Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
1 Corinthians 3:17

Monday, August 8, 2011

Sweltering Birthdays

There is a running joke in our family about thunderstorms and Ethan's birthday parties. And melting cakes.

Yesterday we didn't get the storms, but we sure got cake melt! This poor cake didn't stand a chance! Ethan had requested a homemade ice cream cake without any frosting (what? that's not normal, is it?  ha ha). Hmm. I had to think about that one. I finally came up with an idea...he likes the cream cheese/sour cream garnish I use on my cheesecakes, so how about that?

He agreed. Things were looking good until I accidentally plopped in one too many dollops of sour cream and then couldn't get the consistency back to where I needed it. Soooooooo...cake melt. Big time. For that matter, Mom melt, too!
see the pools of frosting on the plate???
this was not exactly how I'd planned to decorate it...

I picked up these two frosting colors that day at the ol' HL with my Mom, and Ethan said they were just what he'd imagined. He really liked the candles I got him, too- the flames were the color of the candles, so cool!- and yup, HL to the rescue again! And he was pretty pleased when we hacked into that poor thing to reveal the cookies n' cream ice cream in the "dome" center. He knew things hadn't exactly cooperated and he was so sweet by telling me how much he loved the cake and the "special" frosting. That's my boy! He is so thoughtful, and I really appreciate that about him.

I got a little choked up when I thought at some point yesterday that this might be our last birthday we celebrate in this house, in this state even. We'll see what happens I guess. I'm thankful for family who live close and come to celebrate with us, but I feel a little guilty for not extending an invitation to some other family members who seem to only acknowledge one or two of the kids' birthdays, and sporadically at that. It isn't that I didn't want them here, it's just that it gets so hard to explain to the sad faces why they might not have gotten a card or a gift when their sibling usually does.

Life and relationships can be so hard. I don't know why I thought growing up would mean that things are so much easier and you always know exactly what to do. Maybe we all think that.

I know that's what my 12-year-old thinks, just like I did.

The guest of honor opening up some gifts...
Uncle Rory carved him a walking stick- very cool!
He and Aunt Kristen also gave Ethan a survival book for kids...last night I was excitedly shown pictures of various animal scat to see if I could identify them....oh, now that's some serious FUN!

When we were at the restaurant on Saturday (his actual birthday), I returned to the table to see this...
Ethan had taken Isabelle's little hand and was praying with her over the food. Forget melting cakes...that melted my whole heart! We jumped in the pool after lunch and then went straight home so I could prepare our birthday feast. Everything was good until we got a frenzied call from Bill in Philadelphia. When he should have already been in the air headed home....

I'm working real hard on learning to graciously accept Plan B (& C & D) as the new and improved plan. Real hard! :)

And later that night we picked up Bill from the airport!  Yay! Of course we had to stop by the restaurant on the way, since I realized I'd left my camera bag hanging on the back of my chair. GASP! I think I stopped breathing for a moment or two. No kidding! The lady there kept trying to get me to take a blue hat with it, no matter how much I insisted that it wasn't mine- "I just want my camera, please!" I finally walked outta there with my baby and without some random blue hat.

Ethan also may have been found letting his sister style his hair.
The hair.
The hair he swings and shakes and combs just so...
The boy does have great hair, unlike me, and his Dad, ha!
Ha Ha Ha! Everything about this just cracks me up!

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