Birthday Boy

Luke inherited at least one trait from me: Birthday Dive-ness.  It's been a fun and busy summer so I figured I squeeze out one last year of not throwing Luke a birthday party.  Only Luke had different plans.

Dustin had a full day of meetings scheduled for his birthday, so we took everyone out to Cafe Rio for dinner the night before. We actually took him in a truck from the car dealership (since our car was getting work done) which he was convinced was for his birthday.  Today I took him to Costco in our normal car and he cried for an hour because he missed his truck.

 That night, I crawled up into his bed and sang him to sleep.  As we were lying there Luke said, "Tomorrow is my birthday. There's going to be cake and decorations and balloons and everyone will say 'Happy birthday!'"

As Sadie would put it, "Oh nertz."  I had underestimate the birthday indoctrination of my children.  Apparently Luke had sat through enough of the other kids' birthdays this year and he was going to get his own super special day, even if his loser mom hadn't planned one.  So off Ellie and I went to Party City about 15 minutes before it closed where we bought all sorts of birthday goodies.  

Dustin picked up Luke's favorite donuts for breakfast and I thought we would call it good.  When Luke woke up that morning he was so excited to see everything -- especially the balloons.  "Ooooooh, it balloons for my party!"  Ummm, what party? "All my friends are coming over and we're going to play games and eat cake and sing Happy Birthday to me!"

 And so out went a text to 3 friends and their families inviting them over for cake and games in just a few hours.

I needed to get some trip shopping done that day so I dragged Ellie and Luke to the mall.  Because every young boy wants to spend his birthday at the mall.  He was a trooper walking all over, and so despite the crazy mount of things he had already gotten for his birthday, I took him to the Disney store to pick out any toy he wanted.

We ended up with a Buzz Lightyear Blaster.  Not a gun, a blaster. 

For lunch I took him to the gelato shop where I thought he's be interested in some flavor like chocolate or bubble gum.  He wanted "green ice cream."  We let him sample kiwi and pistachio and he ended up with the nuts (just like our family).

Then we ran to ran to Target where I let him pick out whatever paper goods and ice cream he wanted.  I had actually planned on making him a bundt cake because he had been dying for a volcano cake, but he made me wake him to the bakery "just to look" at the cakes. One he saw those cakes he had to have one.  I wasn't thrilled and I tried o convince him to see it my way, but then I figured since the whole thing was a little thrown together, a store bought cake wasn't going to ruin it now.

By dinner time he was starving (what??  one little cup of gelato does not fill you up for a day of shopping?) so he started begging me to make spaghetti at about 4 pm because, "It's my birthday!"  I think he knew he could pull that card out all day and get whatever he wanted.

 

I was extremely grateful for our friends who reworked their schedules at the last minute to come celebrate with Luke.  We had cake and ice cream.  Luke couldn't blow out the candles. Then Luke asked when we were going to play games.  So we had a rousing game of Ring Around the Rosies, London Bridge, Pin the Tail on the Donkey (played by Luke) and Boo!

 I asked him what his favorite part of the day was he said, "When my friends came over and we ate cake and ice cream and played pin the tail on the donkey."