A Birthd8 Miracle

Sometimes birthday wishes DO come true. I saw the light from our family room TV glaring around 6 a.m. this morning and automatically assumed it was Matt. He is usually up early and getting ready to leave for school. I would've never dreamed it was Isaac--my late sleeper.  He was snuggled up in the La-Z-boy watching a show.  I said, "buddy what are you doing up so early?'  He said, "I wanted to see dad on my birthday before he left for school."~ sweet! I paused his show and checked the news to see if schools were canceled.  There was an expected ice storm moving through our area late night/early morning.  When I saw the school closing(s) ticker, I KNEW we had to be out.  When Warren County popped up, I told Isaac, "school is canceled today."  He excitedly replied, "my birthday wish came true."  

Isaac has brought so much joy to our lives.  When we started talking about his 8th birthday, immediately after his 7th, he really wanted to have his birthday party at Stakz Frozen Yogurt.  Although I agreed that would be a fun place to have a party, I told him that we could do something even more special like go to Opry Mills and the Lego store in Nashville and maybe even spend the night since his birthday fell on a Friday this year.  I was actually surprised by how much convincing it took--I mean fro yo for the Lego store--is that even a contest?  He sure does love the orange sorbet.  He finally relented, and I started planning for his special night at Opry Mills.   I decided to look into parties at Rainforest Cafe and The Aquarium Restaurant.  Since we've been to Rainforest a handful of times, I decided we'd try The Aquarium for the party place.  The package is actually really cool.

The package includes:

o   A Party Favor (Plush Sea Animal) for each child.

o   A balloon Bouquet for the birthday child to keep.

o   Choice of an Aquarium’s Kid’s Meal

o   Unlimited soft drinks in a Sharkey character souvenir cup for each child.

o   A Sharkey character kid’s plate for each child to take home.

 I knew his party would be simple, in that we wouldn't have lots of attendees, only family which is actually quite a few attendees by itself =).Since I didn't have to make many invitations, I wanted to make something extra special and unique.  I decided to do Isaac's own personal messages (or invitations) in a bottle.

I picked up some clear, corked bottles at Hobby Lobby along with some blue sand and seashells.  After carefully funneling in the sand, I sprinkled the shells on top.

I made the invitations with a brown lunch sack and scroll print out.

I cut the invites fairly small, rolled them up and secured them with a rubber band.  I slipped them into the bottles, added some twine at the top and seriously how cool are these invitations!?!?  They were so fun to make!

Isaac was born at exactly 7:11 p.m. on Tuesday, January 25, 2005.  It was love at first sight, for me and Matt and for Karson.  He was the best baby in the world--very relaxed.  I remember him sitting in his carseat in his bedroom with Karson playing around him.  She'd pile up loads of Little People in his lap and try her best to involve him.  He just looked at her in awe.  She was the coolest being on the planet in his eyes.  Karson was the best big sister always trying to help swing him in the battery-operated swing--she needed him to go a little higher (and faster) than the swing allowed.  She'd help feed him and give him baths.  She loved her little bud as she liked to call him.  Isaac has spent the last 8 years following in his big sister's footsteps.  He's incredibly smart, talented, well-liked, creative and entertaining.  His comment this morning "my birthday wish came true" is classic Isaac!  He's a lucky one.  I've come to realize that luck surrounds Matt and Isaac in many ways .  You know how some people are just lucky or seem to be luckier?  Well, we have two of those in our family.

~ AN ICY MORNING ~ as luck would have it, schools were canceled today due to icy roads.  However, I had not one but TWO cakes to pick up, both at 10 a.m.  I was to pick up one at the mall Cookie Store and another one a Wal-Mart.  I wasn't sure how driving conditions would be, but it's usually easy to tell living next to Plano Road--a main artery in our area of town.  Cars and trucks were buzzing by at normal speeds so I felt pretty safe getting out.  I made it to town safely around 10:30 to pick up both cakes.


The cookie cake was supposed to go to Plano Elementary this afternoon so Isaac could celebrate his birthday with his classmates.  The beach/ocean cake was going to come with us tonight for his party at The Aquarium.  I want you to look carefully at both cakes and see if you notice any error(s)? I didn't notice until I got home.  Okay, I'll tell you...the lady forgot to cross the 't' in Birthday on the Wal-Mart cake.  It actually didn't have any writing on it at all when I picked it up.  In fact, the bakery clerk almost seemed perturbed that I was there to pick up the cake I had already ordered days prior.  I also told her how to correctly spell Isaac to which she misspelled Issac and then had to scrape it off (can you see the bigger 'a' with white behind it).  Sheesh.  Thankfully, I had palm trees and had made Isaac a seashell #8.  I also asked her to add a sunshine to the top.  It was just to plain for me.  It needed some polishing up (and the clerk did too).

The kids are used to posing for my numerous pictures.  I love Evan's attempt to "jazz up" the picture by spreading his arms out wide!

Since we had the afternoon free, we decided to head on down to Nashville around 2 p.m. with the Maglinger's.  We made our first stop at The Aquarium to drop off our party supplies and see the place. 

We had a fun afternoon browsing through the mall shops.  We had to make a pit stop at It's Sugar.  The kids were amazed by the JUMBO sized candy.  I think Isaac could put away that Laffy Taffy in no time.  He's a sucker for the banana flavor.

We finally found The LEGO Store.  Isaac had one mission, spend every single dollar he'd collected for his birthday on Lego's.  He managed to come up a little short (thankfully).  Karson is my saver. Isaac is my spender.  I may sneak his extra cash into his savings account.  Don't get me wrong, I am glad we now own six Lego Factory Heroes, but I do think he'll thank me one day for saving his money.  Granted, that day may come when he's 16 years old, but I'm willing to bet he'll be glad.  After Lego, the boys and girls split up.  I needed to go to Banana Republic and pick up some perfume.  We also wanted to stop in some girly shops like Justice and Claire's.  The boys decided to head to Dave and Busters for some arcade action.  I'll pass, because....is there anything more fun than girl-time in an accessory store???  I think not.

The most beautiful DIVAS in Nashville!

We did end up at Dave Busters as the party time rolled around and the rest of the party goers were arriving.

Miles had the most luck at D & B's.  Matt said he hit the 500 ticket jackpot twice.  Wait, maybe we have three lucky fellows in my household?  Humph?

We got to The Aquarium right around 5:30 and were seated.

 

Isaac was anxious to open his presents.  He got a Wii Resort game and controller from Pops and Meme.

He got some BB's from Pap and Nana but was kind of confused about the gift.  We tried explaining to him that they had gotten him a BB gun but couldn't really bring that into a restaurant.  Isaac + a BB gun should be very interesting.  Well definitely need to purchase Ralphie some safety glasses ASAP.

Can you spot the diver in these pictures?  While we were there, divers went in to feed the fish.  

It was really cool.  Isaac was so amazed by that.

We are so proud of our little birthday boy!

~ The kids and their stuffed fish swimming in the deep blue sea ~

Singing "Happy Birthday" to our birthday boy!

The kids all got to decorate their own sundaes.  I think that's about the coolest, most entertaining dessert ever for a kid.  Well, it's 11 p.m. and I need to wrap this up and call it a night.  I just wanted to do this post on Isaac's actual birthday.  I am one blessed Mama!  Thank you Isaac for being such a blessing!