Today is my husband's birthday ... I can't say how many years without dating myself, so I refuse to share.

It is the Swedish tradition to wake the birthday person with singing and gifts first thing in the morning. So, I dragged myself out of bed extra early (I am not a morning person) and started the preparations for breakfast of my world-famous surprise pancakes, then went upstairs to have the kids sign the birthday card (nothing like doing things the last second, but at least I wrapped the gifts last night). They were very excited about the special day - so much so that Anton forgot to argue about the fact that he is not allowed to wear his Batman pajamas to school. If he could, he would wear them everywhere. In fact, we caught him the other day putting them on under his school clothes, to sneak them to school. Remember, he is three.

After the card was done, Anton and I left Kelly in her room to finish her six-year-old primping. I finished setting the table, then announced to Anton that it was time to sing to Pappa. He immediately ran to the stairs and yelled up to Kelly "Kelly, it's time to SNEAK!" To which Kelly replied matter of factly, "Anton, it isn't a surprise if you scream." I wish I could capture the actual inflection and tone when Anton replied "Oh, yeah..." As if he had just learned something remarkably clever from his ever-so-smart big sister. Way too charming!

In the end, we had a nice little celebration - all jumping on the bed with Christer covered in tissue paper and gifts. I am not sure he was thrilled with the video camera, but I think it will be fun to capture these memories with the kids. Let's just hope it doesn't meet the fate of the super-fabulous MP3 player I bought for him (pre-iPod days) that remained 'charging' for about two years before we finally moved homes and lost it for good.

Happy Birthday, Honey!