Birthdays - every year!!

Why?  Why do they have to have birthdays every year?  They get older and it takes time to celebrate and I really don't like all the little kids in my house.  It's tiring.

However, in January we did celebrate two birthdays and are still not quite done celebrating.

Traditionally, the girls are each taken out for lunch to a restaurant of their choice with Yvon and I.  They are pulled out of school, get to return to school late (rarely can we drive, eat, and drive back in one hour) and they feel good and special.

That night I cook something of their choosing and we eat cake together. This part of the tradition is getting harder and harder.  So many days we have to rush out of the house right after supper, or we have lessons just before supper and I can't make what they want and we just can't do it on the exact birthday date.  

For Laura, her lunch date means choosing a restaurant with no consideration for peanut or soy allergies.  She can eat anything.  Yvon and I took her to a nice little Italian restaurant that was really quite grown up.  Alice chose her favourite all-day breakfast place.  Both were great and they like their special lunches.

The family dinner, on the other hand, was hard for both of them.  They both want veal cutlets, but the butcher we like coats his veal with wheat-y, soy-y breading.  We can't eat it.  Once I bought beef sliced thin that he swore the kids wouldn't notice was not actually veal and I breaded it myself.  They could tell.  I probably liked it better than the prebreaded stuff, but they like that soft texture of the tenderized veal.

Laura's birthday was so long ago that I can't remember what we ate now.  Alice chose meatloaf.  Really?  That's her special meal?  Oh well.  Who am I to complain about the easiness of that.  But we couldn't have it on her birthday.  We had it the night before because our friend was throwing a theme party right on Alice's big day and they didn't want to miss that.

The part I dread about birthdays are the actual parties though.  They are hard to schedule, hard to plan, and I don't like strange children that need my attention in my house.  Alice finally had her party on Friday night. 

Mugshots of the 4 detectives

She wanted a sleepover with a detective/spy theme.  Only three girls were invited and luckily only two could sleep over.  Beth did an awesome job creating a detective game, including clues hidden around the house, a book of suspect fingerprints and matching fingerprints on objects, footprints in the snow and the matching boots placed strategically, fake hair caught in a bush, etc. and messages and images sent to an ipod that the detectives carried around during their search.

Laura took their mugshots and was the official photographer during the party.

Kids are strange.  And when not normally, socially adjusted (like my children are, of course!), they say strange things.  Like:

Detectives get silly

"I love your house!  Want to know why I love your house?  It's big!"

Really?  At just over 1000 square feet, hardly big.

"And it's messy!  I hate my house.  It's too clean."

Thanks.  I just cleaned it for the party, although to be honest, I only cleaned the top level and they promptly ran to the basement to play.

"Alice, your room is gross!  Can I clean it?"  (same girl who hates her clean house and loves my messy one and then tries to make mine clean) 

"I touched my butt!  I have to wash my hands!"  

She washed her hands about 10 times in a few hours.  OCD?  But I am glad she washed her hands after touching her butt, if she did indeed touch her butt.  I doubt it.

"Do you have any towels?  I need to wash my hands."  

I had three towels in the bathroom.  Did she need a clean one after each time she went in there?  I don't know, but I was not catering to that.

And when she left, she HAD to show her mom Alice's room, saying she loved it, and sighed loudly as if to say "I wish I had a room like this".  And this was after declaring Alice's room was gross.  I don't get it. 

She made me exhausted just trying to keep her entertained and maybe trying to figure her out.   Alice, on the other hand, had a great time and was happy to have her friends there.  I'm glad there will never be another pre-10-year-old party in this house.

And now we have Laura's party to deal with.  May it be easier.