Sunday, May 17, 2009

birthday extravaganza

amalio's not really a big birthday celebrator. he's gotten better since samil was born considering it's now not just neglecting a birthday but rather neglecting his fatherly duties to take the kid to buy a present and make mom feel loved. on wednesday i got ice cream and a beautiful orchid. neither of which samil wanted to give up.

i decided though, to do something a bit bigger for amalio's birthday and planned a little secret dinner for him. we had lasagna, mashed potatoes and pasta salad, vanilla cake AND chocolate cake. (but let's be honest, that chocolate cake was for me). i secretly invited some of his friends (and three of mine) and we had a delightful time. my cooking didn't make anyone sick and the guys played cards and drank beer.

today we went to the river. it was a little tricky getting there since we decided to cook lunch at the river, so we had to carry the big pots, five pounds of rice, three pounds of chicken, five gallon bottle of water.... cooler, you get it. but we got there. samil was so tired he couldn't stand up, but didn't want to sleep and the place was filled with fearless teenage boys throwing themselves off of cliffs. eventually we got samil to nap and watched the show of jungle book boys jumping off the rocks. it was like the perfect sunday afternoon with family and friends, relaxing at the river, swimming, cooking and sharing and hanging out.

amalio told me he had never celebrated his birthday so intentionally and that he loved it. i'm glad. because i hate entertaining and i'm really in no position to be balancing on rocks in the middle of crazy rivers. but it was wonderful. and i feel like samil is going to grow up knowing that birthdays are special because we are special. and each year we get it worth celebrating.

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