Ezra's Birthday

Ezra turned five at the end of September (when our computer was in the shop).

I didn't feel like we knew anybody here in Colorado well enough to invite him to his birthday party. (Although, Ezra did invite a little girl I didn't know. He told me she was coming to his party. I said to him, "But she doesn't even know where we live." And he says, "Mom, I gave her our cell phone number.") So, we just spent his birthday celebrating hard-core without having an *official* party for him. My mom was in town, she that made it kind of special as well.

He woke up at 6:00 am and opened up his presents right away.

Then, he had spaghetti for breakfast:

And Vernon brought out the cake that he made. Ezra looks to it in amazement that we could put such a thing together:

He wanted a "mountain-themed" cake, so that is what he got:

Vernon made it, and it tasted delicious. (Those carob chips on the one mountain represents a mountain in the distance. Just thought I'd clarify that in case you couldn't figure it out. That was my idea.)

So, that was all before 8:00 am. And, let me tell you, that is a good way to spend a birthday without an *official* party because then we didn't have to spend the rest of the day whining about when the party was going to start looking forward to the party.

Then we went to a local fun center and did some of this:

And this:

And we went out to eat at a pizza place that Ezra wanted to go to called DD's Pizza:

See how Ezra is looking up in that picture? He's staring at a TV showing Spongebob Squarepants. Vernon said something about how this is what our meal times would be like if we had TV and let them watch it. I said, "This is probably how most Americans spend their meal times, watching TV. I know I did." Then I look at my mom and say, "Right mom?"

And mom says, "I wouldn't know. I was never home." (It's true... I made myself Spaghettios or Pizza Rolls every night and sat in front of the TV... all alone.)

And we all laughed. Gotta love my family and our sense of humor.

We also let Ezra pick out a movie from the library that he could watch on his birthday. He picked this completely inane live-action Thomas movie. It starred Alec Baldwin, but even he couldn't redeem that piece of cinematic crap. (Ezra, however, found it incredibly enjoyable.)

I think we do a good job of making our kids feel special on their birthday. It's probably because we deprive them the rest of the year. We don't go out to eat that often. We don't take them to fun centers. We don't make cakes. We don't let them watch movies. (Although, for some reason, I feel completely okay with letting them watch videos like this on youtube as well as Matt and Kim videos on occasion, so go figure.)

So, we try to go all-out for their birthdays, even though we can't always have an *official* party. I think we did alright.