Happy Birthday to...

Me!!

Today's my birthday. It was pretty nice. We spent the day with the hubby's family. We actually had a pretty busy weekend.

I know I posted a couple of weeks (almost) ago about J.'s birthday. We had his birthday party yesterday. He chose to have it at the roller skating center, and I have to say that it was awesome! First of all, the staff there handle everything about the party. Yes, that's the case with a lot of places around here that do kids' birthday parties. But there is one thing that made this even better. With all the birthday parties that I've done for my kids over the years (parties at the bowling alley in Germany, and even Chuck E. Cheese since we got back), the biggest issue has been keeping up with all the kids. It's not easy trying to keep almost a dozen 6 year-olds together to bowl and then to have cake and open presents. They get pretty bored. Even at Chuck E. Cheese for A.'s birthday party, I had to make sure to keep up with them in the game area. Older kids have a tendency to try to take advantage of little ones if there's not an adult close by.

It was different at the skating center though. First all the kids got to skate for a while, then "Roller Roo" came out and each child celebrating his/her birthday was recognized individually and got a balloon and a hug from him. Then they all got to skate with Roller Roo to a Happy Birthday song. Then the guests were called to one of four party "rooms" for cake and presents. A staff member ran the party, and took care of clean-up afterwards. Then the kids got to spend the rest of the time skating. We had a total of two hours. I debated whether to skate or not - I used to love to go skating when I was a kid. I decided to go ahead and skate, and I'm so glad I did. I had about as much fun as the kids did, and J. thought it was pretty cool that Mommy skated with him. I've decided that I'm going to have to take them more often.

My mom and sister, as well as P.'s parents came to the party. They also brought me birthday presents, although I didn't intend for it to be a party for me too. My mom and my sister got me scrubs to wear to work, which I really needed. That's what I love about this job - scrubs are so comfy! P.'s parents gave me a Satin Hands set from Mary Kay. I really needed that too. I haven't gotten anything from P. and the kids yet, but he asked me yesterday what I wanted, so maybe there's hope yet. He's not really good about planning ahead for these things, and he likes to say it's my fault because I manage the money and he can't surprise me...lol. Oh well. Some things will never change.

I mentioned earlier that we spent today with his parents. His dad was invited to be the guest speaker at the church he used to pastor when he was in Seminary, and he wanted us all to join him. The church was celebrating their homecoming - 183 years. Wow! P. was almost 4 years old when his family moved there and about 8 when they left. Everybody who knew him back then recognized him right away though. Their family was well-loved when they were there, and it was a nice day.