Birthday Breakfast

Today was our 4th Annual Birthday Breakfast. For those that don’t know, birthday breakfast typically takes place on Allyssa’s birthday. We get up early, we pick up two of Allyssa’s best friends and then we go to Cracker Barrel. The girls are always in their pajamas and Allyssa is always wearing a tiara. There have been talks of adding boas or a birthday sash and I think the idea of going into C.B. in a wagon even came up once, although that never materialized. Cracker Barrel is never really crowded at 6:30 in the morning, but we are always the youngest people in there.

We’ve done Birthday Breakfast since Allyssa was a freshman, a tradition I wish we’d had begun earlier. From the silly, Layla wishing for a serenade from E.W. until K.S. stole him away – which we established this morning wasn’t necessarily a bad thing since E.W. turned out to be a dirt bag. To the serious, which I won’t discuss here but the one I’m talking about will know who she is and what it was. I think we’ve covered it all. They laugh with each other, they laugh at each other and they make each other laugh.

Not a whole lot has changed since our first Birthday Breakfast. Physically, they all look about the same. I think Layla will always have long curly red hair and while Allison’s hair has purple streaks in it at the moment, the girls just are who they are and have been since the day I met them. I watched the girls this morning and much like that first birthday breakfast four years ago, the girls were happy and excited. Allison ate off everyone’s plate and probably could have eaten more, Layla pretended she would share the last bite of the birthday cake and ice cream but then scooped it all up and finished it off herself. Allyssa had us all on the verge of wetting our pants when our crabby waitress decided to sing Happy Birthday in hushed tones and then Allyssa proceeded to imitate her with amazing accuracy.

I watched the girls and thought about the kind of women they are becoming and the kind of friends they have been to Allyssa. I thought of her other best friend Megan who goes to a different school and couldn’t attend birthday breakfast and wondered how one child, my child, has managed to surround herself with such good kids. I thought of their families and the friendship their own parents have shown us. I wondered if their parents know what amazing young women they've all turned out to be. Megan with her strong values, intelligence and ability to make us all laugh, Allison with her determination, naiveté and ability to laugh at herself, Layla with an incredible sense of self, her convictions and her ability to make light of any situation and Allyssa with her sense of humor, open mind and genuinely sweet spirit. I thought of the other “friends” Allyssa has had along the way – the ones that I knew very early on would be trouble and thought about all the reasons these four turned out different.

I was saddened by the thought that for next years birthday breakfast I just might be alone since the girls could very well all be away at different colleges. I thought about how much these girls mean to Allyssa and how much their friendship to her has meant to me. I thought about how truly blessed my daughter is to have such strong, amazing young women as her best friends. I thought of my own best friends from junior high and high school, some who are still dear friends to this day and hoped that these girls know what a true gift their friendship is.