The Terrific3 travel blog

A woke up this morning to a decorated door.

S and Z woke up quite early as I awoke to a balloon popping at 5:55am. I guess it could’ve been worse, and I guess I couldn’t be mad about the kids being excited about a birthday.

S wanted a “quiet” day on his birthday and to do “nothing.”

That entailed him doing a scavenger hunt that Z had designed for him to find his bday card, us having breakfast in the villa and then walking over to a laundry place to give our laundry and then to the cake place to pick up his cake. Right after we did that, the villa’s owner (who is very nice and also trying to ingratiate himself after our rough beginning) asked if he could bring flowers and cake over for the bday. I wanted to say no, but a little voice next to me said yes, and oh well….I guess we would end up with 2 cakes….

After we returned, I was grumpy. The kids were driving me bonkers and I hadn’t exercised enough in days (yoga excepted). So, in all desperation, I ran 3 miles by running the 0.05 mile path (yes you read that right) from our villa, past the other villas, to the road and back. To add challenge, there were 2-4 steps every 25 yards so I could never build up speed. But as the running addict I am, I was SO HAPPY TO RUN.

I made S Annie’s mac and cheese for lunch. I had packed packets from the US for this purpose and made 2. The kids annihilated it—each had the equivalent of one packet. Did I mention my kids can’t do kids’ menus anymore? At the ages of 7 and 10, they easily eat me out of the house, especially my 7 year old. I’m not sure what the teen years will bring, except I’m glad I’m taking them to cooking classes so they can start cooking their own food 😜.

The afternoon brought a spa visit and 90 minute massages for us, and another surprise cake for sonu.

There was, sadly, some conflict between the boys over the fact that they brought S a double size of cake but he didn’t want to share. Who knows if I handled it well. But I think even though everyone had big feelings that lasted for a while, I tried to make S see it as a hiccup than as a “this was the worst birthday ever!”

We redeemed ourselves with a delicious dinner at a very good Italian place, and then on the walk home all picked up Indonesian style outfits for an upcoming photo shoot.

The day ended with us all watching the sunset from our top balcony, which has become a daily tradition.

I’m exhausted from birthday drama and feelings and am glad tomorrow is a “normal” day, and am proud of S enjoying his bday in Bali because last year he asked to fly home for his bday from Bali because he wanted to be home in Portland. This kid is growing and maturing, and parenting him is both delightful and utterly mind blowing sometimes.

Good night!