Helena’s Half Birthday

Usually I remember half birthday of each of the kids, although I never write it down. Luckily for the most part I remember a day or two in advance and make them a cake. Sometimes I cut a candle in half or something like that.

Helena’s seven and a half birthday wasn’t remembered until after dinner when I happened to look at the calendar to find out when Dalen and I would be paid.

So after dinner, I told her that I would take her out. I looked at the menu at the new restuarant in the neighborhood, whose name I don’t know, but it didn’t look like a nice place for dessert, so we ended up at Bryant Lake Bowl. Helena got a Shirly Temple (she asked for “the drink that I spilled on my wedding dress” which was really her flower girl dress from Libby’s wedding) and cheesecake, which she loves. Then she wanted to go bowling, but that wasn’t in the cards. We tried the next night, but the lanes were full but we did go to ZRS Fossils on Lyndale which both Helena and Liam loved and I was lucky to walk out of there with the same number of bills that I went in with (“Liam, which is your favorite one? I like this one!….Oh, look at this one!”) . The following night we tried flying an eight-inch kite (which was my father’s day present from Liam – slightly better than the can of pork-and-beans by way of Ada). By the end of the week, they had forgotten about it, so I thought.