Our youngest turned three earlier this week and, despite all of the germs flying around our house, we managed to squeeze in a happy little birthday party. We had originally planned on celebrating with family in the midst of our Thanksgiving travels, but we had to scrap those plans due to illness. Fortunately, we already had the necessary party supplies on hand, so we just changed venues.

As it turns out, this party was quite a milestone for our family. First of all, it marks the official end of the “terrible twos” in our household (though two has never been a particularly difficult age for us). Second, this was the first time that we actually dined in our new dinette.

As far as the “party” itself goes, it was a very simple affair. Since we hadn’t planned on being in town, there weren’t any outside guests. Rather, we just decorated the dinette with Diego (of Dora the Explorer fame) party favors, ate cake and ice cream, and lavished our newly-minted three year old with gifts. As disappointing as it was to have to stay in town for Thanksgiving, a quiet week to ourselves was just what we needed.

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This past weekend was quite the milestone for our family. Not only did Son #1 celebrate his 10th birthday, but we hosted our first ever sleepover. After ten years, it’s been a long time coming. That being said, we’ve always felt as if we have plenty of kids sleeping under our roof, and thus haven’t feel compelled ask other people to send their kids our way.

Anyway, as far as birthday parties go, this was a pretty low key affair. While it was technically a spy-themed birthday party, it was really just a big sleepover party during which the kids pretended to be spies. Don’t get me wrong… We spiffed it up a bit by having spy-themed plates and napkins and also by listening to the “Mission: Impossible” theme song as well as “Secret Agent Man” while the kids prepared and ate their make-it-yourself mini pizzas.

We then transitioned to movie time, during which the kids watched “Catch That Kid.” After that, it was time for cake and ice cream and presents, after which the kids retreated upstairs to the playroom where they’d be spending the night.

All in all, it went very smoothly. The biggest hiccup came just before midnight when our son came down to complain that one of his friends wouldn’t quiet down, and was thus keeping everyone awake. A quick trip upstairs cured that problem, and all was quiet for the rest of the night. The next morning we fed the boys a hearty breakfast and sent them out back to play until their parents came to pick them up.

In many ways, this was the ideal birthday party. Indeed, it was far less stressful than planning, coordinating, and executing a “traditional” birthday party with tons of kids, activities, etc. And best of all, it was exactly what our son wanted.

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While we still haven’t hammered out all of the details, we’re planning on pizza and movies. He wants the evening to have a spy theme, so we’ll be working that in. My lovely and talented wife created Top Secret, “Mission: Impossible”-styled invitations, complete with the “Your mission, if you choose to accept it…” greeting, and the “This message will self-destruct…” warning at the end. We were originally thinking about putting together a spy-themed scavenger hunt of some sort, but will instead keep things simple by using spy-themed movies to give the evening its flavor.

As a sidenote, this will be our first time hosting a sleepover… Wish us luck — we probably have a lot more in our future.

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No, I don’t dread birthdays. But I no longer get summer vacation, and gifts (the materialistic sort, anyway) just aren’t that big of a deal anymore. After all, if I want some sort of gadget, tool, or whatever, I can just go out and buy it for myself. That being said, I love doing special things with my family.

Thus, when my wife suggested a weekend away (with the kids and all) I jumped at the chance. This afternoon we’re taking off for a weekend away in a nice hotel. We’ll do some swimming and sight seeing, and spend the balance of our time hanging out and relaxing. Now that’s what I call a Happy Birthday.

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A couple of days after the incident, I called the fire department for an explanation as to why nobody showed up (very politely, I might add). Apparently, the woman in charge of scheduling the visits had a death in the family and was out of town. The department didn’t have a back up plan regarding birthday party schedules, even though she had called to confirm that she did indeed have firefighters available for the party. She must have talked to somebody, right?

A few days after my inquiry the lady herself called when she came back in to town and left an extremely apologetic message which included a desire to make it up to us somehow. I appreciated her contrition. Since I was “party planned out,” I put everything on the back burner for a while. Then, about a month after the birthday party, the chief himself called me to apologize personally for missing the birthday party. He hadn’t checked the logs for that day and with the schedule lady out of town it had fallen through the cracks. He wanted to know how they could make it up to us.

I had been thinking about this for a couple weeks now. So I asked him if they would consider coming to a playgroup that we were hosting on an upcoming Friday morning. Usually they only do weekends, but he said he would make it work, for sure. Not leaving anything to chance, I was smart this time and confirmed the Wednesday before the big event. The office lady said that the biggest truck they had, the ladder truck, would absolutely be there.

Lo and behold, on Friday morning the ladder truck drove up to our driveway with lights flashing and sirens blaring. You should have see the look on our son’s face! The two firefighters couldn’t have been more pleasant (and they both had the same name as our son!). They gave us a tour of the truck, let the kids sit in the cab, and, best of all, dressed our son from head to toe in fire fighter gear. Adorable! At the end of their visit they gave all the kids a red fire fighter hat, a badge sticker, and coloring books.

I’m so glad that everything worked out even though it took a couple of months. I still would have preferred that the fire fighters come to the birthday party, but this way Son #3 felt very special on two separate days. By the way, the fire fighters themselves also apologized to my husband and myself for what had happened. My response? I appreciated their apology, but you can’t exactly get mad at brave men who volunteer their time to save other people. And then I handed them their well deserved donation check…

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As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of having a birthday party somewhere other than our house (like at the zoo or a bowling alley). This time we decided to have the party at a local nature center.

We rented a room for a couple of hours which included a nature center intern giving us a 45 minute demonstration including live animals, a nature walk, and time to look at the exhibits. Our son could choose from several themes: Snakes, Wildlife, Turtles and Frogs, and Dinosaurs. Since our family has a burgeoning interest in reptiles, I wasn’t surprised when he chose the Snake Demo.

