The Traveling Birthday Wagon

We did it.

We were able to fit three birthday celebrations into one weekend, and I’m spent.

February and June are our biggest birthday months (with June about to get even bigger.)  My brother’s girlfriend Sandy’s birthday is February 3^rd, followed by my friend Carrie’s birthday on the 7^th. My sister Crystal’s birthday is the 11^th and my friend Julie’s is on the 21^st.

 

Since we’re doing our annual Valentine’s Weekend Ski Trip this coming weekend, I realized I needed to fit the first three birthdays into one weekend.

 

I could’ve SWORN Sandy’s birthday was February 2^nd, so much so, that when she corrected me during my Feb 2^nd Birthday Call, I actually tried to convince her that she was wrong. I have it in my planner as February 2^nd, and that’s almost as good as an actual birth certificate in my book. Anyway, after debating back and forth for a few minutes, I finally conceded that yes, I was in fact wrong and, yes, her birthday was in fact the 3^rd. I changed the date in my planner and informed her she’d get another Birthday Call in 24 hours.

We took Sandy and Dan out Friday night for dinner. We went to this Mexican place up the street from our house, and as usual, we were the last to leave. After a couple presents, we came home and played cards until about 1 (and I was still able to make it to work the next morning for some OT! Yeah!) We had a really good time.

 

Saturday night we went to Wild Wings to hold a few tables for my friend Carrie’s birthday. She’d gone to the circus with her family and asked us to hold room for the late night crowd to show up and celebrate. We did our best with only four of us, and we got lucky because we were seated in the back next to a bunch of chairs, which we later used as people showed up.

We ended up leaving around midnight, and as we were leaving I hadn’t noticed before how out of place I actually looked. Everyone in their clubbing outfits, drinking beer, smoking and dancing erratically in front of the band.

Then there was me with my pregnant belly, walking every thirty minutes to the bathroom. But I like to think I held my own with my cute fuchsia and black striped tunic which showed off my cute belly, and my matching fuchsia patent leather peeptoes. So I just pretended the strange looks I got were because I’m totally rockin’ pregnancy and everybody’s jealous. J

I was super glad to come home, though, and put on my husband’s pajamas and my fuzzy slippers.  Sigh. The window of fashionable stiletto comfort is getting smaller by the day.

 

When my sibs and I were kids, we used to have these huge birthday parties at our house every year, all of our parents’ friends and their kids, and all the extended family would come. Mom would have a huge cake and amazing food, and there would be tons of presents piled up in the living room, waiting to be opened.

As we got older and moved out, birthdays were much smaller festivities, but still hosted by my mother at her house, the guests consisting of us four siblings and our significant others, and maybe a close friend or two. (Still a pretty sizable crowd, though!)

 

Since my mom has moved to Texas for a while, I took it upon myself to plan Crystal’s 20^th birthday dinner at our house this year.
I called her up last week to ask which day works best for her, and she actually tried to tell me she didn’t want to celebrate this year. “It’s not even a big one, and I don’t feel like celebrating,” she said. I replied, “Tough shit. This week or next Wednesday?”

She acquiesced and picked Sunday. A perfect fit and the third side of the Birthday Trifecta.

 

In a matter of five minutes, my adorable sister went from “Ho-hum, no birthday for me this year,” to “I would like for you to cook me meatloaf, mashed potatoes, fried okra, and green bean casserole. Oh! And I want confetti cake with chocolate icing, cake or cupcakes, you surprise me.”

 

I’d counted on seven people for dinner.  I made the most of my free time this weekend preparing the meal so I could just throw everything together Sunday. My brother Joe called an hour before dinner and said he would be making it to the party, along with a college buddy of his. When my sister and her best friend showed up, I saw they’ve brought an extra friend as well. Of course the more the merrier, but I start freaking out, because I only have enough food for 7 people. Thank God for 2 random containers of crescent rolls and more mashed potatoes. I made it work, but only after I cut the meatloaf into such small pieces it looked more like a pile of rustic meatballs, and informed everybody to be “conscious” that everybody gets some.  I felt like a bit of a jackass, but it worked, and with rave reviews to the Chef, thankyouverymuch! J

 

We sang Happy Birthday to Crystal and she blew out the candles on her confetti Cupcake Tree.

After opening presents and hanging out until after almost eleven last night, eight people left our house, and in their wake left two dishwasher loads of dishes, some empty beer cans and cupcake wrappers, and one very tired and happy puppy.

We wrapped up the crazy birthday-filled weekend and got ready to start another busy week.

I’m really proud of us for pulling it together. Done and done – onto the awesome ski trip on Thursday!!