BirthJay Celebration

Jay turned nine years old on Monday, May 21st. We started the birthJay celebrations the evening before, with a birthday Sunday family dinner. All of the local Whites came and we ate Jay's favorite mac and cheese, watermelon, and birthday cake on our front porch to accommodate everyone. It was a mild 70 degree golden sunshiny evening, and our front porch was at its best: shady and cool with a light breeze and a pleasant view. After dinner, the kids squealed and played on the trampoline and rope swing while the adults sat and talked on the porch. Soon we all put our shoes on and took a short stroll out back to show the cousins our favorite playground, aka the mini creek. It was one of those idyllic evenings that almost convinced me that sticking to the kids' bedtime was unimportant. 

Eventually we walked back to the house, the cousins went home, and the kids went to bed.

Before I went to bed, I printed Jay's birthday interview and wrapped his four gifts. Jay wrote a list of what he wanted for his birthday and it was such a simple cute list that we basically granted all of his birthday dreams:

•        black and rainbow clay
•       Five Kingdoms series
•        Magnus Chase books 1 and 2
•       Trials of Apollo book 3
•       a "no school for a day" ticket
•        a lego set that has a boat

My definition of gift wrapping has come a long way in the past nine years of Jay's life. This time I used two gift bags with the tops taped together (no tissue paper) and rolled the other two items in tissue paper with one piece of tape to secure the seam. Simplicity is so relaxing. 

On May 21st, we were all up and raring to start the birthday off right with presents at 6:30am. Jay was initially slightly underwhelmed at sight of four small parcels tucked amidst the birthday balloons on the kitchen table, but when he opened the last one and saw a Kindle Paperwhite stocked with his favorite books, it all came together. He loves it! I was inordinately excited to give my book-loving son the freedom of a Kindle portable library. When I asked Jay what his favorite part of his birthday was, he said "my Kindle!" He didn't ask for a Kindle specifically, but since most of his list consisted of books, I ran with the idea. We don't normally do such big birthday gifts, but there's an exception to every rule, and books are always a worthy cause.

Full disclosure: for Jay's Kindle, I pulled the classic parental-upgrade pass-along move. During an Amazon sale a few months before Jay's birthday, I purchased myself a new Kindle and converted my old one into Jay's birthday gift. Since Amazon has only made minor updates to the Kindle Paperwhite over the past five years, our Kindles are nearly identical. For three months before Jay's birthday, I dedicated a portion of our budget to stocking Jay's Kindle with his favorite books. Thankfully I already owned a good number of Jay-worthy books, so I "only" had to buy 45 Kindle books. Thank goodness for Kindle bundle deals! I had too much fun setting all of this up. It was hard at first, paying brand-new prices for books that we already had purchased cheap/used in paperback. Thankfully I got over that hesitation quickly because if there's one area that extravagance suits me, it's with book-buying. 

Instead of a dangerous carte-blanche ticket for any day off of school, the coupon I made had a specific date: May 21st, 2018. Jeff took the day off of work to adequately celebrate Jay's birthday, and it was so much fun to spend an entire day all together! (especially after the lengthy hours Jeff put in during track season)

After I ran, showered, and prepped us a picnic, (as another birthday extravagance, Jay got to play Legend of Zelda in the morning while I was busy), we left for the Twin Sisters at 10am on Jay's birthday. It was about an 80 minute drive from our house, and Jay lounged in the back seat with a pillow and blanket reading on his new Kindle the whole time, relishing the ease of having 78 books all in the palm of his hand.

We ended up eating our lunch while we drove, so we were ready to explore when we arrived at the Twin Sisters (peanut butter, picnics, and sand do not usually go together comfortably--car picnics all the way). I made sure to spray everyone with sunscreen before we embarked, and nobody got sunburned. I felt so responsible. Jay walked up front on the short trail to the sand, and by the time I arrived, his shoes were off and he was digging happily in the sand. We spent a pleasant almost-2-hours exploring and playing in the sand. Jeff, Amber, and I went up to a viewpoint way above the bowl-shaped valley of sand and it was beautiful! I stepped on a fire anthill on accident while we were up there, and about a dozen ants got into my left sandal and bit me all over. They are called fire ants for a reason. My foot was burning for hours afterwards!

