Birthdays at our house

Children's birthdays
Isn't it amazing how much goes into celebrating birthdays? My middle child just turned 10 yesterday. We try to make the day special by letting the birthday child choose the meals, the activities, and the plan of the day. She chose egg, sausage and cheese bagles for breakfast. Then we went to a movie (we bought a summer movie package at the beginning of the summer), and saw "Horton Hears a Who". We ran to the store to buy milk - we were 100% out - took the boys home, and went to get pedicures. We had hear of a place that only charges $10 because it is a school, so we went, only to find out that they are remodeling this week (of course) and not doing nails. We ended up at Wal-Mart, paid a lot more, and only Tiffy got the whole foot treatment. The toenails look cute though :-) Then we dashed home to work on the chosen dinner, which was stuffed cheese shells. It wasn't finished by the time Nate got home, so we tossed it the fridge so we could get to Jump on It for our activity. That was Tiff's choice of outings for her day. It is a building filled with connected trampolines. On Monday nights there is a family deal of $20 per immediate family, which is way better than the normal rate. Der gets migraines, and got a fierce one right before we walked out the door. He is only 6. He was crying, pressing his head into the couch, and looked pastey. We gave him some medicine and water, and brought him along. He threw up about 5 minutes before we got to the building. Usually that makes him feel better, and, sure enough, within 20 minutes he was jumping around the trampolines with everyone else. We all got sweaty and tired, and Nate caught his foot on something and ripped a quarter size chunk of skin off the ball of his foot - and he was wearing socks! In spite of the drama, it was great fun! We came home and ate dinner, talked the "bests" of the day over, and Tiffy felt that her birthday was a great success! I forgot my camera (typical for me), but my mom came and took pictures. I will add some as soon as she sends them along.With 5 children we have adopted the rule of party years. Friend parties happen on ages 5, 8, and 12. The other years are family activities. It works well except the years that the birthdays align - my oldest turned 12, my third turned 8, and my fourth turned 5 one year. So much for spreading out the parties!! :-)