Birthdays

I just finished designing the invitation for Sylvie's birthday party next month.  "Design" is probably an overstatement.  Syl loves Brown Bear, Brown Bear, so we're doing an Eric Carle theme.  For the invitation, I scanned some Brown Bear fabric and sort of took it from there, no doubt violating many copyrights along the way.  (Hi, Eric Carle's attorneys!  We're super big fans!)  I had the fabric because I'm making her a reversible Brown Bear pinafore that she can wear at the party.  Because, like I always say, if you're going to have a theme, have a theme.

A birthday party is probably overkill for a two-year-old, but we had one for Adam's second birthday, so it doesn't seem fair to deny poor second-born, baby book-less Syl the pleasure of her own.  Plus, Sylvie loves birthday parties.  Just loves them.  Every time she attends one (most of Adam's friends are still at the age where birthday parties are a whole family affair), she runs around singing "Happy day to you!" and babbles about the "happy day cake."  She loves parties, and I can't deny the girl a birthday party.  Plus, I like throwing parties.  Themes!

Chris's birthday was last week.  Sylvie was mainly excited about singing "Happy day to you!" but Adam was beside himself with the surprises we'd planned.  He is into celebrating holidays, and January and February have a boatload: MLK Day, Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day, Mardi Gras, George Washington's birthday...  So Adam was beside himself about Chris's birthday falling in the middle of the holiday frenzy.  

In the past, I've always ordered barbecue from different parts of the country for Chris's birthday dinner.  We've had Memphis, Austin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kansas City, and two kinds of Georgia barbecue, but this year Adam wanted to pick a restaurant for the birthday dinner.  He went with his favorite: Buffalo*!  Because eating out on a weeknight is always fraught, we needed Chris to meet us at the mall, but Adam did not want Chris to know where we were going.  I told him that we'd tell Chris we were going to Chick-fil-A (which is probably Adam's second-favorite restaurant), but then we'd surprise him with Buffalo.  We parked the car and were walking to the mall entrance and I asked Adam how he was going to let Chris know we weren't going to CFA.  

I asked, "So, you'll run up and say, 'Surprise! We're really going to Buffalo!', right?" Adam was aghast.

"NO! That would ruin the surprise! I will tell him to close his eyes and then we will walk him to Buffalo and walk in and say, 'Surprise! We're at Buffalo!'"

A subtle difference, indeed.

So, Chris turned 39, complete with pie, ice cream, presents, and a big surprise for dinner.

*Buffalo = Ted's Montana Grill.  Adam has always called it Buffalo because, at least at the one we visit, there's a big stuffed buffalo head on the wall.

Comments

[Hannah]

We went to a great Eric Carle-birthday party where the cake was shaped like the Very Hungry Caterpillar and served on a platter surrounded by one apple, two pears, etc. It was brilliant but I recommend having extra strawberries- the birthday girl ate them off the platter before the presentation.