beads / pipe cleaner, a plastic smock, playdoh, The Incredibles DVD ... and A PAIR OF SCISSORS!!




The cake was an interesting compilation of themes, and hardly in the same league as the stuff I've seen from cake-pro cousin or semi-pro sister. Originally, I was going to have a 3-D spherical Omnidroid cake made from rice krispies, but we replaced that idea with the pinata. Instead, we kept the cake pretty simple and just went down to Dairy Queen and ordered one.

True to Scott's preferences, we asked for a Spiderman graphic on it, and then we added the Omnidroid afterwards. In fact, we added three Omnidroids -- one for each of the kids. R and Scott made balls out of rice krispies and then I coated them in melted chocolate, adding black pipe-cleaner legs before putting them on the cake in various threatening positions. You want to see a mess? give a toddler a chocolate-covered ball and tell him to eat it.


Speaking of messes, here is the damage after eating pizza, salad and cake. Notice the Lightning McQueen cups and plates -- Pixar was well represented at this party. I guess we didn't have any Nemo stuff or Monsters Inc.

This is the outfit that Scott wore for the next 4 days straight, from dawn until dusk. He finally stopped wearing the helmet everywhere when he found that it made his head sweaty. He wears the backpack to church every week, loaded with books, treats, and the other odds and ends that are precious to a three-year-old

Here's our boy -- one year older. We love him to bits.