The 30 day countdown!

Someone is always having a birthday. It's true, every day it seems is someone's birthday.
As soon as you know it is someone's birthday, there must be an appropriate amount of excitement and jubiliant birthday wishes given to the birthday person. And then it is mandatory to ponder and dream what it must be like to have a birthday of your own. Because after all, it is always someone else's birthday and "never my birthday." Who was it that thought each person should have only one birthday? And that a birthday should only come once a year? Crazy!

The talk continues and it never stops. Even if the child just had a birthday it is now 363 days, 5 hours and 6 minutes away. They want to talk with you about their cake, what they want to do, possible gifts and who they want to invite!

For the really little ones they want you to know at any given moment how much longer till their next birthday. For a mom like me, it means my children are completely disappointed! I think I need to be that Mom of 18 and counting....cause I am just not super Mom and the Wizard of Oz. I have trouble remembering my children's names much less how old they are! I am a complete disappointment in the motherhood memory contest, because when it comes to remembering the birthday cake they talked to me about July 26th, 2004 and the birthday cake their best friend had when they were 6 on their birthday on Sept. 30, 1998, I completely frustrate them with my blank look and soft admission of, "I don't remember."

So my children would not spend the year disappointed and disillusioned by their memory challenged mother I invoked the 30 day rule! Each child can only discuss their birthday with me during the 30 days before their birthday. During this time, I faithfully take notes. I create a document on the computer. I try really hard to disguise the fact I lost a few memory cells with each pregnancy.

So with the pending arrival of birthday #40 since I became a mother, I grabbed my paper and pen and asked Flutter Nutter what he wanted for his 4th birthday.

Super Man Legos
Batman Legos
Indiana Jones ....(never quite understood...he was talking to fast for his momma)
1,no 2, no 4 parachutes (so he could jump out of an airplane)
Nintendo DS

and then we always discuss the cake,
Flutter Nutter was very descriptive, he knew what he wanted...
The cake had to be green and white striped... so with some food coloring and careful cutting of cakes we ended up with:

(of course when you are 3 turning 4 it is mandatory to reach out and pull pieces of cake off... Taste testing is critical at this age.)
to get a better perspective of the shade of green he chose (after two bottles of green food dye):
Inside look:

But they not only choose the cake, but the decorations...
After some intense shopping at the "Cake Store" and not being able to decide, I suggested we go buy a toy at the store to put on top. For the money he wanted to spend on cake decorations I thought an actual toy that could be played with would be the best option, so we ended up with a lego theme. I suprised the boys with my lego building skill and constructed Flutter Nutter's construction vehicle and placed it on top!
(I do get some of the final say about the icing decorating... )


Their smiles are worth everything!
Deep breathe, I now have 35 more days till I have to begin exercising my memory skills! Just long enough to get through the Christmas season!!