A Special Birthday going across the Dateline

Andrew always jokes about skipping someone’s birthday.

Well, this year it almost happened. We celebrated Hannah’s 13th birthday on a dramatically shortened Friday the 13th as we flew across the dateline from U.S.A. to New Zealand. The plane took off, in LA, on the 12th of January and we landed, in New Zealand, 13 hours later, on the 14th of January.

We had a multiple day celebration as we sometimes do when we just can’t fit all the fun into one short day. It started with a Birthday Party at “Chuck-e-cheese”. This is a noisy, child friendly pizza parlor that most parents try to avoid whenever possible. We brought in gifts, balloons and a cake. The balloons and a plastic birthday crown became the common denominator over the next several days. Hannah was hardly seen without them as she enjoyed multiple birthday cakes over the next few days. She had a ladybug cake at Chuck-e-cheese’s, a brownie cake on top of a swingset, an ice cream cake at Johnny Rockets and some chocolate cake left over from first class by some very nice flight attendants. Many people loved her big gift of “five-fingered” shoes. I think she had a good birthday.