March Birthdays - Our Blog - The Corbin Clan

So, March 2012 was headed our way and I was busy making plans, first for my sweetheart.  I always fix a special meal for everyone’s birthdays, plan something fun to do on their birthdays, and plan special gifts.

Planning Scott’s birthday was tough this year.  His birthday came on a Sunday which meant that we would have to do most of our celebrating on Saturday (with two services on Sunday, there is little time for much on that day).  Being very pregnant, I knew what I would be able to do would be limited.  And then, of course, money is always a factor.

After planning different things, and canceling different plans, we finally decided to go to a nearby campground for the weekend and just enjoy some shopping.  Then, on Sunday, we would have a special dinner and, weather permitting, we would maybe go to a nearby park that afternoon for a nice, relaxing afternoon.

Well, plans don’t always work out.  The Sunday prior to Scott’s birthday, Elijah woke up sick and throwing up.  By Monday, the entire family had caught the sickness and Scott spent the week very sick and mostly in bed.  Therefore, camping was out of the question.

Saturday, we were all feeling some better but still very weak and tired.  So, we did go out to eat and did a little shopping but we just couldn’t do much.  Then, on Sunday, I fixed Scott his birthday dinner but the afternoon was spent resting in the bed, not at the park.  Fact was that no one much wanted to do anything.  And I felt horrible about Scott’s birthday being so not fun, but there was nothing I could do to make everyone well and full of energy and ready to go out.  So rest was all we could do.

Despite all the sickness and the draggy weekend, I did manage to plan a good birthday gift.  For years, Scott has talked about wanting to get chickens.  The only problem to this desire was getting a chicken coop.  We had priced coops in the past and because of the prices, we never bought one.  Scott talked about how he could build one, and he could.  Scott is very good at building things.  However, Scott is also very busy and doesn’t have much time to build anything.  So, I decided to go ahead and invest the money in an already built coop so that Scott could get those chickens he had been wanting.  And that’s just what we did.  I ordered the coop and together, we picked out 4 Rhode Island Reds.

After Scott’s birthday was over, we began planning Gabrielle’s birthday.  I asked her what she would like to do.  Her first response was to go to Disney World.  I explained to her that though we always plan a fun day for each of their birthdays, Disney World was not qualified as a “fun day.”  Disney World is a vacation, and a very expensive one at that.  So, she began thinking of other things.

Meanwhile, Elijah said that he wanted to go to the zoo for his birthday.  Hearing this, Gabrielle decided she like the sound of that and also wanted to go to the zoo for her birthday.  I questioned whether she would want to go to the zoo for her birthday when, one week later, we would be going for Elijah’s birthday but she said she would still like to do that.  Well, that would work fine since we would be buying a season pass anyway.

So, Gabrielle’s birthday came on a Monday.  That morning, we got up to begin celebrating.  Unfortunately, Scott had work to do first.  He does some reports for his job every Monday morning and needed to do those before he could head out anywhere.  So, we got a late start but we eventually headed out to the zoo.

Prior to going into the zoo, we stopped at Subway for lunch.  Then we went in and walked around most of the zoo.  Knowing that we would be coming back, we didn’t worry about whether or not we saw it all.  But we saw most of it and even stopped out to have Icees.  The kids had a great time.  It wasn’t very crowded and we were able to see everything without any problems.  Gabrielle’s favorite, as always, was the flamingos.

After the zoo, we rushed back to town.  We had supper plans with our parents.  Unfortunately, these plans were going to be a bit rushed because we had a family friend die over the weekend and we were going to have to rush out from Gabrielle’s supper to go to the visitation.  So, we rushed around to pick up her cake (Fancy Nancy theme), get her balloons, pick up some tea, and then headed home to finish up her supper.  Thankfully, Gabrielle had chosen a meal of stew beef, potatoes, and carrots and that had been cooking in the crockpot the entire day.  

So, with our parents, we concluded her celebrations with supper and cake.  It was a nice day and she enjoyed it all.  For her gifts, we gave her roller skates, a new book bag, a new DVD, pajamas, and some Barbie doll clothes.

One and a half weeks later, on a Friday, Elijah would be celebrating his birthday.  We had plans to travel out of town for a trip/vacation to Camp Meeting at Jimmy Swaggart’s church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Our trip would require us to leave out on Friday, Elijah’s birthday.  So, we decided to celebrate his birthday on Thursday instead.

On Thursday morning, we got an early start, stopping at a McDonald’s for breakfast and packing a picnic lunch to take to the zoo this time.  We got to the zoo and were shocked to see lines of buses and kids running everywhere.  My kids were immediately placed in shock.

We went in and our first stop was the aquarium, a part of the zoo that we had skipped on our previous experience.  This was a bad choice because there were kids running everywhere and they would run right in front of my kids to stick their noses against the displays before running to the next.  All the while, they would holler out, louder than even the animals at the zoo.  My kids were shocked and I stood there thinking, “Thank God my kids are not in public school.”

I mean no disrespect to the public school system.  However, I saw the behavior of the majority of the children and I do no want my kids influenced by other kids to believe that such behavior is appropriate or acceptable.  When we take our kids places, the rules are to look with your eyes and not with your hands (unless it is appropriate), always walk, stay out of the way of others, and talk with quiet voices.  I always encourage them to be polite and always conscious of what others are doing and need to do.  Yet, these kids at the zoo never shoed any respect and unfortunately, I never saw any of them corrected for their misbehavior.  I commented to my husband that when I was in school, even when we went on trips, we were expected to walk in lines and to be quiet and polite.  So, though these schools may not be representative of the entire school system, it certainly showed me that I am glad my kids are not a part of it.

By the time we left the aquarium, my stunned kids were not even sure if they wanted to stay at the zoo at ll.  But I assured them that everything would be fine and to just give it a try.  So, we walked some more and sure enough, the outdoor areas were a little quieter.  Yet, when it came lunch time, we realized that not only had we packed a picnic lunch, but all these school groups had packed picnic lunches.  That meant that we were eating lunch surrounded by hundreds of school kids and their teachers/chaperones.  Yet another interesting experience.

Tired and a little overwhelmed, we decided to call it a day.  In spite of it all, Elijah had a good time and didn’t mind cutting it short.  In fact, he was ready for a nap which he took on the road home.  Once again, on our way home, we made some stops to pick up things for Elijah’s birthday meal.  At home, we had a supper with our parents to celebrate Elijah’s birthday.  Elijah had chosen pizza and a cake with an animal theme.  For his gifts, we gave Elijah a bicycle, a helmet, a Bible, a bank, and a DVD.