This past week I celebrated a momentous birthday.  I left behind my twenties and said hello to thirty.  An age of significance, if you will.  I’m not one for huge celebrations so there weren’t any plans made in my honor.  My daughter on the other hand has a future in party planning.  She was beyond appalled at the lack of party plans, so she took it upon herself to throw me a birthday party.  I’m nothing if not tolerant so I gave her free reins to do what she thought fit.  The result?  A robot thirty party. 

For decorations we enjoyed hand colored print outs of robots taped all throughout the house.  Dinner was an elegant macaroni and cheese, followed by cake pops.  My daughter wanted to make cake pops!  I let her do all the work, in her words, “You’re MY sous chef today Mommy!” I didn’t have a recipe for the cake pops so we mostly flubbed it.  One box of cake squished up with about a half of a can of frosting.  Then she used my cookie scoop to shape the pops and stuck in some craft sticks.  I didn’t have any lollypop sticks due to the fact I wasn’t prepared to make cake pops!  Silly mommy.  We let those chill for a few hours and then covered them with chocolate candy coating.  The goal was to make robot heads.  I remind you that my daughter did all the work here.  She was unbelievably proud of herself being alone in the kitchen decorating.  It was fantastic.  Both kids took the responsibility of creating robot decorations very seriously. 

 The end result was one birthday party that I will never forget.  I realized that this is what its all about, creating memories that my kids will keep forever.  Memories that I will keep forever.  Sharing the love of family.  And that, to me, is far better than any present.

-Stephanie Wright