Can you celebrate your birthday even when it’s not actually the date of your birth? If you ask a five-year old named Mitchell, he would answer a resounding yes.

One Saturday evening, Doc invited her nephew and his family over for a nice summer cook out, complete with Bratwurst, potato salad, slaw, chips and angel food cake and strawberries for dessert. After dinner and a walk in the park, we all came back to the house for dessert when Doc’s family pulled out some cupcakes and a birthday card. They started apologizing for missing Doc’s birthday. Looking puzzled, Doc said, “you didn’t miss my birthday, it’s not until October.” After some discussion, it was determined that her nephew had gotten some incorrect information from another relative, or at least that was his story.

Thinking that the celebration was cancelled, poor Mitchell sat there looking very down trodden. I have to admit I was disappointed too, after all, who doesn’t like a good birthday celebration? Noticing the sour look on everyone’s face, Doc exclaimed, “who says you have to wait for your actual birthday to celebrate your birth?” Woo Hoo!! The party was back on.

Since they forgot to bring candles, Doc fished one out of the junk drawer that happened to be in the shape of the number 3. She told us she was only three this year. Neither Mitchell or myself missed the humor in that one since we both know she is older than dirt. She even found an old Happy Birthday banner to hang and some red and blue balloons to blow up. After decorating, we lit the candle, sang Happy Birthday and then Doc asked Mitchell to help her blow out the candle and make a wish. It was so much fun we decided that from now on, we shouldn’t wait if we want to celebrate the birth of someone we love. Lets be more spontaneous from now on we decided.

That’s the great thing about five-year olds, they don’t follow the rules. They remember what many adults have forgotten, that any time is a good time for a party.