A Birthday Flight

When I was a tiny human I was obsessed with the film The Chipmunks Adventure. I watched it several times a day, knew all the songs by heart, and somewhere in my mom’s house is home movie of Chipette versions of me and my friends singing “Off To See The World”, a song from the film. Two years in a row my mom made me a hot air balloon birthday cake and on one special occasion my dad brought back a beautiful hot air balloon paper lantern from Korea to hang in my window.

For one birthday, I couldn’t have been more than five, my dad arranged for a friend to take me and my mom up in an airplane ride above Okinawa. My mom filmed the entire thing and set it to the theme from out of Africa. (My mom made a lot of really awesome home movies. I guess that’s why she’s a filmmaker now!)

Fast forward to two years ago, when I surprised Tom with an airplane ride for his birthday. (He always wanted to fly.)

I made our very own home movie of the event so that we could have a matching pair, even if they are over a decade apart. And he actually got to fly the plane!