Folding Camping Table

One beautiful summer day, Mrs. Wax was finishing up washing dishes when she remembered:  “Oh, no!  In two weeks is my son's birthday, and I do not have any plans at all for a party for him.”  Many months ago, Mrs. Wax had discussed some plans for Alex's birthday with her husband and decided that they would throw a surprise birthday party for him.  As she sat down at one of the family's folding camping table, she began to make plans quickly. 

There were five boys in Alex's first grade class; they all went to church the same church as the Wax family; therefore, informing all the parents would be easy.  She went inside to the computer room and quickly made up some invitations to pass out at church that night to the parents of the boys coming to the party.  Next, she had to plan what they would eat.  One of Alex's favorites was pizza burgers.  They would have those along with lemonade, home made potato salad, and brownies for dessert.  Outdoors would be a good place to eat on a pleasantly warm summer day.  Of course, the boys would enjoy eating outside sitting in the double camping chairs, camping lounge chair, and folding chairs for large people . 

Furthermore, she picked a few of Alex's favorite games to play.  Hide and go seek, freeze tag, red light/green light, tug of war, and some other boy games.  She went downstairs to make sure the family's folding camping tables were clean and ready to use for the big day. 

Mrs. Wax was proud of herself.  She had planned everything without Alex's knowledge.

After Alex woke up and had his breakfast, Mrs. Wax wished him very happy birthday and gave him his gift, a brand new toy fire truck and fire man's hat.  Was Alex ever excited!  Alex played and played with them until it was almost lunch time.  Ding, dong!

“Alex, can you go see if the camping lounge chair and king size folding camping chairs are still out on the deck?”  asked Mrs. Wax.  She went to answer the door, and there were all the boys for Alex's party:  Joshua, Caleb, Matthew, Daniel, and James.  They had come together!  Mrs. Wax held a finger to her lips so that the boys would be silent and showed them to Alex's bedroom.  There, they hid behind Alex's door and in his closet. 

Mrs. Wax returned to the kitchen and called for Alex to come from the deck.  “Alex, you can go open the window in your room; it is nice outside,” instructed Mrs. Wax. 

When Alex went to his room, the boys jumped out of their hiding spots and yelled, “Surprise!  Happy Birthday!”  Alex surely was surprised!  Mrs. Wax came to the doorway and said, “Well, let's go outside to play some games.” 

“Hooray!”  The boys were excited to run around and be boys; when it was time for lunch, though, they were all ready to eat. 

When they got out to the deck, Mrs. Wax said, “Oh, no!  How could I forget a table?  We can't carry our dining room table out here!” 

Alex suggested, “Mom, what about the folding camping tables we have down stairs?  They are small, but two of them would be enough for all of us boys.”

“Of course,” said Mom. “I got those all ready for the party but forgot all about them.”

Alex and the boys ran downstairs to get the folding camping tables.  Then, they set them up on the deck so that they could still enjoy their meals outside, sitting comfortably in the double camping chairs, camping lounge chair, and extra large folding camping chairs.

That is the story of how two folding camping tables saved Alex's seventh birthday.