July/August is, I think, one of my busiest months of the year. I have the honor (maybe responsibility is a better word) of celebrating three birthdays in a row. First comes my husbands, 8-days later my youngest son’s, and the 8-days after that, my eldest son’s birthday. Planning isn’t my strongest point. I am embarrassed to say that every year their birthdays sneak up on me.

My husband and I went shopping for a new television just days before his birthday. We had in our minds that we would look at 40″-42″ LCD flatscreens… That was all we had budget for… However, my husband being a techno geek kept perusing all the flatscreens… finally getting to the 46″ LCDs… The more time we lingered, the more he decided for himself that he really liked the 46″ screen. The sales rep even showed us how we could get a “special” deal with that particular model screen plus a Blu-ray dvd player… AND that nice shiny PlayStation 3 game sole too.

Oh heck! Who am I fooling? I wanted it just as badly as he did! We kept looking at each other trying to see who was going to be the family safety net. You know, the one between the two who actually has a brain that says, “Honey, we just don’t have the money!” Yeah. Well, we both played “devil’s advocate” very well. I finally looked at my husband and said, “Happy Birthday, Honey!” and “Merry Christmas!”

We came home that night with a 46″ flatscreen, Blu-ray DVD player, and a bundled PlayStation 3. We set up the TV that night and the following morning, I became impatient. You see we got the game console for our boys whose birthdays were coming up in a short time. So that morning, we called the boys upstairs and we were very serious… like they were in trouble… *grin* I said, “Boys, we got you a ‘together’ gift this year. It is the only gift you’ll get from us this year, except for going out to dinner, but you have to find it.” So they began their treasure hunt.

Of course, my oldest son went right for the closet… DUH! What parent doesn’t hide gifts in their closet? So, they find the game console and all the controllers, cords, etc. I sat waiting to hear their response because I know that what they really wanted was a XBox 360… but my husband is NOT a Microsoft person. He is UNIX/Linux all the way. We also didn’t like that Microsoft charges for online game play whereas Sony doesn’t. The sales rep there also told us that there are other problems with XBox 360 that he experienced too… so with all this our decision was made.

When our boys found their treasure, they realized they didn’t care that it was a PS3. All they saw were the games in the bundle and that did if for them.

I say all this to share the grand finale of this weekend. We invited cousins and friends over for swimming, cake, ice cream, and gaming. It was a lot of fun, well, if you like 102 degree heat.

When my oldest turned 13 a couple years ago,  he requested that for his birthday he be allowed to stay up all night and not have to go to bed. So, we told him that would be fine… Well, this is the year for our youngest. He turned 13 and he had the same request. So, we allowed them both to have friends over for an over-nighter and they would be allowed to stay up all night. There were only 2 rules. 1.) Don’t leave the house and 2.)Don’t wake the adults. Break either of those rules and to bed you go.

Of course, as “mom” I can hear most everything while I sleep. If my kids make a noise, I am up… I woke several times hearing footsteps going up and down the stairs. I heard whispers… But, I could tell they were really trying to be quiet. They were determined to stay up all night.

We woke at about 10 am this morning to find my youngest in his bed fast asleep. My oldest was alone downstairs still gaming and their friends had already gone home. (They live next door.) Apparently both my children felt that 10 am was good enough and they were going to “nap.” Of course, I was so tired… I don’t think I slept too well.

Now, birthdays are done… (well, one more is on its way, but we’ve done the celebrating). I have held to my word and only bought the one gift for the both of them. I am proud of myself there. However, we did take all our old PlayStation 2 games, console, controllers, cables, etc to a game store and traded it all in for store credit. Now our boys have $139 of store credit that they are using toward new games for their new ‘toy.’

It’s sad really… My mother, my cousin, my brother, all of them plan out birthdays to the enth degree… they even take pictures and make it all so very fun… but me, I don’t think I got to that end of the gene pool.

Well, I do hope all three of my ‘men’ had a fabulous birthday even though I am not a party planner.

– More later

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