When my son was born I couldn’t imagine this day. I couldn’t see past the diapers and onesies and sudden mounds of laundry created by a very small 7 pound 8 ounce baby. I couldn’t imagine having an hour to myself much less conjure the day this boy would be making plans with his friends that didn’t involve the word playdate.

But the day has come.

How to celebrate?

This was a real quandary for me. If you’ve read here for any length of time, you know I’m a fan of the down-home birthday party. There have been pirate parties and jungle parties and gazillion of other parties involving cake, ice cream, balloons, lots of children, and some variation of the “hot potato” game.

But 13. You know, it’s just not that cool to play hot potato anymore. So what are the options?

• Two of his friends had pool parties at the homes of family friends of theirs that have pools. Not only do we not have a pool of our own, we don’t have close friends with a pool of their own, so…pool party: out.
• Sleepover? Yuck. I was so NOT up for that.
• Boys at the cottage? Tubing, mini-golf, beach, s’mores? Fun, yes, but how many boys would you want to take tubing? And then the sleepover is inevitable. Double yuck.

So here’s what we decided: we’d go for the element of surprise. We just threw an end-of-the-school-year party, where I had 22 kids at my house, so I WAS NOT UP FOR A HUGE PARTY. As such, we didn’t invite all of his friends, just a few we knew were in town that weekend. We settled on a date a full two weeks before his birthday (before he pinned me down with his frequent, “Mom, what are we going to do for my birthday this year?”) Included: cake, ice cream, enough soda and Doritos to scare any parent, an outdoor movie projected in our backyard, and a request for your parents to pick you up at 11:00. See, that’s the bonus of being 13–your friends can go home really late and it’s totally fine. Hooray!

This also marks the first time I didn’t make his cake myself, because how on earth could I explain making a birthday cake so far in advance of his birthday? Instead, we bought this lovely gem at Costco which may have been enough cake to feed our entire town. It was quite tasty, I must admit. And wow, placing the order and picking it up: so easy!

On his actual birthday, we took him to Chicago to see the Harry Potter Exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry and, if I say so myself, that was a great idea all the way around. Chicago: awesome! Harry Potter exhibit: very cool! Legoland Discovery Center: fine, but mini-lego of Chicago skyline: awesome!

And since I haven’t found my camera, my very very very pretty and very very very nice friend Sharee’ lent me hers for the weekend. Because I’m so responsible, you know. I’d never lose it.