Happy Birthday Dad~!

I need to start out first wishing my daddy a very happy 63rd birthday!!  I love you dad!  He is the bald one in the white tee shirt!  :)  And if you aren't from the deep south and don't know what we are eating in the picture below, it's a crawfish boil!!  YUMMY!!

Ok, Kaila Grace is officially 4 and her birthday was a huge success.  What wasn't a huge success and almost completely ruined my day... my camera broke!!  I have not a single picture.  My heart is breaking.  I took 1 picture with my camera phone which SUCKS!  But I took this right after she got out of the bath and put on her birthday dress at around 9 am!  No party pictures.  That breaks my heart!!!  It was just family, but still.  I love taking pictures of everything!  So not having a camera made me very sad.

As soon as Daddy walks in the door after work the festivities begin.  I am having a horrible day because, 1.  I didn't have enough money to buy her cake and food for dinner.  My cleaning job this week ended up cancelling because they stayed in New Orleans this past weekend and didn't need me to come out.  So I wasn't able to afford to get enough food for the week and get the Dora cake she picked out.  Sorry Kaila, I would give you the world if I could, but feeding the family has to come before a birthday cake.  Back to School clothes and supplies have depleted any extra money we would have had along with Kaila's presents.

So I buy a mix.  I even let her pick out those awful letters made of pure sugar that no one actually eats, $2.22 wasted haha ... but still cheaper than a $25 cake.  She is 4 and she was fine.  Mommy cried a little inside.  I hate being poor.  Ok I know I am not poor compared to many others but I feel poor and I don't like that feeling.  I have many blessings.  I really am grateful, but it's hard to lose an income and adjust your lifestyle.  I wasn't rolling in the dough.  I didn't make much at my job to be quite honest.  $33K a year.  Definitely not the highest paying job I have had, but when you lose that income after having it for almost 18 months, you feel it.  If my husband was making $200K a year maybe it wouldn't have been such a blow but he only makes $52K.  So it was a big chunk of our household income.  ANYWAY back on track. 

The cake fell apart!  I am not a baker!  I bake 2 little 8 inch round cakes.  I even know enough to shave the top part of the bottom layer off to make it flat.  It doesn't matter.  No cooperation what-so-ever.  The cake is a disaster.  One whole side crumbles.  I have a melt down.  My kids look at me like I am a lunatic!  But I cry and go lock myself in my room allowing them to decorate the already ruined cake.  How much more damage could 3 kids do to it that I hadn't already done?  So I go in my room, feeling quite sorry for myself, and start wrapping presents.  I am looking at the presents thinking "she is going to hate these.  I am such a failure, I cant even give my 4 year old a half way decent birthday."   To make a very long story not quite so long... She LOVED it!  She was whooping and hollering for just about each gift.  One, the free Dora lunch box that Toys R Us through in for spending $50 online, was her favorite.  She was whoop whooping and raising the roof with her palms up screaming!  Haha my 15 year old, Margaret or Moo Moo as you will hear me refer to her as, was laughing so hard, looked at me and said "OMG mom I have never seen anything so funny in my entire life"  hahaha  It was a success.  So we ate birthday cake before dinner!!  Crazy right?!?!  Then a few neighbors stopped in over the next hour dropping off gifts.  Kaila couldn't have been happier and my heart sang with joy.  That's what it's all about.