best birthday ever!!!

My sister-in-law plans great parties. Give her 15 six year-olds and four hours and she will come up with a great plan. I should have called her and asked her to plan Jem's 5th birthday party but I didn't and thus ended up with the saddest excuse for a party ever. I had every intention of throwing him a great party with friends and balloons and streamers and fun games. I really did. But then we moved and the normal chaos of our house increased tenfold. So Jem's birthday party went by the wayside. Luckily for me, his birthday fell on Labor Day weekend and Sam's Aunt and Uncle decided to host a corn roast at their church on the day of Jem's birthday. So we took the family over to the church and ate roasted corn and fried chicken and made s'mores. Jem ran around with his brother and shot water balloons out of sling shot. We gave him his present that night and he got a few more things from some family members. There wasn't a cake and there weren't any friends or balloons or streamers. It wasn't a party for him but yet, at the end of the evening, he ran over to me and hugged my legs and said, "Mommy, this was the best birthday ever!"
I'm just thankful that he is still young enough to think that was an actual party. And I'm thankful that he is still innocent enough to think that spending an evening with his family is super fun and cool. Someday, I will manage to put together an actual party but for now, I'm enjoying the get-out-of-jail-free card I ended up with on this one.

photo by Will Clayton http://www.flickr.com/photos/spool32/5045502202/