Happy Birthday, Suzie Pig!
Today was Suzie Pig’s birthday. And it was as real as any stuffed animal probably ever gets on his or her birthday:
Last week, Madeline really wanted to have a birthday party for her current favorite stuffed animal, a small pink pig. But, after quite a bit of cleaning and a little bit of decorating, Madeline style, the day ended before we could really have the “party.”
She had asked several times since that day if we could “have Suzie’s birthday”, but I told her “not yet” on those days since it didn’t seem we would really have time to do it justice. Madeline was a little more insistent today, telling me that it “really was Suzie’s birthday” so we needed to have the party.
So, I decided we should go all out. My theory was that if we did it right and really had a family party for Suzie, we wouldn’t have to do this again for another year! But, if we just had a half-hearted little pretend birthday party just like all the other pretend birthday parties we have (yes, playing “birthday” is a favorite around here – we even have a play wooden birthday cake!), it might be Suzie’s birthday many times in the coming weeks. And besides, who doesn’t like an excuse for cake and a clean house?
We were going to Target for a few things today anyway, so I let Madeline pick out the cake mix of her choice — she picked “pink” — big surprise, right?! We spent quite a bit of time this afternoon cleaning the house. Madeline even demanded (in a somewhat polite way) that I “tidy up” the computer desk. I think need motivation like that more often! We made the cake in the flower cake pan, and it unfortunately stuck to the pan a bit. It was crushing for Madeline, but I was just happy it didn’t happen on an occasion when we were having real guests. The breaks were covered over decently with frosting, which Madeline helped with.
After dinner we got out the cake and sang Happy Birthday to Suzie. We all enjoyed our cake, and then Suzie got to open her “gifts” that Madeline had wrapped up using blankets. All in all, a fun family event. We’ll be marking October 22nd on the calendar so we can celebrate with Suzie again next year.