The good part about this noobstruggleTM is that we (the kids & I) discovered "Craften Terminal" http://mvc.craften.de/
In about 10 minutes we were able to revert to Minecraft 1.5.1 and correctly install the four mods needed to run Aether II. W00t!
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CUDOS[/glow] to all the amazing modders involved in Forge, Player API, Render Player API, Aether II and Craften Terminal!