Keepin' It Simple

We celebrated another birthday here recently and started a new tradition. Everyone prepares a little something to say ahead of time about the birthday person.

At breakfast on Caleb's birthday we took turns reading what we wrote. It was a fun way to bless him.


My kids usually start making plans for their birthdays 8 to 9 months in advance. And as the birthday approaches, the plans get grander by the minute.

It's not that uncommon for me to be beckoned to one of their rooms after I thought they were asleep. "Hey, Mom, do you think that for my birthday we should take all my friends snowboarding, rock-climbing, or go-cart riding?"

What ever happened to Pin the tail on the Donkey anyway?

This year, in addition to those completely realistic ideas, Caleb mentioned that he would also consider celebrating his special day at Lego Land, one of those bounce places you can rent for a mere $300, or Glacier Bay.

Glacier Bay??

I attempted to steer the planning to an area I was prepared to put a little more into. The cake.

For a couple of weeks, I had been anticipating anything he might dream up for a cake plan. I had researched extensively and even printed out step-by-step instructions for making the world's coolest skateboard cake.



"Actually, Mom, I don't want a cake. I want to have a snow cone."

A snow cone?? What would he think if he looked back on pictures from his sixth birthday and there was no cake? What kind of mother would I be?

If a skateboard cake wasn't going to work, I was fully prepared to drive all over town looking for the perfect cake mold and stay up into the wee hours of the night making some elaborate creation so that my little boy would always remember that he was special and loved, for heaven's sake, so I pressed the issue.

"Of course, you can have a snow cone anyway, but don't you want something else in addition to that?"

"Well," he paused thoughtfully and then his face suddenly lit up. "Maybe you could put a gummy worm on my snow cone!"


Happy birthday, sweet boy!