Birthday Party Lament

How hard can a birthday party be really?  They are all under 5 ft tall, have unrefined taste buds and well, they are kids.  Come on, how hard can I make this on myself?  Pretty darned impossible, unreasonable and just down right ridiculous.  
To start the journey I lost track of time.  Having a summer birthday is the pits and so we decided after years of last minute desperate calls to anyone who was in town that might know my child's name invites, to schedule something before school is out.  Brilliant! Right, with all the crazy that is the last couple of weeks of school I choose to host a birthday party.  So of course I loose track of time and when he finally settles on what kind of party (B.J. the Clown, at the house) I find that there is only one date available for the next foreseeable future and have a lovely Friday night party on the books.  Less brilliant.  Then I forget to invite half the kids he wants to come because they don't go to his school and I can't possibly send out an e-vite, I have to hand make invitations that need hand delivering.  Thankfully they are understanding mothers and are used to my last minute shenanigans and will love my child by attending anyway.  Even less brilliant.  I think that I will have it really together and bake the cake two days early so that I can frost it early and it will be brilliant!  Cake is lopsided, I ran out of frosting and because it was baked too early or taken out of the oven too early it is a crumbly soggy mess and the great cake fix it of more frosting makes it worse.  Oh and did I mention that the frosting is different colors because I couldn't possibly buy the same kind of white icing.  Genius is slipping away.  So I make cupcakes instead.  What was I thinking?  Dropped the egg shell into the batter.  Awesome.  I had the oven set for 200 because of the pretzels I was making (????) and forgot to up the temp.  After 20 long minutes they weren't finished and I had no idea how to fix it.  Typical Mama E style I over-corrected and over cooked the cupcakes.  Fine!  I will buy a damn cake!  But wait, there is a way to mess that up too!  Leave it on the floor in the back seat of the car and let your child step on it while getting out to go to school.  #$@%*!  
Well, now that I am officially sick and totally over the top strung out, I decide to not cry in front of my child but shout.  Recovering rather quickly I pull him into my arms and apologize and explain that I can fix it.  I don't know how but I will manage.
After a long talk with my mum last night I was reminded of how I even got here and how grateful I need to be.  Just over six years ago I was told that I needed to sacrifice my lady bits in a very real and hard conversation with my doctor.  I was watching this little man of mine who was 18 months old and was told that if I kept them I would have cancer within 7 years and it would probably kill me because it is so hard to catch and treat.  I couldn't imagine not seeing my baby's 8th birthday so the surgery was the next month.  
Well, here I am being ridiculous about my son's 8th birthday because I didn't always think I would get to have it.  
I fixed the cake and it looks decent enough that he will be happy.  My house is a mess and I think that is going to have to be okay.  I'm going to love on my kids and do the best that I can.  There is no need to cry over a lopsided cake and burnt cupcakes.  There is enough icing in the world to fix a stepped on cake and it is amazing how Pinterest can help you craft a clown out of ice cream cones and gumdrops.  I wouldn't miss all these 7 years for anything and I am going to celebrate that I can be here now, for him.