On our way home, we stopped for McDonald's ice cream sundaes. Ice cream is the kids' favorite treat, and it rounded off our fun birthday outing nicely. Back at home, the kids played computer and Wii for a nice quiet afternoon. We had a family movie night eating Jay's requested Domino's pizza on the couch together, watching two episodes of Merlin. It was a very Jay style day. Icing on the cake happened when Jay's friend from next door came knocking at 7:15pm and Jay went out to play for an hour before bed. (This month we gave Jay permission to play with neighbor friends till 8pm any night they are available. He loves the freedom.) Jay said "Ian coming over was the best way to finish my birthday!"

After Jay went to bed on his birthday, I scrolled through baby pictures of my sweet little Jay and lost myself in motherly achy nostalgia for an hour before shaking myself, accepting the passage of time, and heading to bed with a book. I love my Jay.

Sunday night family birthday cake: when I carried the cake outside, half of the candles went out in the breeze! I tried to protect the rest of the flames while Jay blew them out.

Almost everyone, enjoying cake on the porch.

 One last bedtime snuggle before Jay turned 9.

Late night birthday decorating and gift wrapping.

Unwrapping the no school coupon. Jay already knew we were letting him skip school on his birthday, but he appreciated my handmade coupon.

THE TWIN SISTERS: captions first, then pictures

Jay is waaay up on the horizon, making the short hike up and over to the sand, dodging the hundreds of fire ants that appeared there this year. Eeek!

Sun, sand, sagebrush, and basalt pillars.

Jeff and Jay both tried digging deep holes. We forgot to bring shovels, so their work was impressive.

We always make sure to fill the holes in when we're done digging.

I buried Rosie.

Jay declared it "time for the traditional jump!" The kids took turns scaling this steep sand bank and jumping off.

Amber thought she was jumping so far as she slid down the sand.

The rapid fire setting on our camera is fast becoming indispensable.

The sky kept changing while we played. One minute we had cloud cover, the next full sunlight. The changing light did interesting things to what colors our camera picked up on the auto setting.

Amber was ready to explore further afield in the prickly undergrowth. Jeff and I went with her.

Jeff is good at following closely enough to keep Amber safe without dampening her thrill of adventuring.

So much color in such a dry prickly place!

The far side across from the basalt pillars was a very steep sandy climb.

Looking back on the sand pit. Jay and Rose chose to stay behind and play while we hiked. We could see and hear them the whole time due to the bowl shape of the area.

Jay called out that I was smaller than his fingernail, so I took a picture of me pinching him between my fingers.

Intrepid Amber, making the final climb--I had never gone this far UP in all of our previous visits to this place.

Zoomed out on the little Jeff-and-Amb specks.

There is something so honest about the exposed shape of the land without trees softening the edges.

Sitting at the "summit"

A view of the Twin Sisters from the highest point we could reach, with the good ole Columbia River in the background. 

Jeff is like a mountain goat. He hiked all the way back to the sand, down steep hills, over loose rocks and through sand and thorns with Amber on his shoulders without falling. I almost fell without a 40 pound child on my shoulders.

Jeff paused to look up treatment for fire ant bites because my foot and ankle were burning!! Not that I had packed any hydrocoritzone cream in our picnic, but still. 

Obligatory reluctant family picture. They will thank me someday. Maybe. 

I was surprised and pleased with how well our little pocket travel camera did in such bright sunlight--it automatically lightened people's faces instead of only focusing on face or background. This picture is straight from the camera, with zero touch-ups. The glare from the white sand reflecting up at us helped.

On our way back to the car, we detoured to scale the steep sides up to the base of the twin sister pillars. Jay dislikes heights and opted only to climb to the top of the first hill before heading back to the car.

Rose did a good job taking our picture, with Jeff and Amber and the pillars in the background. 

I have no clue how Jeff did this with Amber on his shoulders.

In between the two massive pillars, with the river to the right.

It was a big high view. The yellow line on the road below is barely visible at the bottom center of the picture. It gives our height some perspective.

We kept at least one hand clamped on Amber's forearm during this expedition.

The descent. Rose wanted to hold hands. I was not a very steady support for her--my footing is always so wobbly on rough terrain! Jeff ended up taking Amber to the base and then meeting Rose halfway down to help her down the steep dusty loose rocky hill.

LATER: BIRTHDAY PIZZA (and movie night)

We crammed all nine candles into one piece of cake since there was barely enough cake left after the previous day's big family gathering. This cake is easy and good: cake mix with sour cream and milk added, with a can of sweetened condensed milk and a jar of hot fudge sauce poured on top after baking, then cooled and frosted with whipped cream. It's really the only birthday cake I can make that tastes good.

A close-up on Jay's birthday interview.

We sure love our intelligent, clever, witty, kind, sweet, helpful Jay!

Sniff.