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April showers bring May flowers, so the saying goes. In our family, April also brings a couple of birthdays.

My husband, Jay, celebrated his 46th birthday April 7. It was a good reminder that while all birthdays have the potential to be memorable, not all those memories are equally pleasant.

Jay spent his birthday morning having some much-needed oral surgery after a long weekend of dealing with an abscessed tooth.
He doesn’t remember a lot about the day until late into the evening.

He probably got the best gift he could have asked for, though, a day of sleep as prescribed by the doctor.

When you reach a certain age, sleep is as good as gold.

Bayley, our cocker spaniel, turned 10 on April 22. He spends most of his days sleeping the hours away while the rest of us go about our business. He changes nap locations depending on where we are in the house at the time.

His birthday was uneventful compared to last year’s celebrations. It was enough to just breathe a sigh of relief he made it this far, especially with some of the health issues he’s had.

Since birthdays in our house are usually a big deal, these last two seemed a bit anticlimactic compared to other years.

In the past, we’ve celebrated with vigor with the kids. Kids always know how to liven up a special day, sometimes giving us more than we bargained for.

One such birthday was my daughter’s third. The theme was Cinderella. I found some ballet tutus at a thrift store that could be used as inexpensive princess capes. I also bought tiaras for the girls and crowns for the boys.

After playing in the back yard and eating cake, my daughter began to open her presents. Hannah, discovered her friend Jamie Peeler had given her a Little Mermaid book with images from the movie.

“I didn’t watch it because I didn’t like it,” Hannah said. A few weeks prior to her birthday, she had attempted to watch the movie, cutting it off abruptly when it got too scary for her.

Gracefully, I got her to thank her friend for the gift before moving on. We laugh at the situation now, though at the time, as her mother, I was mortified.

My daughter struck once again at my son’s third birthday. It was a sunny day, and Pooh Bear was the theme. Christopher was opening gifts including one from my brother and his kids — a Batman set of some kind, with plastic characters from the movie.

My daughter spoke up once again stating, “That’s a BAD TOY, isn’t it mama, THAT’S A BAD TOY!”

I wanted to slide under the quilt on the grass, which everyone was sitting on. While it wasn’t a toy we would have chosen for our son, I did not want Hannah to share this strong opinion with all of the partygoers.

My 32nd birthday was on a Sunday. After church, my husband and I walked over to the children’s ministry bay to pick up the kids. As I stood there waiting, a lone Frisbee flew across the room, hitting me in the head, knocking my glasses to the floor. It knocked a screw loose in my glasses and made my head start to hurt.

After getting the kids, we drove to Fran’s Front Porch for lunch, where one thing after another went wrong. The meal ended with a waiter dumping dirty dishes in my son’s lap.

We can all laugh about these mishaps and unfortunate events now, though sometimes attempts to celebrate are enough to make you say, “Just try to have a happy birthday.”

Linda Vestal is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend living in Gibsonville. Contact her with comments or story ideas at lindavestal@triad.rr.com.