Molly Loves Paris: Annie's Birthday - she is now the big three oh!

"Now Jesus himself was about thirty years old

when He began His ministry."

Luke 3: 23

It's amazing how often young people in their twenties dread their thirtieth birthday. I think a lot of that is due to Jerry Rubin saying "Never trust anyone over 30." Yet for the most part the young people today don't even know who Jerry Rubin was. Rubin was in fact 30 years old when he made that statement. He died in 1994 at the age of 56 from injuries incurred while jay-walking a six lane thoroughfare in LA during heavy traffic. But then turning thirty also means that it's about time to grow up. I liked being in my thirties. I started to feel more confidence in my abilities.

Annie was worried that her birthday would be just a great bit hassle if I got involved. Now I won't deny that a statement like that is bound to make a mother feel pretty bad. But I am constantly being reminded that I need to be thicker skinned. But then I bet there are people who read this and think why doesn't Molly take a hint and leave things alone. I don't know.

I knew that Annie was going to be at her house by herself for her birthday morning. It's been a very long tradition at our house to have a birthday breakfast. This is because I realized early on as a mother that it seemed a dumb idea to make a child wait until the end of their birthday day to open any of their presents. And so I began this tradition, and I would set the table the night before, and most of the presents would be wrapped for opening in the morning. I would save out one for later if this was possible.

So I arranged for Corey (who took Annie's birthday off from work) and Annie and Emily and I to go to breakfast at the Original Pancake House - which is just where Annie wanted to go. Then a couple days before Annie's birthday Sarah said that she and Caleb would join us. But then on Annie's birthday (today) Riley said he wanted to come along. I felt terrible, because I figured he would make things a little stressful, because he had never been to the Original Pancake House with Emily, and we all figured he would be tense.

Also, Corey reminded him that Annie would be wearing her Lolita costume.That was enough to convince him that he better not go. Then shortly after that Sarah called to say that she would not be coming because Caleb had a bad diaper rash, which made him cry a lot. So we were back to just the four of us.

Everything went very well. We arrived at the restaurant at sometime around ten. The wait was to be twenty minutes, and we quickly got a seat in the waiting room, crowded as always. Soon we were given a booth to sit at, a bit tricky with Emily. There was a very big table next to us with more pre-schoolers than adults, so they had the baby-seats. Emily got a booster, which held her for a few minutes. She was obsessed with seeing the crown on the head of one of the pre-schoolers. But luckily they soon left, and I snatched a baby-seat before they were even out the door. At that Emily was much more behaved.

We ordered and apple pancake and Continental crepes, which used to be called Palestine Pancakes, plus one cup of coffee, which we shared, as coffee was $3 per cup. While waiting, Annie opened the presents we had brought. She seemed quite delighted with both presents, even though she's been known to say that only her sisters get her the cool presents.

Emily wanted to try on Annie's costume.

Emily with Annie's gloves.

Emily with Annie's hat

And while we were waiting for our pancakes, the waitress brought us this beautiful bowl of fruit with whipped cream, and said "Happy Birthday" to Annie. It was wonderful fruit. Breakfast was yummy, but there was even some left-over, which Annie could then have for later. I have to say that I don't think there is a better breakfast restaurant in the world that the Original Pancake House on Barbur Blvd - and it IS the original one. I first ate there in about 1954.

After breakfast we went straight to Movie Madness. Annie knew that she could rent a movie for free on her birthday, and she knew that the day before they had the movie she wanted but she was worried that someone would rent it. Both Corey and I knew that no one would rent it, as it was obscure. Sure enough it was there. We then headed home, though we weren't there long. Riley had made an appointment for me at the chiropractors because of the fall I took down the stairs this morning. I had felt a sharp pain in my back as I it the ground, so I was concerned. I also had several bruises, but nothing else.

When we got down town Annie and Corey went off to pick up Annie's paycheck and to buy shoes for Annie. Riley met Emily and I just outside the parking garage and he and Emily went for pizza while I went to the doctor. Just as I was finished and had met Riley and Emily eating pizza at a table on the side walk, Annie called to ask us to come look at some shoes she liked. What she really wanted was for us to help pay for them. She was of course at the Doc Martin store. The first car we saw on her looked rather bad, but even though she assured me that she was wearing the right size, I told her to try a size smaller. They looked soooo much better, and surprise surprise - they felt fine to her. So could it be that all these years she's been buying the wrong size shoes?! This could be the start of much nicer looking shoes on Annie.

We then hurried home, which was good, as I had forgotten about Christian coming home from school. He was there waiting for us. I then started right in on making the bostini cream pie. Unfortunately I made a mistake in making the custard. I stirred the eggs in with the cream and milk! But there was no starting over, as I had no more cream.

The pudding started out ok, but it was eventually evident that it was going to be a bit grainy. I cooked the cake in a big sheet instead of in individual ramekins. This worked out alright, but not my preferred method. It was out of the oven by about 7:40. I was clearly running behind schedule. But I certainly didn't want Annie to know that I was stressing a bit, as she said I was so known to do that. When am I going to learn to get things done ahead of time. Yesterday it never occurred to me that it was Thursday, and therefore the next day was Friday, Annie's birthday.

We finally got around to dinner at about 7:30. The whole family was there - Riley, Molly, Heidi, Annie, Corey, Sarah, Zac, Christian, Emily, and Caleb. Some members of the family found the event rather crowded, but all in all it was a lot of fun. I love it when everything gets full of activity. We were all trying to roast hot dogs at pretty much the same time. We just need to find a more spacious place to put the fire it. I think maybe on the spot between where the upped deck ends and the car begins. We can work it out.

Heidi began being very anxious to leave. She claimed it was because Emily needed to get to bed, but I really think that the problem was that her good buddy Stephan didn't want to come to the party, but she wanted to talk with him about the fact that she didn't get the job she applied for. But whatever the reason, I got the dessert ready as fast as I could. It didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. You can't win them all.