Birthday party

I love doing birthday parties for my son. I know plenty of moms who search out places where they can pay people to set up the party — trampoline or sports places, karate studios, etc.

And I've done a couple of those things. We had Griffin's party at a taekwondo studio where the owner helped him used a giant gumdo sword (or Korean sword). We also had a pool party in November at one of the local YMCAs. That was fun. We had beach-themed snacks and a cake with little teddy bear crackers floating on the water in rings of gummy candy.

But this year, Griffin was very concerned that if I did his usual kind of party, I would overdo and get too tired. And he was probably right to think that way.

It's weird because even with all the cancer stuff going on, regular events still happen. And we have to acknowledge them. If feels all at once odd and soothing to me to celebrate an event.

Last year, because of COVID, we had a surprise outdoor movie night in our backyard. Each kid got a box with a bag of popcorn and packaged candy. We were trying to be really careful.

But this year, because of my cancer and other health stuff, COVID still thriving and now the delta variant, I thought we should do a similar party.

Here's his invitation.

So we set up the screen and projector in the backyard, ordered pizza and bought a cake (that was really hard for me). But I felt like Griffin and I needed to do something creative, something special.

So we made some pretzel rod lightsabers, labels for the water bottles and a snack mix that he wanted to name "Murder Bear Munch." His naming inspiration was because he wanted to show "Return of the Jedi," which features ewoks, little bear-looking creatures that use rocks and spears to take care of bad guys.

It was nice for us to do something like this together because with my energy level at such a low, I haven't spent as much time with him as I'd like lately.

Here are our creations:

I can't believe my baby is 13 years old! He's growing up to be a kind and caring kid, and I love the way he's helped to take care of me. Hopefully, I'm making some girl a good husband!