Happy Birthday to Me

Betty half way through her cone
or at least with the top licked off

I told the kids I would have my birthday party with them using a theme of their own choosing, which turned out to be ice cream cones, and Michael added, “With Nerds on top.”

I didn’t know where to buy these, but Mary tipped me off – usually they can be found at a dollar store.

I made a trip to the Dalhousie Dollar store and bought Nerds packages of every flavour: watermelon, strawberry, lime, orange, lemon, grape --I can’t even remember all of the flavours.

Sumin holding Sumarga's hand on his cone

But seared into my memory is the fact that I lost the Nerds the day after I brought them home.

I turned the house .upside down looking for them. I have the receipt – just not the product.

Miranda and I went on a second trip to find Nerds, this time at the Dollar Tree, a place where everything is truly $1.25 or less.

... now this is a new taste I like ...

But we could only find Shock Rocks which are also a popping candy, though in the end, I don’t think they had the same kind of appeal.

Still my search for the perfect ice-cream cone birthday continued.

At President’s Choice, I found the waffle cones and five flavours of ice cream: Christie Oreo, Nestle Smartie, Nestle Kit Kat, Nestle Rolo and Cadbury Caramilk.

... try one flavour or all flavours ...

As usual, while shopping for the ice cream, I left my bag of carry-out bags in the car.

I just couldn’t spend that 5 cents on a bag from the clerk at the store so I told her I thought I could make it to the car.

I couldn’t. I tried to balance 5 2-litre cartons of ice cream on top of my 2 packages of waffle cones, dropping the cones twice and one carton of ice cream once.

Alice opening her Lego package and
Kelve's hand nearby, helping
or if not helping at least
anticipating an accident about to happen.

By the time I got close to my car a man coming toward me told me to put my packages in his cart while I got my keys out and my groceries into the car.

Well, that was a nice birthday gift. Why couldn’t I have just coughed up the money to the cashier for a bag. I smashed more waffle cones than the savings was worth.

Betty opening her package

About a week previous to my birthday I had decided that playing Lego at my house would be more successful if each child had their own baseboard to put their figurines on and so 3 gray base boards had come, each in different packages.

I told Amir I couldn’t figure out why all three didn’t come in the same package, but he explained Amazon is careful with their shipping and one might have knocked into the other, so all the boards were in separate cartons, which just worked out for gifts.

Michael, Alice and Betty each opened one. Afterward I was thinking that there might be a chance to have some lessons about how to open packages with knives, but that is for another day.

Amir joined us downstairs for the birthday bash as well as did Sumin and Sumarga.

Michael trying to open his box

It was Sumarga’s first time with ice cream and a cone all on his own.

He was interested in the cone, but not as much as he was in the happiness of the older children who were dipping up their own cones.

Five spoons, 5 cartons of ice cream, three children with 2 arms each of which were intertwined, one arm over another each reaching to take the ice-cream out of the carton that was the furthest away from where they were sitting and all at the same time.

I know that there might have been an easier way to do this, but I found that out a little later than when I had the idea to let them make their own cones.

I think Amir only ate 2 teaspoons of ice-cream. He has only recently returned from 5 week in Iran where he was feted every day with banquets of food, so sugar is off of his list of foods to eat right now.

Sumarga learned how to bite the end off of his cone. I think that he hasn’t figured out how to suck the ice cream through it, only explore around the cone and see where there are good places to bite.

We ate so much ice cream at our 2 pm party there was no need for supper.

Michael pulled out the Sally Go Round the Sun Songbook, put it in front of me, and asked me to sing songs of his choosing while they ate their cones. I supplied the music, a medley of well loved tunes like “The Noble Duke of York” “Throw Them Out the Window” and “Down by the Bay Where the Watermelons Grow”. Sometimes they sang along and if they did, Sumarga was mesmerized, especially by 7 year old Michael’s face as he sang.

The best part of my party is that we only ate 1/3 of the ice-cream. That meant that our party could continue the next day and then a third day, each time in about the same fashion.

On one of the days I asked Alice what kind of ice cream she wanted. She told me she wanted the flavours that Michael wanted. I guess that eliminates the problem of thinking that she didn’t choose the best kinds of ice cream. By the third day all of us were eating the ice-cream out of a dish with one of the fancy spoons I have. As well we tried stirring the ice cream into a soft swirl, about like the texture of a frosty. I can only hope that their parents are good with that new skill.

Yup. The best birthday party ever.

Arta