My inner bird

I found out recently that just a few months after I was born, another very special and influential set of characters also came into the world.

This week, Sesame Street celebrated its 40th birthday.

Just think, if I had been born a few years earlier, I might have missed the chance to spend my "nursery school" years with Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, The Count, Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch.

Who would have taught me to count? Where would I have learned my letters and numbers? I mean Discovery Toys wasn't even born until 10 years later!

Sesame Street was really the best thing on TV when I was a kid. What was the other choice back then? Mr. Rogers?

I kept hearing this week about an online quiz people were taking to find out the identity of the Sesame Street character they are most like. I always have a hard time with those types of quizzes. It's so hard to answer honestly vs. answering what you think you should answer and subconsciously trying not to answer a certain way because you KNOW it will mean you are Bert.

In the end, I was amazed at how accurate my description turned out to be:

You are Big Bird. You have a wonderful imagination and you are very creative. You sometimes can get too excited over new things, which often leads to you being disappointed when things don’t turn out like you planned. But you never stay down for long and always try again.



So, go take the quiz and then come back and tell me who you are. But most importantly, you have to give me your description, too! I really want to know. Please??

Oh... and that's what I'm thankful for today. Sesame Street. A time when kids could eat cookies like a monster without worrying about the ingredient list or whether they would get crumbs on the floor. A day when Bert and Ernie could share a bedroom, and no one read anything into it. A time when it was OK to be a grouch or a big, tall, geeky yellow bird.

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Lifelong friends

When I was pregnant the first time, a woman at my church introduced me to several other women who also were expecting their first child.

We all gave birth only a few weeks apart, and those were the women who became my support system. We had play dates. We went to the park and the zoo. We walked around the mall together. We met for lunch. We compared notes on diapers, breast feeding, baby food, first words and first steps.



Two of these ladies had little girls, and those girls became the first friends of my baby boy.

Over the years, we all had more children. Several of them also were born just weeks apart. The siblings became the first friends of the siblings.

Our lives went in different directions at times. At other times, we have veered back on to a common path.

Despite the gender difference, my son counts those girls as his lifelong friends. Of course, the girls have grown close in ways a little boy can never be part of. And he has made lots of boy friends with whom he spends more time.

But they are still the ones he wants around when something special happens, like his birthday this week.

From the photos, it might look like those little babies grew this much over NINE YEARS. Oh, no. Believe me. It happened in a BLINK!



My son loves that these are his "baby friends". He has known them his whole life.

Don’t you love those kind of friends?

The ones who have known you forever.

You can pick up right where you left off even if it’s been months or years.

They get you. You can tells stories about each other that no one else would understand.

You can feel completely at ease. You can be yourself. You don’t have to prove anything.

Today, I’m thankful for lifelong friends. For mine. And for those of my kids.

What are you thankful for today?

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It was golden

You already know how much I love a party with a theme and a color scheme.

So, when we realized that this year was my oldest son's Golden Birthday, I immediately kicked into party-planning mode to try to come up with the ultimate celebration. But alas... all of my Google searches for "golden" and "party" resulted in 50th anniversary party ideas.

We wanted something off the beaten path. My son hates loud, noisy places. Chuck E. Cheese, Enchanted Castle and even laser tag were out for him. Instead, here's what we came up with.

My boy loves the outdoors. But could we really plan an outdoor party the 7th of November? (His birthday was actually the 9th.)

Believe it or not, it was unseasonably warm the day he was born. And it has been remarkably warm the day of his party almost every year. But still, with this year's funky weather, it made me very nervous.

I tried to convince him we should move the party to October. Chances were much better of a nice day a month earlier. "No Mom, I have faith it's going to be a nice day," he said. (Turns out, it rained almost every weekend in October!)

We decided to check out a brand new nature center that opened a few months ago in the city where we live. Not only did the nature center have a nice meeting room, but it had an extensive array of trails behind it.

As soon as we started hiking, my son's creative mind took him to his favorite destination: Narnia. He told me his party would have to be in the "Golden Age" of Narnia.

"Great," I thought. "HOW will I pull that one off?"

Sure enough. There really was a Golden Age of Narnia. It was a time of peace after Edmund, Peter, Susan and Lucy became royalty in the land.

We sent out invitations with a Narnia picture and a gold background. Decorating was easy! I just bought lots of gold.



Our main activity was a search for gold and treasure in the land of Narnia.

I divided the kids into four teams of four. Each one was assigned an adult guide.



I gave each team a letter from "Aslan" explaining their assignment, a "map" of Narnia and 12 pictures of 12 locations where they would find hidden treasure. They were looking for spots like this:


and this:




Once they found one of the locations, they would find four brown paper bags.

They were labeled #1 in gold, #2 in silver, #3 in purple (amethyst) and #4 in green (jade). The team that arrived at that point first would take the first bag and so on, so that every team got a bag at each spot.

The bags contained candy or other prizes in matching colors. I filled them with junk... I mean treasures, like Rolo candy in gold wrappers, Hershey's kisses in silver, suckers in purple or green, gold compasses, mini recorders (like Mr. Tumnus's flute), coins and whatever else I could find.



The treasure hunt was definitely a challenge, but lots of fun.

After that, they played hide-and-go-seek for the birthday boy.



Then, reluctantly, we went inside for cake. I used my cake pan with the heart shape in the middle, which was filled with caramel ice cream. I just drizzled some caramel sauce on the top to give it a little "gold" and put some Narnia characters around the outside.



Oh, and the weather?

It was 73 degrees and sunny. The kids were running around in shorts and t-shirts.



We even went outside on the "rooftop garden" to open gifts.



So, for all of you who enjoyed the beautiful weekend, you can thank my son. We have been praying for months that he would have weather even HALF that nice for his golden day!

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Nine on the ninth of '09

Happy Birthday to the boy who made me who I am. A mom.

He loved me so much he didn't want to be born. He stayed in the womb an extra week, and then he still thought it was so warm and snuggly there that only an emergency C-section would bring him out.

Oh, but he was so cute. "The cutest baby in the world!" those closest to us would say.

He cried and cried that first year. He taught us about losing sleep and growing in patience. And yet, he always made up for it by being so sweet and sensitive.


How fitting that he is celebrating his Golden Birthday this year. It feels like the year that our whole life changed. It has been the most difficult, the most challenging and the most wonderful all at once.

Our firstborn is such a rock.

He listens and obeys.

He desires to do what is right.

He has an understanding of and curiosity about spiritual matters far beyond his years.

He is a loyal and loving friend.

His creative mind is amazing.

He is sweet and sensitive and caring.

He is responsible and courteous.

He challenges us to be better.

It's a big job to be the oldest. Last week, we were talking about the baby's arrival and he said, "Now, I'm going to have THREE to take care of!"



I'm so thankful for the day God gave me my firstborn. I have learned so much through that boy. He helped shape me into the mom I am today.

Without a doubt.

Golden.

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