A Simple Birthday

For us, birthdays are special family days.  We don't do a big party with lots of friends and too many gifts and an exhausted (and grumpy, in my case) mama.  But since we don't want the kids to feel deprived of a big friend party, we do give them a choice,  like this time, when I said to our little guy, "So....doyouwanttohavefriendsover OR!.. would you like to choose what we eat all day, what we do, where we go, and be the King of the Day?"  Clearly the latter is what I prefer.

Little Guy is a Smart Guy, so he selected to be the King of the Day, asking if he could have a friend day on a different day in the year.  Not a birthday party, with gifts for him, but a fun day with friends and a theme.  He's deciding on sports or electronic games or water, and he's trying to think of what season would be best.  I think I'll let him think all he wants, since it obviously means some work for me!

As King of the Day, he chose blueberry muffins and bacon for breakfast, a treasure hunt for (candy) gifts from our ballerina, an hour outside, then the rest of the morning playing X-Box,since it's normally forbidden on school mornings. 

After noon, we headed out for a Subway picnic at the Bay with a football and our kayaks...

It's incredibly relaxing out there in the Bay, the security of land close by, yet the freedom of water surrounding, and the beauty of the beach, trees, birds, sky, water.  I'm so glad our fella chose to be outdoors for his birthday. 

   

Yes, that's me, on the right.  I can't believe my man dared to touch my camera!   I'm kidding.  I saw him grab it, so I vainly took off my glasses, shoved them down my shirt, and tried my best to look like a pro kayaker.  Since I just admitted that to you, I'm left wondering why I bothered trying.  Our 13yo big fella is in the photo on the left.  It was taken just before he accidentally oared the pole and thus oared his nose.  Things like that make me giggle, which is not nice for a mama to do.  In a Mom of the Year moment, I yelled, "Race you!" while he was distracted with his sore nose...

I won.

We ended the day with brownies, "not cake," presents...

homemade pizza, a glow-necklace light show...

and then a Game Marathon, playing Grandson (a Rook card game) and Phase 10 for nearly two hours.  We never did get to Uno, thank God.  

Playing card games with 4 kids for 2 hours + a busy day outdoors = one exhausted mama and daddy. 

We crashed well before the kids did, but with contended hearts.  A simple birthday full of family memories is what we love.

How do you celebrate?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subscribe to Just Pure Lovely here

Send me a tweet! @JustPureLovely