Tittle Tales

We just recently celebrated our oldest son’s 11th birthday. He decided he wanted a party with his friends at Lamar Park in Oxford so they could fish and play football. When I woke up the morning of his party and went outside to feed all of our animals at home, it was very overcast and the possibility of rain was forecast for the day.
I wasn’t sure what to expect as far as the weather for the party, but I figured if it rained the boys could play football in the rain. So, I told my son my thoughts on the weather and my wing-it back up plan for football in the rain and he seemed excited about the possible plan.
So, we packed all our fishing poles, footballs, cooler full of drinks, chairs, bikes, scooters and, of course, the birthday cake and headed to the park.  When we arrived it was still a bit cloudy, windy and chilly, but I could see the sun trying to peek out. My hopes of a pretty day were beginning to rise. The clouds didn’t seem to faze the birthday boy a bit. He headed straight for the pond with his new rod and reel and tackle box.
As I finished unloading the car and setting things up, all of his friends starting arriving and met him down at the pond. They had such a great time fishing and got several bites and a few of them caught some small bream. By the time we finished lunch, cake and gifts, the sun had completely shown itself. The sky was beautifully blue with no cloud in sight. Very pleased with the pleasant weather, I sat there and watched all the kids line up and divide up in two teams to play football on the huge field.
They had so much fun, creating and running plays, scoring touchdowns and, of course, their favorite, tackling each other. With all the tackles and line drives involved in that game, I was relieved to watch all the kids walk away accident free.
After the game was over, they all ran and grabbed the fishing poles again and hit the pond for another round of fishing. The boys all fished until their parents came and picked them up. Our oldest son didn’t leave the pond until we cranked up the car to leave; I’m strongly convinced he has fishing fever. I was so happy to see him have such a great birthday with his new found friends here in Mississippi.
 In November we will celebrate my youngest son’s birthday and that will wrap up all of the birthdays for my kids this year. He asks me about three times a day right now how many days until his birthday. His plans and celebration ideas for his big day change from minute to minute. He tells me frequently that he is excited about turning five in his new home in Mississippi and continues to explain the details on how he would like to celebrate his special day. All of my children love birthdays; just the thought of it being a day just about celebrating them makes them happy.
My youngest son’s most recent gift request for his upcoming birthday was last night as I was getting him ready for bed. He said he wanted a pet snail. After double checking his expression to make sure he wasn’t joking, I told him he had a yard full of them already. He shrugged his shoulders and agreed he did, in fact, have plenty of snails in the yard. Hopefully he marked that one off of his list. There is no telling what he will ask for next.