There's a LIGHT at the End of This Post

I mentioned in my last post that Lukas will turn the big 05 this week.  And, as I am sure many of you parents out there know when your child is due to, or has just turned a certain age you are sure to be involved in the "Birthday Circuit".

We are currently running in the 5th Birthday Circuit.  Along with the 30 other kids in Lukas' Pre-K class, he also has a lot of local friend in their 5th year too.  That makes for a lot of birthday parties.  In fact, we attended another one Sunday. And at this one a funny thing happened.  Ironically, it was the same funny thing happened at Lukas' 5th birthday party just the previous week.

His was a Star Wars themed party where he was dressed up as Luke Skywalker.  The party was also for two other kids in his class who also turned 5 in June.  A boy, who was dark haired, taller, and bigger framed than Lukas.  He was Han Solo.  And a girl, who came decked out as none other than Princess Leia herself.

Sound awesome? It was, but you will have to take my word for it.  We didn't get many pictures.  We gave the kids blow up light-sabers, had a ton of Star Wars themed crafts, decorations, and treats,  and even.....wait for it......projected Episode IV onto the wall of the community center where it was held.  Sure, it was loud in there and the kids couldn't really hear the movie, but that didn't deter from the atmosphere.

The kids did get a bit...err...wild at times with the blow up sabers, but it was definitely a memorable party.  Not having many pictures was a shame, since they would have been awesome too.  We are actually hoping some of the other parents got some great shots they can send along.

But none of what I just mentioned is the funny thing that happened at both parties.  Especially since the one on Sunday was not a Star Wars themed party.

What did happen?  Well at both parties, which were attended by a large number of parents, the hosts were gathering everyone up to sing happy birthday, but when we got to the part where we actually light the candles we came to the realization we didn't have any matches.  And, a survey of all the parents in the room (more than 30 in our case) yielded nothing either.  No smokers.  Not a one.

Now, thankfully our party was at an urban community center, and there was a shady looking dude lounging out on one of the couches who was a smoker and loaned us a match. (Later I delivered him a cupcake with Yoda on a toothpick stuck on top to show my gratitude).  But it took that one guy to save the day.

This certainly would have been unheard of at my 5th birthday party nearly 40 years ago.  Although thankfully my parents didn't smoke, they were in the minority.  At many of our extended family parties back then someone might have just as easily cut the air mistaking it for the cake.  That was just the culture.  Can we get a collective  "We have come a long way from those days"?

And, as Mrs. LIAYF reminded me, as kids we used to suck down candy cigarettes like they were, well, real cigarettes.  Crazy.  That would be like us giving our kids little candy bottles of tequila, or Night Train.

Anyway, when the time came to sing we thankfully received what we needed,  a light.

Have a great week everybody.

Photo Credit: fistofblog.com