Do you have anyone in your house with a quarantine birthday?

It feels ironic that I wrote a post only two weeks ago where I talked about how my birthday party was postponed when I turned eight years old. That was due to chicken pox. Remember chicken pox? Then here I am thirty-one years later “postponing” my son’s ninth birthday party while we all hunker down to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. I told him we will do his party in April, but I have no idea if that will actually happen.

Poor Daniel. He was all kinds of pumped for this party too. It was going to be at a trampoline park, you know, where germs go to exchange hosts. haha!

I still want Daniel’s birthday to be special though, even if he will only see our same ol’ faces on that day. His birthday is on a Sunday, and church is cancelled. It may sound bad, but as a wiggly nine-year-old boy, he will assure you that this is a win.

So here are a few things we are doing to save the quarantine birthday:

#1. Dunkin Donuts for breakfast

As long as they keep that drive thru running, this may be a first at our house. We rarely buy donuts, and if we do it’s usually later in the day. I am not a morning person, out running about town before breakfast!

I told Daniel he could pick anything he wants for breakfast, and that is what he chose. Many of you are wondering why in the world he didn’t choose Krispy Kreme donuts. We live in Maryland. The nearest Krispy Kreme is an hour away, so Dunkin’ it is.

#2. NERF gun war!

Everyone is basically running around with Nerf guns, setting up forts, etc., and it is quite chaotic, but they love it.

#3. Sweet potato casserole and yeast rolls for lunch

Isn’t he cute?

#4. Grocery Store Bakery cake– I am picking this up today, two days ahead, just in case the bakery folds.

Vanilla cake with chocolate icing, per his instructions. He first requested ganache filling with a fondant icing, Haha! He’s my little chef. The thing is I have not found a place like that here yet, and I have not even attempted making fondant icing. He agreed to settle for the standard grocery store bakery cake. By next year we will be more established here, and then I will go buy him the fancy cake he desires.

Don’t worry. We’ve already ordered the cake. It was the only one they were making today, and they said it would be ready by 4:30.

#5. Fortnite Piñata!!!

Shhh! Don’t tell Daniel. This is a surprise. I found it on clearance at Walmart at Christmas time. These were selling for $70 everywhere else because the piñata is filled with Fortnite toys, but I found it for only $40. However, when Christmas time came I realized I had over bought for the little boys. You know, you have to make all the presents fair and even, so I stashed it away, and they have forgotten that this was even a thing they asked for.

#6. Extra Presents

Alan went to Target a few nights ago. He said it was so empty of people and essentials that it was eerie. Toys were still fully stocked though, so Alan went a little overboard. After all, there won’t be any friends bringing toys to a nonexistent party, so a few extra won’t hurt.

#7. He gets to pick a family movie to watch.

This is another thing he requested. I asked him for all the birthday ideas he could think of. He hasn’t decided on which movie yet, but he does love movies.

#8. Extra video game time

Boys tend to be really simple in this way. Things like extra video game time make them quite the happy campers.

#9. Festive decor

No one is coming over, but I will still hang the “Happy birthday” sign, put out festive decor, and maybe even make punch. I firmly believe boys enjoy a festively decorated party every bit as much as girls do. They especially appreciate balloons, not just hanging balloons, but balloons that they are allowed to throw around and eventually destroy. Boys do love to destroy things.

#10 FaceTime & Phone calls to family

All the grandparents will want to wish him a happy birthday, I’m sure.

And last but not least…#11. Hugs, attention, and Mint Ice cream

….because Daniel likes ice cream that tastes like toothpaste. Of course, this is only if I find a grocery store that still has mint ice cream. I had no luck with that at the grocery store today, so picked up some mint Little Debbie snacks instead.

9 is fine.

Just like us. We’re fine. Right? Everything is fine. My neighbor and I were talking about how much cleaning we are getting done.

Keep in touch, y’all! I am getting cabin fever already.

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The post 10 Ideas for Making a Quarantine Birthday Fun appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Surprise Welcome Home Party at Kristy’s house. There were 23 neighbors in attendance.

On Friday night, I snuck into my home town.

My parents were expecting me at 8:45pm, but truthfully I arrived at 7:30 or so, but I didn’t want them to know that. They were still staying at the rental house, but I did not go straight to the rental house. I went by my childhood friend, Kristy’s, house. We were on a mission, you see.

I grew up playing with Kristy and the other neighborhood kids. Kristy’s grandparents lived next door to us, and she spent a lot of time over there. As kids, we climbed trees, rode bikes, swung, swam in her granny’s pool, and played a good deal of make-believe and front yard baseball.

Then six or seven years ago, grown-up Kristy bought the house across the street from my parents! Pretty cool, huh? That tiny street is full of people who have been living there for most of my life.

They’ve been watching the destruction and re-building of my parents’ house up close and personal. They dealt with the smells, oh, you don’t want to know about the smells, the rubble looters on the day of the bulldozer, the construction crews, and the watching and waiting. They never complained.

Kristy said, “I’m telling you, they could’ve built it faster.”

Mrs. Sara (Kristy’s granny) lamented, “Well, the only problem is they built it closer to the road than it used to be, and the way it’s shaped I can’t see Terry on his front porch, and I can’t see Terry on his back porch. How am I supposed to know he’s okay???? How am I supposed to know it if he falls?”

She’s right, that’s a problem when you have good neighbors. Kirsty reassured her it’d be okay because she can still see him from her front porch.

Neighbors that look out for each other. Such a beautiful thing!

A month or so ago, Kristy hatched a plan for a surprise party. We had no idea what day they’d finally move in, so she planned it for December 10th, and lo and behold, what day do you think they finally moved in? Well, December 10th, of course, so it was pretty easy to get my parents over to the right place at the right time.

