Of course, that was central time. It was still my Dad's birthday Hawaii time!
And in the decade since David's birth, he hasn't taken off a baseball cap since...
And as is our custom, each of us selects the "cake" of their choice - David's being a chocolate cream pie, of course.
To make matters even more confusing, we celebrated with a birthday breakfast, then sang happy birthday over the pie, only to put the pie back in the fridge for a lunch-time snack.
Why all this birthday confusion? Well, for the last two months the kids have known that on David's birthday one of his presents would be so special that it wasn't just for him - but for the whole family. And we wanted the whole day Sunday to play with it!
But before we go to that, David's first birthday present was to finally receive his personal checking account from the Bank of Bicoy...
This is a life lesson we started with Alyssa and are now continuing with David. Until this age, the kids receive a small allowance of a dollar or three a week, mostly to be used for fun stuff (and to contribute to birthday gifts for friends and family).
When our kids turn the right age, however, we open them a real savings account at a bank and a pretend checking account with the Bank of Bicoy.
Cari set up a budget for pretty much everything David would typically need over the year. How many new pairs of jeans he will need. How many shirts. New shoes, sandals, and socks. Haircuts, school supplies, and presents for birthdays, Christmas, mother's day, and the all important father's day.
She even built in money for activities like little league baseball and just plain ol' fun stuff.
Once that budget is set, we contribute 1/12th that amount into a savings account for David every month - and he can spend it however he wants. He can spend all his money on comic books and video games if he wants - but when he outgrows his jeans and he has no money left, too bad. He has to wear those high-water pants until the next regularly scheduled deposit. Just as one day as a grownup he'll have to wait until payday.
If he uses all his money on that really cool new jacket and he has no money to register for baseball, tough luck.
The goal, obviously, is to teach the kids to prioritize things, save money, and to recognize that money isn't a limitless resource. It also has the added advantage of never having to hear your kids say, "Can I have that?" when you're at the store. The answer is always, "It's your money." If they run out, too bad.
The good news is that if he's thrifty and buys his jeans on sale to come in under budget, he gets to spend the savings on fun stuff for himself.
To take the learning a bit further, we set up the Bank of Bicoy - which is a pretend checking account from which he "writes checks" to pay his bills as needed.
It's a lot of work on our part, but it worked well with our oldest Alyssa. She HATES spending money and has an aversion to shopping.
We love that.
Alyssa did such a good job shopping at sales and saving her money that she actually was able to buy a brand new ipod earlier this year, entirely because of her own good budgeting.
Finally, however, after the Bank of Bicoy and the other gifts, David was going to get to the big birthday present.
Grandma Betty and Grandpa Bernie sent Christmas money last December which, when combined with a change jar to which everyone in the family contributes, we were going to splurge and buy something completely ridiculous for the kids. Unfortunately, the gift on which we were going to use that money at Christmas was sold out everywhere. We searched high and low all December to no avail - and in fact even now in March Cari had to wait in line first thing in the morning at Target to get one of the only 24 units that were available this month.
It's really a gift for all the kids, and David's birthday presents from us were going to be all the anxillary things around the main gift. But we thought it would be fun to open on David's birthday.
What is it?
Well, we told Nalani and Malia that it was going to be spaghetti. And of course they went and told their brother David.
David, in turn, didn't believe his sisters, even though they ultimately proved to be at least partially correct...
Look above at the enthusiam on David and Alyssa's face after they finished opening a wrapped present consisting pasta and spaghetti sauce.
Then compare that reaction to the screams of the kids when they opened the real present...
Yes, it's a new video game system.
The brand new and best-selling Nintendo Wii.
Why is this video game system so darn cool? Look at the picture of David playing golf below...
You control the Wii with a wireless motion-sensitive remote. In the case above, David swings the remote as if it were the handle of a golf club and the character on the screen follows his exact motion.
Here's another scene in which David is throwing a virtual pitch and Bretty is swinging his virtual baseball bat...
The harder David throws, the faster the pitch. As Bretty swings his bat, so too does his character on the screen...
And this is just a simple game to teach you how to use the motion-sensitive controls. You'd be amazed at how much fun the Wii really is! That's why it has been impossible to find until just a few weeks ago - but we now finally have one!
Happy Birthday & Merry Christmas to the Bicoy kids!
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