Too Much Birthday?

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When I was a kid, my birthday was my special day. No one else in the family had a September birthday.  Since it fell on, or the day after, the first day of school, my parents tried to make it very special for me.  I had a birthday party at McDonald's once (this is like 1984), I had a party at Showbiz Pizza and one at Chuck E. Cheese, naturally.  When I turned 16, my parents took me and 16 of my girlfriends to a Mongolian Bar-B-Que and then back to the house.  There was cake, ice cream and presents (my first VS bra, thanks Daphne!). 

Chronologically, the girls are two years apart in age.  On the calendar, however, their birthdays are a mere two weeks apart.  Throw in indulgent grandparents, excited aunties and uncles, and loving parents -- there's a whole lot of celebrating going on.

This year just as in the years past, there have been multiple celebrations between August 23rd (Morgan) and September 8th (me and Coever).  Gone are the days of getting fêted on your birthday. We're celebrating the day of, the day after, the day before your sister's and the day after that because we can't all coordinate to celebrate on the actual day. Cards and gifts come trickling in from August 20th through September 12th.

One gift has become three, five or more.  Mo wants to know what Co has.  I'm doling out cake ballz for breakfast and trying to to say "yes" instead of "no" because, Hey, it's her birthday!  Co is asking for a 7 layer cake and some gold foil covered chocolate coins.  Mo is digging into a gift bag and wondering where is her makeup and some earrings. Co requests pizza for her special birthday dinner, with a side of sushi for Mo.  My phone is ringing with well-wishers and it's not even 7:15 in the morning.

A couple of years ago, I decided that to get things under control, we're saving the big, pony-ride-bounce-house-face-painters-limo-ride type celebrations for milestone numbers like 5, 10, 16, and 21.  Morgan tried to work 18 in there, but I may still be recovering from her 16th birthday bash if I know how my daughter operates.  Her ideal party, for any occasion, think MTV's My Super Sweet 16 minus the bratty, whiny, snotty kids.  Just big location, big to-do, big dresses (she does love a costume change).  Blessedly, I've got many a year before I even need to start thinking about that.  Then, instead of "Hide yo' kids", it'll be "Hide yo' checkbook".

I will say, though, the back-to-back birthdays has been a good time.  It's nice getting the family together to celebrate our girls, who are pretty inseparable on most days that end in "y".  I really enjoy the bathing suit and dress projects that I started with them.  I love to see how they've grown right before my eyes.  I hope they will get a kick out of it, too, especially when I present their respective collages and outfits to them for their 21st birthdays.

So, Pearl's cupcakes have been eaten. The cake ballz are but a sugar coated memory. The presents have been opened, played with, and discarded to the playroom wasteland of forgotten toys.  Birthday celebrations are complete, at least for this week.

Craig turn **koff*koff* on September 29th.