Chris, Kristy, and me

We decided the best story to tell to make sure my parents were at the new house unloading at party time was to say that pizza was arriving at the new house at 11am. This was pretty easy. I just used Alan’s obsession with pizza coupons as my cover story.

“You know how Alan is about his pizza coupons. Well, he’s already got the pizza scheduled to be delivered at 11am tomorrow at the new house. It’s a little early, but he wanted to make sure he had plenty of food, and that way when my brother gets off of work, they will be able to get straight to work with the heavy moving then.”

No one doubted that story for a second.

By 11am, every one of us was in place at my parents’ new house, but there was one part I hadn’t thought through. Now how do I get them over to Kristy’s house? Everyone was focused on the mission of moving… Hmmmm

“Hey, um, y’all, I talked to Kristy out in the yard, and she said when Dad gets here to have y’all stop by her house real quick. I think she has a Christmas gift for ya.”

And to my surprise, it was that simple!

They just said, “Oh. Okay,” and started off across the street.

“I think I’ll come too,” I said, motioning the boys to come on. John David was of course shoeless. Alan got his little shoes on JD as quickly as possible, and we all six followed Mom and Dad across the street.

Mom said she did think it was weird that we were ALL coming.

Kirsty opened the doors and motioned for us to all come in. I’m not sure how long it took Mom and Dad to figure out this was their surprise party or that we weren’t actually having pizza. Pretty funny! This was so fun to be a part of.

We all ate together. Mr. Byrd, a neighbor I remember as the one who would buy whatever I was selling from my school fund-raiser every year, said a beautiful blessing before the meal.

We laughed over the surprise, and caught up with everybody.

Then we walked everyone over and gave them a tour of the new house, for those who hadn’t seen inside of it yet.

I know. I know you’re dying to get a peek inside too, and I would show it to you, but Mom’s not as big on posting the minute details of her life on the internet as I am, so I’m going to literally just show you one peek. I’m going to give you Kristy’s porch view of the new place:

Mr. Byrd, Dad, and Chris and Kristy’s porch view of the new house.

It’s not a re-built house. It’s a completely new house. The old one had to be bulldozed and carried away, down to the last scrap of concrete. Nothing could be left. What wasn’t burned was all damaged by smoke, water, and asbestos.

Everything is gone. The trampoline burned too. When they were clearing the house away, there was a huge storm that came through, and lightning stuck the last of the tall pine trees that still stood from my childhood. And as they took away the dumpster last week, they killed the mailbox too.

It was as though God decided that he couldn’t just partially fix it. It had to be completely made new.

We may not understand the ways of God, but his ways are best, and I know that this house is going to be a great blessing to my parents.

Isn’t it funny how God even arranged it for Alan and me to move back down here for two years, so that we were here for all of this? I got to see construction of the new house in all of its phases. I got to pore over paint and tile samples with Mom on my coffee table.

And I got to be there for move-in day, even when we didn’t know until 3 days prior that it would be moving day!

God moves in mysterious ways.

I wish you could see what all Kristy has done with her house too! She bought it after the housing market crashed, and completely re-modeled the place, knocking down walls, moving the kitchen, painting, and putting in new floors. It’s inspirational to look at what she’s accomplished without even hiring a builder, a little at a time!

It makes me smile to see Alan getting to talk to these sweet neighbors, these pillars from my childhood. When I see Mrs. Sara I always smile and think of how she used to call out to us from her front door, “Y’all play purdy now!!” Maybe I should start calling that out my door to the boys and their friends.

Our neighbors didn’t just feed us and visit with us, even though that would have been more than enough. They also SHOWERED my parents with gifts, AGAIN. I say again because they’d already helped after the fire, but they just kept on giving!

opening gifts

Kristy, our lovely coordinator and hostess

They were given a big, beautiful set of Rachel Ray cookware, which I could tell Mom was excited about, as well as all sorts of other useful blessings!

Mom and I have always admired what Kristy can do with her vinyl cricket (cricuit?) machine!

An Emotional Gift

The most emotional gift was this large framed floorboard from the original house, which Kristy wrote their name and anniversary date on. I cried when I saw it, even though I knew she was planning it. Mom cried. I don’t know if Dad cried.

The day of the bulldozing, Kristy had looked for some wood from the house, but there was none available that wasn’t too damaged, so she found a whole plank from the Pergo floors. This made it even more special because Mom and Dad had put those floors down themselves around 10 years ago, and we’d all just loved those floors.

Kirsty laughed about almost getting caught salvaging that board from the rubble. She said she left the kids with Gail and ran over to dig around for something she could save for Mom and Dad. She had just discovered a good board, and all of a sudden there was my dad! He was there to try to save some china, and she quickly dropped the board off to the side, and said, “Oh, here, let me help you with that!” She said she felt like she was almost busted. So funny, because Dad would have had no idea what she was doing anyway.

We laughed, we ate, we cried, and then we hugged people and got back to work!

This was such a blessing, what the neighbors did for my parents, and I just wanted to share it, the fact that things like this still happen. There are people who are still kind, giving, unselfish, who want to help other people, and we make each others’ lives better in the process.

Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this, Kristy, and to all the neighbors for blessing us in such a big way. We are so thankful! Our cup runneth over.

“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”  –Hebrews 13:16

May we all strive to be this kind of neighbor. Merry Christmas, y’all!

The post Moving Day, the Surprise Party, and the Power of Good Neighbors appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Sean, holding John David, after the party

Joshua and Caleb’s buddy and Daniel’s role model, Xavier.  Every time we walk out of our house, Daniel starts looking over at Xavier’s house and shouting, “Xavier!  Xavier!”

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