One thing that I (we) have tried to do is make our children aware of Brandon's job situation without making it a burden on them. nothing worse than a 7 and soon to be 6 year old having that weight on their hearts. We have made it clear that we have to cut back and make smarter choices about money, but not to the point that we are screaming "No, we can't we are POOR!" or "Don't ever ask for that again, we can't afford it!" as I've heard other people say and it breaks my heart. Give a kid some hope, some faith that they CAN achieve things even if it seems a little out of reach. It's not the end of the world... and family money issues should be the last of their worries at that age.
Before the "bad news" came down... we had already had the plan in place to go to
Michigan's Adventure with the kids on Sept. 1st to celebrate the boy's SUPER SPECIAL BIRTHDAY!!!
A long time running tradition (at least in my mind) is that whatever day your birthday is, when you turn that age, it is your ultra super duper amazing birthday!
So little man's birthday is Sept. 6th making his 6th birthday { awesomesauce }....
Well, when his first question after finding out about my hubby's lack of employment was "do I still get to have my birthday?" It completely broke our hearts... The kids had no clue what our fantabulous surprise plans were and we maintained the :: TOP SECRET :: nature of our plan... until the very moment we pulled up to the entrance to the park. :)
They both knew there was a surprise. what it was exactly was open to speculation. There were plenty of guesses but I like hat they believed for the better part of the ride that they were getting shots for school...
*yep, I'm THAT mean!* It just made them all the more grateful, didn't it?!? ;) Their other favorite guess was great white shark fishing... haha
So, as we had been blessed with tickets to the park by my mother-in-law, all that it entailed from us financially was the gas and food (which, you have to eat anyways). So I made a variety of sandwiches, cut up some fruit, grabbed some string cheese and other snacky goodness, tossed it all in the cooler and we were off.
The moment we pulled up to the park entrance was ~bliss~... They were both so excited!!! We were somewhat apprehensive that the day before Labor Day weekend had the potential to be REALLY busy... wrong!!! It was great!!! There were basically no lines at all, with the exception of bumper boats, which I am not getting into. ;)
I was not aware that I had two Ride Warriors on my hands. He was a little bummed that he was that 1/2" short to go on the good rides... but they still had a blast!
Next year they are going to experience Cedar Point... forget this "baby park"!!
All in all it was an amazing day and we are so thankful that we were able
to celebrate little man's big day in style.
our crew all wet and worn out from the water park...
nothing better!