July 10th - 2, 4, 6, 8, Who Do We Appreciate?

How can it be a week later and I have not blogged about our sweet boys fantastic birthday? I have pictures (thanks to my awesome sister; I mailed my battery to her in AZ and she charged it and got it back to us on the eve of Jakey's b-day) but now I am paranoid to transfer any to the computer because I am convinced that it will suck all the battery and then I will be pictureless again. It's okay if you are thinking I am neurotic, it's true.

Our tradition for Jacob's birthday is to spend the day at the beach. We planned the food, did the shopping, and prep work*, baked the cake**, and were all ready to head out the next day. We all woke up ready to apply the sunscreen and head a couple minutes down the road to the beach when Sam and I realized it was looking mighty dark and gloomy outside. A quick check of the weather and we had to break it to our little man. There would be no beach due to thunderstorms on the way. Yuck. Luckily there was no rain falling yet and one of his presents was a croquet set so Sam set up a quick treasure hunt for present finding. After the great hunt we hurried outside to get some quick wacks of the mallet in before the downpour. We played croquet, ate great 'croquet picnic food', started on his other present, a 1000 piece puzzle (no, there is not an accidental zero or two in there) and of course ate cake and ice cream (homemade rocky road). Turns out the weather cleared up, not a drop of rain fell, and we could have gone to the beach after all. Beach or not it was a great day and quite possibly made even more great by the changing of plans. Jake is so easy going and able to make good out of any situation. He rarely gets upset about things not going his way. His birthday ended up fitting him perfectly. We love you Jakey Boo!

*prep work - When you buy a watermelon the size of a small zeppelin with the weight of an elephant calf who is the best person to carry it in from the van? Your 5 (2 days away from being 6) year old of course. How does this help you? He will drop it in the breezeway (mudroom) and say, "Mom I dropped the watermelon. It's nice and red and juicy and smells really sweet like it will taste really good." After you question your husbands choice in watermelon carriers and make it well known that you have way too much to do already and didn't need a watermelon crisis, also making sure to inform him that the sweet sticky juice is now his problem, you realize that not only is the tricky job of cutting the sucker in half already done for you, you'll also be way ahead of the game the next day when you really have way too much to do. Some sweet juicy watermelon for surprise dessert later and a big fat apology from psycho crazy mom, and there were red dripping smiles everywhere and lots of good beach sized watermelon chunks ready for some sand sprinkles. Dropped watermelons really are a blessing and counting to 10 before speaking really is better in practice than principle. I love the lessons I learn when I choose to see them.

**baked the cake - Jake chose blueberry crumb cake this year with spray whipped cream on top. I was doing my best imitation of the tazmanian devil whipping up the cake, making potato salad, prepping, and so on, when I realized that I needed lemon zest for the cake. No big deal, it was on the list and Sam was out shopping. I set that aside and continued my frenzy. Birthday food prep spilled over into dinner for the hungry mob and my friend was coming to pick me up for book club in, what!? a little over an hour. Yikes, where is Sam with the lemon for zesting? Finally the precious zest arrives and I am making dinner and throwing a cake together simultaneously while also managing to keep from stepping all over the four whinny starving children underfoot and grabbing at my pants. I serve them, leave cake finishing instructions for my dear husband, and run out the door with flour on my shirt and frenzy written all over my face. Whew, I made it. My birthday boy will have a cake, the double batch of potato salad is ready for the church picnic the day after the birthday, the beach food is ready to go, the requested homemade ice cream can be made later, and I don't need a straight jacket. Why then do I notice all those beautiful blueberries sitting on the counter, washed and ready to be put into a cake. Can it be? Did I really and truly forget to add the blueberries to the blueberry crumb cake? Yes in deed, I did. Luckily I have the sweetest boy on the planet who just happened to day, "That's okay Mom. Now we can eat some like you wouldn't let us all day long. Then tomorrow we can put them on top of our whipped cream. Life is sweet even when you forget the blueberries. But only because your sweetest ever birthday boy is able to remind you :)