The Banana is Six!

I spent The Banana’s birthday eve scrounging around and scouring every nook and cranny of the house until 3:00 A.M. looking for her birthday tablecloth, which I never did manage to locate even though I am certain I saw it in its regular resting place at Mr. Trouble on Feet’s birthday.  I was very happy that all kidlets decided to sleep in until past 8:00 on the morning of The Banana’s birthday.  We began the day with a little drama about the balloons that I had strung from her doorway.  (A certain little someone really liked the balloons and a certain birthday girl was not so thrilled about him liking them quite so much).  After settling that, everyone climbed in the bathtub for a breakfast of zucchini muffins, at The Banana’s request.  

As all birthday breakfasts around here seem to go, there was drama regarding who was sitting where, and a multitude of various other matters throughout the day.  It’s hard to not be the person actually having a birthday.

There was a mad dash downstairs to open presents, which included a few toys, light up shoelaces, jewelry, chocolate LEGO guys made by Mr. SP,  several books, an umbrella and a venus fly trap.  (Great fun has been had catching various bugs to feed the venus fly trap . . . it has been a big hit).  YaYa made The Banana the cutest set of play food that is the perfect size to use with her American Girl doll, along with special necklaces, books and a paper laptop computer to use with her doll.  The Banana also received the coveted envelope of birthday coupons for things like extra computer time and a shoe shopping trip and other exiting experiences.  This has become a highly anticipated part of birthday celebrations around here.

After the frenzy of flying wrapping paper, The Banana got dressed in her new birthday shirt and went upstairs to make a card for her friend Esther, who ironically shares the same birthday and was born in the same hospital in Wisconsin that The Banana arrived in.  Esther was celebrating her birthday with a wonderful girlie party, and invited The Banana.  The theme was “salon” and they spent several hours getting pedicures, having their hair done, and getting pampered at Esther’s house.  The Banana thoroughly enjoyed herself.  What a wonderfully exciting way to spend the morning on your birthday.

One of my favorite birthday traditions that we recently started is to give each kid a monetary amount to choose to spend from the World Vision or Samaritan’s Purse gift catalog to help kids and families across the world that are caught in poverty.  The kidlets absolutely POUR over the catalog deciding what they want to give with the money.  I love how happy it makes them, and I love that it helps make their birthday not all about what gifts they have gotten.

After a teensy afternoon rest, we were off to the big, highly anticipated event of the day:  a trip to the Timber Twister alpine roller coaster.  The Banana has had plans for this activity for months!  We tried out the new zipline first.  The Banana and I rode down and up, followed by Mr. SP and YaYa.

Then we ran, not walked, over to the alpine roller coaster.  We’ve been on the coaster before, but really, it never gets less thrilling.  This year Mr. SP was able to drive his own car, which he was very excited about.  The Banana went twice, first with Dr. Peds and then with me.  She said we were both equally fun in different ways.  I cannot help but to be a screamer on a ride like that, which the kidlets think is pretty amusing.  We decided that the zipline was fun, but the coaster was much better because it’s longer and more exciting.  

Unfortunately we had to wake up Mr. Trouble on Feet from his normally very lengthy afternoon nap to visit the timber twister.  This resulted in a more drama.  The toddler in residence was less than thrilled at being awake, and even less thrilled that he couldn’t participate, and still even less thrilled when it was time to buckle back into his carseat and leave.  Added to the incessant squabbling from the other kidlets and an almost disastrously flat tire, it was a bit chaotic and noisy in the car, but we made it through.

To get out some energy, we stopped to run around at a park and then arrived home to make the birthday supper.  The menu chosen by The Banana was:  green beans, strawberries and blueberries mixed together, and boxed macaroni and cheese (a very special treat around here).  We also cooked hamburgers on the grill.

There was just a bit of time to play with the new birthday toys from Grandma Robbie before our neighbors from up the hill came over for cake.

The Banana knows how to pick a great birthday cake!  She choose chocolate fudge cake with “crunchy” frosting, and I had a lot of fun making it.  And eating it!  The cake was served with vanilla and black cherry ice cream, and after eating all that sugar, the kidlets and their friends had a wonderful time running around with a few glowsticks I found as the sun went down.

Unfortunately, though, one of our neighbor kids accidentally cracked their glowstick too far and ended up with glowstick juice in her eyes, which resulted in an eyewashing emergency.  Thank goodness for Dr. Peds, who as usual knew just what to do and remained very calm even though I was not feeling very calm, and neither was her mother, I think.  After a few douses in the kitchen sink and some saline drops, the situation was back in control mostly.  There’s nothing like a dramatic ending to a busy day!

After the kidlets climbed into bed I fell asleep on the couch.