Samuel Turns 6

Today is Samuel's birthday. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner yesterday this is what he said: Ribs, corn (not on the cob, the little pieces), and cabbage cooked like when it's with corned beef and cabbage. We are also having dippin' dots for dessert.

I have several issues with birthday parties. One of them is that I am too lazy to plan something for a large group of people, but all of the other issues center around the extreme excess of birthday parties. I don't want to spend money renting a venue, but mostly I see no reason that my kids need that many presents and that much stuff. So, no birthday parties at our house. (However, I do let the kids go to their classmates parties). One of the ways that I have counteracted this is letting them take treats or goodie bags to school. In Florida one year Henry gave his classmates Harry Potter glasses, other times I just got cupcakes at the store. Until we moved here I never thought that Samuel would be in school on his birthday, but we don't get out until this Friday. Last night he told me that he wanted to take goodie bags for his birthday today. I didn't want to spend a lot of money, so this is what I came up with:

One small terra cotta clay pot
One scoop of soil
a small amount of seeds
One lollipop

We bagged these all and sent them to school so that each kid could plant their own flowers. I had everything at the house already...so it was free. My only regret is not taking a picture of them before sending them all to school.