It’s always a good idea to bring an activity or two to keep the guests busy while waiting for everybody to arrive. Our wonderful nature center has a room full of craft tools, including scissors, crayons and glue. Of course, we could have easily brought our own, if necessary. I chose four different snake activities from a fantastic website for kids’ activities and crafts. We chose a heart snake, spiral snake, snake maze and snake anagram. I rolled the four pages up like a scroll and tied it shut with some gift ribbon. Most of the boys came in and actually sat quietly to do the crafts. Amazing!

After everybody arrived, The intern brought out some amazing snake artifacts and live reptiles. We saw a Corn snake, King snake and a Blue-tongued skink, to name a few. Everybody was permitted to pet the animals. As the birthday boy, our son even helped with the demo by holding the King snake. He was thrilled and it made him feel very special. Then we went on a short nature walk. We didn’t see much wildlife, as could be predicted when 15 little boys are traipsing through the woods. Anything living had sufficient warning and hid way before we could have seen them. After the nature walk, it was off to the exhibit hall to view the venomous snakes that hadn’t been a part of the hands on demonstration (for obvious reasons). The center houses most of the venomous snakes indigenous to the area, but my personal favorite was the baby sea turtle they had recently rescued. So cute!

Finally, it was back to the room for cupcakes and ice cream cups. I want to reiterate how much easier it is to bring cupcakes and ice cream cups to a party like this. Just plop the cupcake and ice cream cup on a plate and serve to the hungry guests. Piece of cake! No! Easier than a piece of cake!!!

After cake it was time to open gifts. To finish out the party we played a simple game akin to hot potato and musical chairs combined. We played music while the kids passed around a rubber snake. Each time the music stopped the kid holding the snake would get their treat bag. The kids loved it! It also helped to pass the little time left at the end of the party when kids go totally wild. You know what I mean!

In the end, a good time was had by all. Son #2 made a lot of good memories for the beginning of his 7th year.

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I Love My Body!

I love my soft stomach…
…it reminds me of carrying my four boys within.
I love my sagging breasts…
…they remind me of cozy, late nights spent nursing my infant sons.
I love my laugh lines…
…they remind me of all the funny things my sons have said and done.
I love my frown creases…
…they remind me of disciplining my boys to make them great men.
I love my gray hairs…
…they remind me of all the challenges we have endured and overcome as a family.

Why would I want to change any of these attributes?
They are part of the woman I have become.
I embrace myself.
I rejoice in the wisdom gained…
…and reflected in my beautiful body.

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As she noted previously, my wife also arranged to have the local fire department show up with sirens blaring (they offer to do this in return for a charitable donation). The problem here was that they never showed up! The party was on a Sunday, so the front office was closed. Thus, our only two options were to: (1) wait patiently for them to arrive, and (2) call 911 and ask for the fire department. Since option #2 wasn’t going to happen, we went with option #1. Much to our chagrin, it just never happened.

Oh well, we figured that they must have gone out on a call, and we were just thankful that we weren’t on the business end of a firefighter visit. But here’s the kicker… When my wife finally heard back from the station secretary, she learned that the party visit was listed in the log, and the Captain simply forgot to check it. Ugh. Talk about disappointing!

The silver lining here was that our son was so focused on opening his gifts and (hopefully) getting his hands on some new Transformers that he hardly even cared. And this story did actually have a happy ending, at least from his perspective — he ended up getting multiple Transformers, including the one that he wanted the most… Supreme Class Cyberton Primus!

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We trekked over to Party City. No Transformers to be found. Bummer. He despondently picked up his GameBoy, at which time he exclaimed, “Pokemon! I want a Pokemon party!” Our boys are big fans of their video games. What to do? I really wanted him to choose his own theme, but we weren’t making any headway…

I decided to go in a completely different direction. Recently, I learned that if you make a donation to our local volunteer firestation, they will drive one of their big fire engines to your birthday party. The firemen will also bring hats and coloring books for the party guests. Here’s the real treat… The fire engine arrives at the party with lights flashing and sirens blaring. How cool is that?!?

I quickly redirected him to a firefighter theme. At this point, he decided he wanted his party at the local zoo for rehabilitated animals. Fortunately, my enthusiasm for the firefighter theme was contagious, and he eventually agreed.

Now to find firefighter party supplies. Every boy loves firefighters, so that should be easy, right? Never in a million years would I think it would be this difficult to find them! They weren’t at Party City, Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Big Lots, WalMart, Target… anywhere! It was no small feat dragging all four boys to all of these stores either. Everything was cartoon characters.

I’ll probably end up buying some red party supplies and making a few fire engine decorations. This is definitely a lesson learned about time management. I’m a little behind in my planning because of the holidays. If I had more time I would have ordered the Transformers party supplies online and been done with it. Then again, the look on his face when the fire engine arrives will be worth these fleeting aggravations.

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Given our son’s current interests (aside from animals, of course), the party had a pirate theme. The party favors were little skull candle holders from the dollar store that were filled with candy, as well as toy telescopes. Rather than planning a bunch of games as we’ve done in the past, we let the kids run wild and have fun chasing each other outside the building that housed the party. We then went on the feeding tour.

After that, we returned to the party room for cake and ice cream. My genius wife baked cupcakes and bought ice cream cups, so all we had to do was hand out the goodies — no cutting, no scooping, no nothing.

We’re now the proud parents of a nine year old. All in all it was a very fun and relaxing party, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. And to top it all off, our son got everything that he needs to for a pirate Halloween costume, so we actually ended up killing to birds with one stone!

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