And we're done our Birthday marathon...yay!!!!

What a wonderful 2 weeks of being reminded of the amazing children I birthed 8, 6 and 3 years ago.

So, I had a mother-of-the-year moment this morning. I kind of forgot it was Evelyn's birthday. I came down, the girls were already up watching some t.v. (so that I can get a little extra sleep!!) and I started right into the morning routine - change Lucienne's diaper, get breakfast on the table, make lunches...when Evelyn asks very politely if she could please open one of her birthday gifts. Ahhhhhhhh!!! It's her birthday TODAY!!! Right, I actually did know that but looking back at the past three days that held three birthday parties for her I kind of forgot. I hope the next 5 minutes of complete exuberance and hugs and kisses and birthday dancing made up for my foggy morning forgetfulness.

So, this kid had 4 birthday parties and I'm not sure how to change that in years to come. It sure is handy when their birthday is actually on a weekend but when it's not it's hard to co-ordinate. On Friday she had a couple of friends over for "theatre a la Lalonde". We borrowed a projector from Mom's work and after collaborating with Uncle Adam finally managed to get a cinema sized movie projected onto a bedsheet hung from the ceiling. Amelia and her friends (invited because the "theatre a la Lalonde" from her birthday party the weekend before was a bust due to increment weather preventing Aunt Erica from bringing the projector up to Orangeville) made tickets and signs, coordinated seating and helped arrange the theatre. After my hours of frustration setting the movie part up (couldn't get anything to play on our laptop) it sure was nice having them here to take care of fun little details. We had pizza, chips, popcorn and juice...only one cup spilled which is a pretty amazing feat considering the audience.

I must say, I loved having parties for the girls this year that involved them only inviting 2 friends. In the past we've done the invite-all-the-girls-in-your-class kind of parties and it's 2 hours of stress and mayhem. It's over in a blur, nobody got to play with the presents (of which there are way too many) and I'm exhausted at the end. Two friends meant two presents (reasonable), they stayed for 4 hours, opened the gifts first so they could play with them and ran around having fun, entertaining themselves. I loved it! Originally we were going to take them to the movies but nothing is playing for kids right now except a re-release of Beauty and the Beast in 3D which neither of the girls had any interest in going. I'm kind of glad we did it at home anyway. It was more relaxed, we could pause the movie for pee breaks and they could move around to stay comfortable.

Next came the King family birthday party on Saturday and the Lalonde Sr birthday party on Sunday. Then, her real birthday party on Monday. If forgetting in the morning wasn't bad enough, apparently the dinner I made in the evening was worse. I thought she liked ham and yams but she does not. Usually I let them pick their birthday meal but she had already picked Friday's and Saturday's so I just did something that I like and thought she liked. Strawberry shortcake for dessert because we're all a bit caked out and she only ate the strawberries because she doesn't like whipped cream (crazy, I know!) or sponge cake. So, in summary, she had bread with butter and strawberries for her birthday dinner. I can't force a kid to eat the "good" stuff on her birthday!!

And her gift...Rene took the initiative this year and bought the girls' gifts. For Amelia it was a remote control helicopter which she LOVED! Audree was a Barbie and doll stroller which she also LOVED! And Evelyn was a remote control car that could go up to speeds of 30km/hr and was for ages 12+. I didn't realize this until wrapping the gifts Monday afternoon so when Rene got home I suggested he quickly go to WalMart before dinner and pick up a more age appropriate car (the gift idea itself was great, just not the actual gift) with the goal of going to the gym at the chapel after dinner and everyone could play with their toy (the 12+ car now being Rene's...which might have been his plan in the first place). He was going to take Amelia with him (to buy a replacement helicopter with her birthday money as she devastatingly flew hers into the woodstove and melted off a propeller), then Evelyn wanted to go, then Audree wanted to go. He decided that if Evelyn came she could pick what car she wanted and what's one more so Audree went too. Evelyn came back with a stuffed horse, Audree came back with a remote control car and I've now added WalMart to the list of places Rene should not go unsupervised (Home Depot and Canadian Tire already being on the list).

After dinner they went to have a blast at the chapel and I stayed home to put Lucienne to bed. I was upstairs when they came home and could hear the girls chatting excitingly while taking off their coats when Audree says "Oh no, Mommy's going to kill Daddy". She was genuinely worried. In my mind I'm thinking fender bender, speeding ticket or injury. She comes slowing into my room and asks with her sweet little Audree voice and big blinking eyes, "Are you going to kill Daddy?". I told her I didn't think so but needed to clarify with Amelia and Evelyn who were coming up the stairs. Bracing for the worst I asked how the night was and they ask, "Are you mad for us being so late?" (it was only 8:45ish). Apparently Rene didn't realize it was so late until they were in the car and said something like "I can't believe it's so late, Mommy's going to kill me." Note to self, three-year-olds take things very literally. I'm glad they had fun!! And I'm glad Rene didn't get a speeding ticket racing back home.

So, we're done until May (March if you count Grandma but I don't have to do too much planning for that!). I might re-wrap the car for Rene...or maybe just let him keep it for being such a great Dad to four beautiful girls!!