Claudia's Birthday, Part 2

Do people ever contemplate ending their lives because a day is too good? If ever there was a day to inspire such life-ending thoughts, it was Sunday. I thought, more than once, that lf I were to die tomorrow it would be ok since I had been here for this day. I also knew that I most likely wouldn't be dying tomorrow and that this day's perfection would diminish in my mind until it was just like any old day. In hopes of keeping it around a little longer, here are the details.

We had the big blowout and the wonderful thing was, it was neither big, nor a blowout. There were no silly themes, no abundance of latex balloons, just simple crepe streamers, freshly mowed grass, and family.

We did the cake and gift thing inside and then moved the party to the yard where four generations of Simonsons played in the sunshine. We invested a whopping $8 in a bubble machine that turned out to be the hit of the party, both for the kids who got to play in 10,000 bubbles, but also for the adults that got to sit and watch without blowing endlessly or being covered in soap.

I felt, the entire day, that there would never be another day as perfect as this one. The great-grandparents won't always be with us, the kids will grow up soon and be too cool to play in the yard with their aunts and uncles. Soon birthdays will come and be about what cartoon character we can have plastered on every available surface and what gifts lie beneath the wrapping paper. But this one, was just about being together, about enjoying a nice Iowa spring day. And it was just about perfect.