We intended to embarrass the nineteen-year-old on "his" day by writing silly messages on his car windows. The problem is that our easygoing guy doesn't get bugged by anything; he just rolls with whatever comes his way.
Thankfully, the writing didn't get washed off by the rain until after our son had driven to UTA for his classes; however, the car windows were a smeary mess by the time he got home. Oh, well!
According to the birthday boy, cake is overrated, so pumpkin pie was on the menu.
I guess our singing was really bad and/or really funny...
Can you tell it was indeed a HAPPY birthday?
M. received many funny greeting cards, but I have to share the one Millie chose for her brother:
78% of the people think you look like a monkey.
32% of the people think you smell like one, too.
You do the math. Happy Birthday.
It's especially comical since math is Millie Girl's least favorite subject, so she wouldn't have added add up the numbers to see what the percentage equaled. She just had a hunch that the monkey business/smelly sentiment was perfect to share with her brother -- after all, he is a boy. AND she also figured her brother would approve of having statistics and such on a card. He did. :-)
In addition to the stack of birthday greetings to open, there were presents to unwrap, too.
Our oldest Smithling has always had this amazing ability to correctly guess what is inside each package before he opens it. This has been going on for years and years, ever since he was a little boy. (I think that goes along with his analytical engineer brain.) He carefully studies/scrutinizes the shape, size, and weight of each box prior to opening it, and somehow ALWAYS guesses the contents correctly. This is somewhat frustrating for me, but amusing for him. Of course, I never let on that he is correct in his conjectures, as I wouldn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he's right until I absolutely have to.
M. methodically unwraps his gifts by slowly removing the tape so as not to rip the wrapping. Next, he carefully removes the paper and folds it neatly before looking at what was wrapped inside. This is something that greatly irritates his youngest sister. I think the big brother drags out the unwrapping ceremony a wee bit longer than it should take in a special effort to aggravate Millie all the more. When he finally sees what the gift is, he gives a knowing look as if to say, "Uh huh, I could see that one coming."
Well, two can play at this game. This year, I made a little more of an effort to throw him a curve ball by using odd sized boxes for his gifts. The birthday boy failed to correctly identify the gifts we gave him, four out of four times. Despite being w-r-o-n-g every single time, he was very happy with the gifts he received. Mission accomplished. The boy may be getting older, but chalk one up (or four?) for Mom this time around for being a wee bit wiser.
Happy 19th, Son!!!
