Last week we celebrated our oldest’s 7th Birthday. (Two days before the penny crisis derailed all thoughts for the rest of this week.) It was the birthday without a party. The first of it’s kind around here. You know the kind of party, the kind that involves balloons, lots of people focused just on this one child and lots of unneeded presents. Full of meltdowns and tired kids. Not to mention my inability to spend two real minutes with my birthday child. The thought of eliminating these events has been kicked around for awhile, but we just weren’t sure. We jumped off our party wagon and had our own version of a party. With just our family. Where we baked a cake and only the Birthday-Boy got to help. He also designed our menu for the special evening. Macaroni with Cheese (original not shells), Sweet Potato Casserole, and of course, Bacon. Really. We cooked and ate these things. Together. On one plate. With smiles on our faces. The cake is a basketball (that he decorated himself). You know, because Troy Bolton of High School Musical (hello, people, get your head in the game) plays basketball, duh. I loved it. The quiet evening (quiet, you know for us – remember this is the point that I yelled “ssshhhh….top!”), the $2 roller skates that were bought at a garage sale, the gold fish (hey, did you know they’re all of 28 cents?! “Sure, everyone can have their own goldfish!” TheBaby-est got one – who knows what he would name it if he could – probably something like “Penny”, TheMiddlest named his “Fish”, TheBirthdayBoy named his “Oliver”, and ThePrincess named hers “Pirates of the Carribean Enemy.” Really.) We have video of TheBaby-est singing his heart out to his oldest brother. So sweet. And I had real time with my baby. That is growing up. You can’t help but blink, can you?
