Lizzy's birthday

LIZZY’S BIRTHDAY

The first thing that came to my mind as I woke up was that the day had finally come. I immediately felt guilty because I'm supposed to thank God for waking me up and other blessings before going about my day so I quickly went on my knees and prayed making sure I did not rush through it. The excitement that I felt when I woke up started again and this time I could not control it, I started smiling. My name is Elizabeth and I'm the youngest in the house. We are a family of five, my dad, my mom, my two brothers; the twins and me. I'm ten years old and today is actually my birthday so to celebrate my birthday, everybody is going to watch my baby videos and I have a lot. My mom is the type that keeps everything. I'm amazed at the things still in our house. I was surprised when I saw when I saw the gown she wore to prom, meanwhile I am the direct opposite, I hate clutters and the house is full of them and they sometimes drive me crazy. I got it from my dad. One of my brothers is like me and my dad and his name is John while the other is like my mom and his name is James. Even though we most times do not agree on things, we are very close. My brothers are fourteen and as infuriating as they come but I still love them.

Today is my birthday and I'm so happy because my parents are not going to work. We are all going to be at home. As I'm thinking of how much I'm going to enjoy myself, I smell pancakes and I almost squeal. Pancakes are my absolute favorite but I don't get to eat it much because the rest of the family prefer cereals which is okay but I love pancakes. I run to the kitchen and meet my mom almost done with the pancakes and I run to hug her. My mom laughs as she hugs me and greets me happy birthday and prays for me. I think that is my best part, everyone gets to pray for me as they wish me happy birthday and if that is not special I don't know what is. As mom is praying for me, dad and the twins enter and wish me happy birthday and pray for me also. I'm so happy but I tell myself that this is just the beginning. Mom finishes making breakfast refusing my help because I am the birthday girl. We all go to the dining to eat our breakfast. After we finish eating, we all go to our rooms to freshen up and do all we have to do with plans to reconvene by 9:00am. By 9:00am everybody is down and gathered in the sitting room by the TV. Mom puts in the videos and we all settle down to watch and laugh at some of my crazy antics because I was not a gentle child, I was actually very active that when I began walking, most of our properties were pinned down to the floor to prevent damage. About 30 minutes into the videos, there was a light out, everything using electricity suddenly went off including elevators. It was so shocking; we were laughing one moment, the next moment we were looking at each other. I was amazed because this was my first light out, the country was known for light every second and I had never witnessed this and it was a new thing to me. At least, that was my expression before I looked at my family and they were all looking at me. When I asked them why they were staring at me then James reminded me that my birthday plan just went awry. I started crying when I realized that fact. Luckily for me, my cake had already been baked so it was ready. When I realized that, I stopped crying.

  Everybody started making suggestions about what to do when my dad suggested camping. We all looked at him as if he was crazy but he did not mind our looks. He told us that he heard some people discussing backyard camping. The fact was that the whole family had always wanted to go wilderness camping but our schedules never allowed it, despite that fact, dad had already bought the requirements for camping so we had a tent that had never been used before. Everybody started giving suggestions about the backyard camping then we realized that the only way we would know if it would work is if we gave it a trial so we decided to try it out. Fortunately, our backyard was big so it could be used. We brought out the tent, some blankets, air mattress and the musical instruments we could play in the house. Since it was my birthday, I was allowed to choose the place to put the tent. It was then agreed that we would look at my baby pictures while dad and mom would say the story behind it. 

  Dad taught us how to set the tent and my brothers and I set it up. We were so proud of our accomplishment because it looked like an expert set the tent up. We arranged the air mattress inside the tent until it was like a cozy cottage. Our camping snack was marshmallow fluffs and nutella with hot chocolate suggested by my dad and agreed by the whole family but since it wasn't long that we ate breakfast we decided to wait until we were hungry. We then proceeded to lock our house and go into the tent. We started with my baby pictures and then moved to other fun activities. As it turned out, my birthday was much better than we had all planned. Initially, after watching my baby videos, we were going to continue our daily activities with the exception of my parents staying home but the backyard camping was much more fun, we played board and card games, Frisbee and other lawn games we knew. We even went on scavenger hunts to find out the names of different insects, flowers and trees. Aside from the fact that we were all able to relax together as a family even though we were celebrating my birthday, we were all able to appreciate nature all over again and it wasn't so bad that there was light out.