Midnight Goddess

Happy 7th Birthday, Memphis!

Ok, this post is a day late. But that’s ok.

I was worried for a few weeks because we’ve been on a tight budget. In fact, we’re behind on several bills. We just barely paid our rent today. Anyway, I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to afford to do anything for Memphis’ 7th birthday. He’s such a sweet, loving, intelligent boy. He can be pissy and demanding sometimes. But all kid have their moments. I didn’t want to disappoint him on his birthday.

I wanted to buy Memphis at least a few things: Nintendogs Dalmation and Friends DS, Buildabear DS, a portable dvd player, Spongebob Season 1, and Wall-E DS. I also wanted to take him to Gilroy Gardens. He had expressed interest in going there since none of us have ever been there before. I had researched it and found out that if we buy the tickets online, it would save us $30. I made the decision to save at least $200 for the gifts.

At the very last minute I was able to save enough for all the gifts. But there was still the question of how to make enough for the Gilroy Gardens trip. However, God was looking out for us. Marty was able to collect enough metal for recyling which would be used to pay for our amusement park trip.

Memphis really wanted a big party like Tyler but one, I didn’t have enough $$$ for that and 2, I don’t deal well being surrounded by a lot of people for a long period of time. I didn’t want to disappoint him which is why I figured taking him to Gilroy Gardens would be a good alternative.

Yesterday was Memphis’ birthday. When Memphis got up and raced to the family room, he looked around the room. I think he was expecting a big party, decorations, a cake, and a ton of presents. I could see a flicker of sadness in his eyes when he realized there was nothing waiting there. I greeted him a happy birthday and gave him hugs and kisses. I told him that when Dad gets back, he can open his presents. He waited anxiously while he slowly ate his breakfast.

Marty then called me up and said that it didn’t take long at Sims and he also found Buildabear DS, the last of the things on my shopping list. When he got home, I quickly wrapped up the gift and dropped it in a large Spongebob bag that held the rest of Memphis’ gifts. When I came out with the bag, Memphis’ eyes grew wide. I snapped a bunch of pictures as Memphis eagerly ripped open his gifts. He was so happy and excited getting all the gifts. I knew that me and Marty did good and that I picked the right ones for Memphis.

After everyone was dressed, we headed to Gilroy Gardens. I had already bought tickets online. It was scorching hot when we got there but there weren’t very many people. I was glad about that and the fact that I made sure me and the kids wore shorts. We didn’t have to wait in line because of the fact that we already bought our  tickets. Plus, there weren’t very many people and we had arrived at 2 pm, 4 hours before the park was going to close for the day.

Gilroy Gardens was pretty cool but I wouldn’t buy season passes. It was interesting looking at the circus trees. I did take a few photos of those. We also got on a few rides that the entire family could get on: Panorama Wheel, Sky Rail, and Backroads. When we had first arrived at the park, we had to walk far just to find the restaurant where we wanted to eat. It wasn’t even a restaurant. It was like a food stand with very few places outside to eat. It was also right next to the water park. A bunch of kids in bathing suits were running around and getting wet. Neither Memphis or Jaz showed any interested in getting wet, thankfully. I did bring towels but they didn’t want to go to the water park. When Marty brought the food over, we tried to sit at the picnic table and eat. But the hamburger tasted nasty. The patty and lettuce were dry and sandwiched between wheat buns. Memphis ate most if not all of his burger. And we kept getting pestered by annoying bees. At one point, a bee landed on my burger and started walking all over. I lost my apetite at that point. That lunch was not worth even half of the $40 we spent on it.

We also checked out a few of the shops. Amazingly enough, Memphis didn’t want to buy anything. I was actually prepared to buy him and Jaz each something. But they didn’t want anything.

We did have fun at Gilroy Gardens. But there was a lot of walking and too much heat involved. I think the worse thing that happened was when we all sat down on a bench to cool off with churros and cold cokes. I wanted to rearrange my bag and nearly had a heart attack when I realized it wasn’t on my shoulder. There was a look of crazed anger in Marty’s eyes as he sped off to the Sky Rail, the ride we were last on. I was panicking because I was afraid of the huge embarassing blowup that I would have to face. I didn’t want this to happen on Memphis’ birthday.

When Marty arrived with no bag, I started to get even more nervous. He told me that a lady over at the other ride said that she saw a black bag hanging from the Panorama Wheel. We looked over and saw my bag hanging on a pole at that ride. I thanked God for looking out for me as I retrieved the bag. I also thanked Marty for not getting mad at me.

We left around 5 pm. Everyone was exhausted from all the heat and walking. Even Memphis wanted to go home. So I wasn’t going to push it. The park was going to close at 6 pm anyway.

When we got home, we just relaxed and Memphis played with his new things. We had a quick and easy dinner of honey BBQ chicken while Memphis had left over pizza. Then we took off for Bart’s house so Marty could get paid for the previous week’s work.

After that, we got home. I baked a chocolate cake that filled the apartment with a sweet aroma. Unfortunately, when I pulled it out, the center was still liquid. So Marty picked up a chocolate cake at Safeway. Memphis put the candles in the cake and Marty lit them up with his torch LOL. We sang Memphis a happy birthday and he blew out the candles. He had made a wish that he can have a puppy. Someday…