Happy Birthday... everyone

Last year's cake... with candle holes, wax, and finger swipes.

May is a big birthday month in my life. My mom and sister share the same mid-May birthday (13th), one of my closest friends since 1st grade (24th), a great friend from college (8th), my best friend (11th), my cousin (12th), and most importantly: me (20th - shared with best friend's mom). What is it about August that causes so many people to get their baby-making on? I mean, presumably it's ridiculously hot everywhere so why is everyone trying to get all sweaty instead of holding still? All that sticky sexin'...

Nevermind. I don't want to talk about it.

This year my mom turned 65 and in honor of her birthday my dad wanted to throw her a surprise party.  I had offered to watch my sister's kids while she and her hubby celebrated her birthday, and so it was my job this past Saturday to get the kids to make a banner for the surprise party for my mom.

This is what happens when you take children to a brewery.
The 5 year old is hitting on a 2 year old. Madness.

But Saturday was my best friend's actual birthday and she was having a shindig at a brewery. So I took my sister's kids to the brewery (kids love local beer), fed them pizza and cupcakes, and then took them home and forced them to make a banner for Grandma. (Probably not the worst of sweat-shop conditions, but there was some yelling... but only because the 8 year old kept poking the 5 year old in the face with markers and the 10 year kept telling the other two to go get their jammies on and brush their teeth... Wait! Tony Danza?)

We were down to the wire on banner making, so I didn't really review it before chasing the kids to bed praying my sister wouldn't bust me for keeping them up so late. I took the banner with me when I left my sister's house on Saturday and didn't look at it again until my dad and I were hanging it up before the party. While we were decorating the letters, Isabelle, who is 8, kept asking me what Grandma liked. So I listed things... flowers, chocolate, cake, babies, puppies, her grandkids....

"This is a margarita." Yup... Grandma likes margaritas.
On the rocks, with salt... 100% her own design.

Since we had the party on a Monday, the day of her actual birthday, it was not an easy day to get 30+ people into a house while kicking the retired woman out of it so we could surprise her. With a few exceptions, we pulled it off and it was a delight.

I'd like to take credit for the "B" with lollipop flowers,
the "H" with chicken pox and the "D" which celebrates Colorado
and civil unions (don't tell my parents)

Birthday portrait from last year as drawn by my friend's
3 and 8 year olds. 

The last few years I've tried to be out of town for my own birthday so I can age away from the spotlight. Last year, for the dreaded 35, I hid with some friends in Chicago and was pampered with kiddie pools, beers, roller derby, and lots of hugs from kids.  This year it didn't work out to leave town, so this weekend I'll celebrate my stepping into the bucket called "late 30s"with some of my best girls, my family, and my cats... who will hopefully forget to throw up in the bed for at least this one day of the year.

And it's hard not to gush about the birth of a new May baby this afternoon. I don't want to steal any thunder as there haven't been Facebook announcements, but there's a new little boy in the world stealing my heart. I got the text and first pictures while taking a walk through the park this afternoon. It's awkward to cry at the park.

Happy Birthday, HJ. I promise to take you to a brewery/bar/winery as soon as someone is dumb enough to leave you alone with me. But you can't have booze until you're 21... or maybe 16... but you can have a cupcake... unless you're not eating solids yet and then you have to wait... but just as soon as I'm allowed to give you gluten, sugar, and dairy...  

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Update: My cousin's birthday is the 18th, not the 12th. You don't care, and she's not a reader, but I still had to set things right with the universe.