A Most Wonderful Day

Last night was a wonderful prelude to a great day. Today, was My Youngest's birthday.

About a month ago I asked him to think about what he'd like to do for his birthday. He let out an exasperated sigh. I don't know if it's because there are so many choices ... or so few?

One night he excitedly told me that he had come up with an idea. 'Karate Kid' was opening on his birthday and he'd really like to go to that. Fine by me. So I asked him if he would like to invite a friend. Another sigh ...

A day or two later, he told me that 'yes' - he'd like to ask a friend to come along. At this point I realized that if he asked two friends, we could use two of our free movie passes and not only would all of us get in for free, but it covered popcorn and pop as well. Once again, I got another sigh. Yet another decision to be made. Life is tough.

Before long, he came up with the two friends he would like to invite. At this point, I decided to ask him if he would like to ask if they'd like to have them come home with him after school and then have them sleep over. My gosh. You would have thought I'd given him the world. This birthday was just getting better and better.

Then came the big decision. The birthday cake. Any ideas? I think that I had wiped the boy's mind clean of ideas after coming up with all of these hard answers to try and create a little bit of something special on his birthday. I asked if he'd like to see if we could get a 'Karate Kid' birthday cake. And that, we did.

He asked for nothing today. Each little thing that came about, came after being asked and then much consideration before he arrived at an answer. But he did ask for one thing. "Could we have pizza for supper?"

The day unfolded so easily, that one would think it was meant to be.

The birthday cake was not only perfect, but was ready early. I bought tickets for the movie this afternoon so that we were guaranteed admission. The pizza was not only cheap but it tasted marvelous. My babysitting charge was picked up an hour early, so getting to the movie with time to spare was not a problem. And the movie ...

I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that made me feel so good. You simply couldn't ask for a better movie to take three, 12 year old boys to. It taught some excellent lessons, it was humorous, it was inspiring and I think anyone could relate to it. My mom would enjoy it, I can see my older sons enjoying it, I can see my friends enjoying it and I know that the boys that accompanied me tonight enjoyed it!

We came home, had some Karate Kid Birthday Cake and the boys are being boys, as I try to bide my time a little before I allow myself to fall asleep.

It was a perfect day. I think My Youngest is very pleased. He asked for nothing. His expectations were low. He got to spend the day with friends. And it just happened to be his birthday.

I think every day should have the potential for a little piece of magic ... just like this.