The Birthday Boy

We have a few traditions for birthdays.  We always had breakfast in bed growing up, and I loved that tradition (although, I'm not sure it carried on through the younger kids, sorry girls.)  My kids get up way too early for that, and we had to come up with a new plan.  That's where the birthday chair came into play. We decorate it at night with ballons, streamers, wrapping paper, ect., and that way they still have a fun surprise when they wake up in the wee hours of the morning.  And then we make them their favorite breakfast.  This year we had waffels and bacon. The kids love it.

We try to take them out for lunch on their big day. Caleb loves mexican food, so beans and rice it was! Oh, and he usually eats his weight in chips and salsa :)

SO, here comes the dramatic part of the day. He requested steak, potatos, Grandma Angie's twisty rolls, and broccoli and carrots for dinner.  The steak was marrinated, the rolls ready and rasing, and the bake potatos in the oven.  Oh, and the cake ready to frost.

 I am now in charge of scouts for the 8 yr olds in my church (I know, I have NO idea what they were thinking! :) We had it at the park that afternoon.  It was all planned out, everything was ready to go when I got home.
Well, as I went to leave, I couldn't find my keys anywhere. My cell phone was in my locked car.  I tried really hard to hold it together.  I was stuck at a park with no keys and no cell phone. And, I was really freaked out.  A few random parents from the park helped me look all over for about an hour. They had just dissapeared, along with my shiny new key chain! Finally I borrowed a cell phone from one of the strangers helping look and called Ernie.  He called a lock smith and we finally headed home.

 By the time I got home, the rolls had turned into loaves of bread.  And then when I opened the oven, the potatos had exploded in the oven. (I had never seen that before, and it was a total disaster to clean up!) I freaked out a little, (again), took a deep breath, and finally decided to order pizza.  

We had invited a few friends over (we were limited on space and so we kept it very low key).  Well, by this time, I realized they would be there for cake any minute. So I threw the frosting on the cake (not one of the best jobs ever, but Caleb didn't seem to mind.) Then I pulled out the table cloth.  But alas, the Indiana Jones table cloth was a Star Wars table cloth. Wow. Well, as was the day, so I shoudn't have been surprised.

 I love to make their birthdays a big deal, have fun traditions, and really hope they feel special. This year I fealt like a total birthday failure!

But hey, he still loved his indiana Jones cake, and thought it was cool that he had both of his favorite Harrison Ford adventures in one party. 

And at the end of a very frustrating day, he gave me a big hug and said, "mom, thanks for making my birthday so special."  Wow, a little teary thinking about it now.

How do kids always seem to say just the right thing to put everything back into perspective?