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Dear Reader,
The older you get, the more people complain that it's harder to buy a birthday gift for you. Yes, it's true, and my grandson Paul, and I, have also discovered the older everybody in the family gets, the trickier it is to organize a birthday party activity, too. Even though Paul is only seven years old, he's a party planner like his grandmother, and we've been in party mode for two weeks now. Working on the details for a father and son birthday party this Sunday.
What party theme would we go with? When Paul mentioned the idea of bowling and taking our decorations and birthday cake to the bowling alley, we both lit up--we loved the idea! So we made a detailed list of decoration ideas, prizes, a menu, and what flavor cake we'd bake--even called the bowling alley to reserve some lanes. But when it was time to review the guest list, we realized only three family members would be able to throw a heavy bowling ball down the lane: Paul, his brother James, and Bailey (my 19-year-old granddaughter), who's coming this Saturday for a week-long visit. What's the story with the rest of our family?
Bad backs, pinched nerves, one is too young to bowl, and 96-year-old great-grandpa is too old to bowl. So back to brainstorming. But every idea we thought of fell flat: touring a dairy farm and then having a picnic on the farm (we loved the idea, but we discovered tours are closed during the hot summer months here in Florida), driving to Myaaka State Park and renting boats (but the canoes and the alligators that swim underneath them might be problematic for our age group, too). How about going fishing at the sea wall at the end of our block? But fishing there depends on what time of day high tide will be. So we settled on a fishing/boating decoration theme, but the party's going to be at Grandma's house (my house) and we came up with some fun, silly, crazy yard games that work around bad backs and ages, and we've made our own decorations.
The party's a father/son combination, because 36 years ago my son was born three days before my husband's birthday. I spent one day in the hospital, then packed up and headed home with a darling baby boy, and two days later I was mixing up my husband's favorite chocolate cake, and topping it off with birthday candles. (No need to blow out the candles, my husband's wish for that year had already come true.) I have a photo of my husband balancing our new baby boy in one hand, and balancing a homemade chocolate birthday cake in the other hand. It was the happiest I've ever seen him. A new son for his birthday and my luscious two layer chocolate cake. What more could a guy want?
So this Sunday's it's a big birthday party at Grandma's house! Then a week of vacation for me, so I can spend time with my granddaughter who only gets to visit once a year. But tune-in for my columns next week, I'm sharing some favorite summer recipes and the stories behind them.
Party if you can! Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
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