A Mother’s Musing : This year’s birthday theme was a little different: tiredness
Posted on Wednesday, April 30, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/rhtn/Editorial/3885/
It seems like as the kids get older, their birthdays should be easier, but so far that hasn’t happened. Or maybe the problem is that I’m getting older, too. For whatever reason Birthday Week was hard this year.
My two younger children were born five years and three days apart. We thought it was cute to tell our son that his little sister was his birthday present. He wasn’t particularly impressed at 5 years old. He much preferred the bike that he also received.
It’s true that I no longer have to bake dozens of cupcakes for the school birthday parties, but their birthday dinners have become way more complicated. They used to request macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets, now it’s shrimp scampi and cheese-stuffed manicotti.
We’ve never celebrated their birthdays together. I always thought each deserved their own special day.
But this year, due to scheduling difficulties, we combined the family birthday party. Since they couldn’t agree on a menu, I spent the day cooking two different meals: lasagna and shrimp Alfredo. I wasn’t surprised that neither one chose a meal that would fit into my current diet plan, but I wasn’t really happy about it either. I ended up cooking a third meal on the grill so I could eat.
Then they opened their presents and had the chance to compare and make sure we provided equitable loot. Luckily, the little sister doesn’t know how much we spent on her big brother’s bicycle.
He’s living in his own apartment so he had his own birthday party. It’s probably better if his father and I don’t know the details.
The 16-year-old had the traditional birthday sleepover with pizza and movies. I couldn’t eat the pizza either.
I used to love hosting theme birthday parties when my kids were younger. The first sleepover we ever had was for the oldest daughter’s 12 th birthday and it was a “ make over” theme. I provided a bunch of cosmetics and nail polish. The party favors were purse mirrors and hair gel. The piñata was homemade. We covered a balloon with paper mache, added a bunch of yarn hair and drew on eyes. One of the party activities was supposed to be making up the piñata’s face with magic markers, but of course the party goers weren’t interested. But they did smash the faceless piñata and eat all the candy.
The most elaborate theme party was the Cabbage Patch Party when my oldest turned 6. I had each party-goer bring her own Cabbage Patch doll and planned all the activities for little girls and their babies. I still have a tape of the Cabbage Patch beauty pageant. If you watch it carefully you can see that all my daughter’s 6-yearold friends thought her mother was a little crazy.
I gave up theme parties sometime after the youngest turned 9. Coincidentally that was about the same time that I got a full-time job. Maybe there’s a connection.
One problem with Birthday Week, is that it always falls at the busiest time of year. It was especially hard this year. I had to leave Rebuilding Day early to prepare for the sleepover and I never did get the flowers in that I hoped to plant before the first of May. Looking back, I guess we did have a theme this year: tiredness.
Reporter Lynn Atkins can be contacted by e-mail at lynna @ nwanews. com.