Birthday Adventures

MADDIE: AGE 6 1/2

NOAH: AGE 10 MONTHS

"Come on Maddie. We have to go before the store closes," I hollered upstairs to my daughter as I grabbed my car keys off the hook.

"Where are we going Daddy?" she asked, appearing at the bottom of the steps.

"We have to go get Mommy a birthday present, remember?"

"Oh yeah." Misty's birthday was today, and as usual, I had waited until the absolute last minute to take the kids to get her a present. At the rate things were going, though, I didn't think we would make it to the store in time.

"Maddie let's go," I ushered her through the door, unlocking the car and shutting the garage door behind me.

Once her and Noah were strapped into their car seats, we headed to the mall in search of a gift for Misty. Despite my late planning, I had somehow found time to go get a present from myself earlier in the week. It was taking the kids that I had put off, and for very valid reasons. The main one being that my children fought more than Misty and I had as kids- if that was even possible.

"What do you want to get Mommy?" I asked Maddie who was sitting in the back seat.

"Uh... I don't know." Well that wasn't very helpful. "What do you think Mommy will like?"

"Well, you know Mommy pretty well. What do you think she would want?"

"A bike!" Maddie cheered from the back seat. Ugh... that stupid bike.

"Uh... how about something else? Mommy doesn't need a bike."

"But Daddy, you asked me what she wanted and she has asked for a bike every year. We should get Mommy a bike."

"Bike!" Noah blurted. He didn't know the significance of the bike yet. He just liked to follow what his sister said.

"No bike guys. Try to come up with something else."

For the rest of the car ride, we tried to come up with other ideas fro Misty's gift, but things kept coming back to the bike. It got to the point where my kids started chanting bike in the backseat. I think I finally understood why people thought I was annoying as a kid.

When we got to the mall, I somehow managed to unload everything, stick Noah in his stroller, and get into the mall without having to chase after a kid. Believe me, this was considered a success in my life. The first store we went to was a Pokemon store that sold all kinds of supplies and Pokemon related merchandises. Of course, since we were in the Pokemon store, all chances of finding something for Misty went down the drain.

"No Maddie. We're here for Mommy, not you," I said for what felt like the millionth time as Maddie brought over some Pokegear thing. Every time I told her no, she would just come back with something else. I finally gave up and left the store to head to another one.

We were walking through the mall when I was halted by a shriek of joy from Maddie. "I FOUND IT!" she exclaimed, stopping in front of a store window. Before I went to check out what she was looking at, I silently prayed it was something for Misty and not her.

"What is it Maddie?" I asked, walking up to the window.

"I want to get Mommy that!" she declared, pointing to a fishing pole. I guess that could work. Misty's current fishing pole was really old and would probably break if she caught anything larger than five pounds. "Mommy loves fishing so I know she would love that."

"Hmm, I think that's a great idea Maddie." Deciding to walk into the store, we went up and asked a worker about the fishing pole in the window. He explained that it was on sale and that it was the latest design in fishing poles. Whatever that meant. Again, Misty understood this stuff a lot better than I did. Taking his word for it, we purchased the fishing pole and a new tackle box.

"Daddy?" Maddie asked as we left the store. "Can we get stickers?"

"For what?" I asked.

"To decorate the tackle box," she explained.

"Yeah sure. That sounds like a good idea." Misty was always a big softy for hand made stuff from her kids no matter how bad it looked. I always had to be careful when I shut the refrigerator, preventing the numerous pictures from falling off. After some convincing, I had finally gotten Misty to buy a small chest that she could stick everything in if she wanted to save it.

After buying numerous packs of stickers, each one having a specific meaning behind it, we headed to the car so we could get home before Misty did. Once we were home, I set the tackle box and stickers on the floor so Maddie and Noah could decorate the box. Without even having to ask, you could easily tell which stickers Maddie had placed on the box and which ones Noah had. While Maddie had neatly placed them in a specific order, Noah had covered one section of the box with the same pack of stickers, many of them overlapping. He had also managed to stick a few on himself, too. Since I wasn't too big on the creative side, I had let them do it on their own.

When they were done, we attempted to wrap the box the best we could. It didn't look too bad, but it wasn't wrapped as neat as Misty could wrap something. Basically, you could tell a guy and two kids had wrapped it, with numerous amounts of tape and bows scattered over the paper. We had decided that we weren't going to wrap the fishing pole and instead give it to her after she opened the tackle box. Also, it would be kind go obvious what it was if we tried to wrap it. With only a few minutes until Misty was due to arrive home, I pulled out the cards Maddie and Noah had made yesterday and had them sign them.

"I'm home!" Misty called, just as they were finishing up signing the cards and I was finishing up hanging up the sign they had made for her.

"MOMMY!" Maddie and Noah cried, racing to meet Misty. They crashed into her, each one grabbing on of her legs, refusing to let go. Bending down, Misty patted each one on the head before she picked Noah up and walked to the kitchen.

'HAPPY BRITHDAY MOMMY!" Maddie cheered, pulling Misty over to see the sign her and Noah had made for her. Just like Maddie had cheered, the sign read, 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY/ MIST! WE LOVE YOU!'

"Aww," Misty cooed in that mom voice. "Thank you very much. I love it." And I could tell she really did by the way her eyes lit up and a little bit of red appeared on her cheeks.

"Open your present!" Maddie demanded, shoving the poorly wrapped gift into Misty's hands.

Upon seeing how the gift was wrapped, Misty just smiled and laughed. "Did you two wrap this for me?" she asked, addressing her two kids.

"Yep," Maddie nodded. "Daddy helped us, too."

"He did, did he?" she asked, turning to smile at me as Maddie nodded again. Lifting the box to her ear, she shook it trying to figure it out. "I wonder what it is."

"It's the best gift ever!"

"Eva!" Noah repeated, clapping his hands.

"The best gift ever?" Misty asked. "Better than you and Noah?" To Misty the best gifts she had ever received-despite what she might have said in the hospital-were Maddie and Noah.

"Mommy," Maddie whined. "Open the gift."

"Open! Open!" Noah clapped some more.

"Okay," she sighed. And with that she began tearing at the paper, slowly revealing the gift. When she had removed all the paper, she examined the sticker-covered box before popping the top and opening it. "It's a tackle box! I've been needing a new one." Setting the box on the table, she leaned down to give Maddie and Noah a group hug. "Thank you very much you two. I love it. I love the stickers, too."

"There's Pikachus, Tentacruels, lots of water pokemon, a Togepi, the cascade badge and lots of other stuff," Maddie pointed out for her. When they were picking out the stickers they had tried to pick ones that had significant meaning to Misty.

"There's one more thing, Misty," I told her standing up to go get the fishing pole.

"WAIT!" Maddie shouted, halting me. "You have to open our cards first."

"Oh of course," Misty agreed as Maddie handed her the two cards. Opening the first one Misty awed at the abstract drawing Noah had colored for her. Since he couldn't write his name, Maddie had written it for him. Next she opened Maddie's card, causing a laugh to escape her lips.

"What's so funny?" I asked. I hadn't read the cards they made.

"Here," she said handing me the card. When I opened it, I just rolled my eyes at what Maddie had written. Daddy wouldn't let us get you a bike, so this was the closest thing we could come up with, the card read. Handing back the card to Misty, I went to go get the fishing pole.

When I brought it out, Misty couldn't help but laugh as she made the connection between Maddie's card and the gift. She loved it though, and instantly snatched the fishing pole from my hands before I could hand it to her. She said some more thank yous to Maddie and Noah before we had some dinner and cake. For once, this had actually turned out to be a nice birthday for her.

After the kids were put in bed, Misty and I headed back to the kitchen to clean up the festivities from earlier.

"So what did you get me, Mr. Pokemon Master," Misty asked, smirking with her hands on her hips.

"Nothing," I replied.

"What?" she asked shocked.

"I'm kidding Mist. Of course I got you something." I smiled as a small smile crept onto her face. Turning to face her, I pulled out a small box from my pocket and handed it over to her. "Here."

"What is it?" she asked, examining the box.

"You have to open it." Like I would tell her. That would ruin the surprise.

Rolling her eyes at me, she tore away the paper that was wrapped around the box. Opening the little box, she gasped at the sight before her, putting her hand over her mouth. Inside the box was a necklace with a ruby pendant just like the one found on a Tentacool. Pulling the necklace out of the box, she turned around so I could help her put it on. She pulled up her hair so I could slip it around her neck and clasp it shut. "It's beautiful Ash," she whispered, holding the pendant in her hands.

"I'm glad you like it," I smiled. I knew she would, but it was always nice to hear her say it.

"I love it," she sighed in content, pulling me in for a hug and then a kiss. Just before she pulled away, though, I heard her whisper something in my ear. "But mark my words, Ketchum. One day I'll get my bike."