Wiksten Shift Dress and a Birthday

Note: Just here for the Wiksten Shift Dress info? Go ahead and skip to the bottom of this post and it’s all there.

Hello! I hope this post finds you and yours well. Today I turn 29. My 20’s turned out to be nothing like I expected and it looks like the last year of my 20’s still has some curveballs. Usually I love to make a big deal out of birthdays. You see, I grew up with three siblings which made birthdays extra special. Every year, my birthday felt magical because I’d usually have a brand new outfit for school and my mom would cook my favorite meals for lunch and dinner, usually followed by an ice cream cake. I always felt loved but, on those days, I felt truly seen.

This year, however, I haven’t felt much like celebrating. I’m tired. We’re all tired and life feels heavy. In spite of the heaviness, the memory of one previous birthday kept coming back to me this week. Obviously, it wasn’t anything like this year but, it was a birthday where things kept going wrong. Every time my parents tried to make something special, there was a hiccup. It could’ve been remembered as the worst except that it wasn’t. In fact, it was one of my favorites. Whenever that birthday comes up in conversation, I can’t help smiling. I’ll circle back to that in a bit but, for now, here’s the story of my 9th birthday.

My 9th Birthday

Humor me, if you will, and let’s travel back in time twenty years to April 2000, about a week before my 9th birthday. It was the day of my birthday party (we only had “friend” parties every other year so this was a big deal). I woke up feeling awful. I tried to hide it and excitedly listened to my mom as she showed me the cake she was planning for my party. Of course my mom noticed that something seemed off however, I assured her I felt fine and was going to school. I was NOT fine. Before lunchtime, my teacher noticed me repeatedly putting my jacket on, taking it off, and looking extra pale. I tried to fight it when she sent me to the nurse’s office but when I went to the nurse and got a temperature read of 103 f, my mom was called and I was sent home. My party was postponed and I was devastated.

The following week was my birthday. Dad had a job interview in the small town of Spencer, Iowa, a six-ish hour drive from where we were living in the Quad Cities. The interview was on my birthday so instead of being away from us on my birthday, he suggested we make it an adventure and the whole family should come along to check out the town. I don’t remember much about the drive there as it was mostly uneventful. The next day, however, was my birthday which I remember well.

As a kid, being in a new place seemed exciting. As a parent, I now feel for my mom who had the sole task of wrangling four children for most of a day in an unfamiliar town (my dad was at his interview). In the days before everyone owned a cell phone and you couldn’t simply google local activities, this must’ve been a daunting task.

Here’s how the day went down: one sibling was in need of an ice pack for pain due to a prior medical issue. So, my mom loaded us up and took us to Shopko which happened to be an anchor store for the local mall. While in Shopko, she suggested that I could have a look at the toys. She found the ice pack and came to collect us from the toy section. Upon hearing that she wouldn’t be getting a toy from the toy section, my four year old sister began melting down. She was four, this is normal but I was nine and unable to see that. Honestly, thinking about this moment and how I was likely also not being the most cheerful, I just wish I could go back in time and give my mom a big hug. We got out of the store as quickly as possible and headed back to the hotel.

We watched television in the hotel room until my dad got back. I don’t remember much of what we ate for dinner (possibly pizza?). However, I DO remember the cake. My parents had always made our cakes at birthdays so when my dad suggested we go buy one, this seemed like a luxury. We headed to the food court of the small, local mall and picked up an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It didn’t take my parents long to realize we had no way of cutting such a cake. The plastic knives at the hotel just wouldn’t cut it. So, my dad asked the Dairy Queen employee how to cut such a cake in our situation. Being in an apparently trusting midwest small town, the employee proceeded to loan us a large knife with which we could cut the ice cream cake (we made sure to return it the next day). Maybe it had to do with the fact that the day was kind of hard or maybe I just loved ice cream that much but, this cake felt life-changing. Ice cream as your cake? Nine year old mind blown. Oreo crust with a fudge center sandwiched between both chocolate and vanilla ice cream? If this wasn’t a dream, I don’t know what is.

At some point that evening, we swam at the pool and my mom left the younger siblings with my dad so she could take my older sister and I to Claire’s where I picked out a blue choker necklace.

The next morning, we packed up and headed home. Dad decided to take us on a detour to visit the Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth, Minnesota. It would add about an hour or so to the already 6 hour drive but seemed like a fun activity. Instead, about an hour into the day’s adventure, another of my siblings began feeling sick (remember that I’d had a fever and flu like symptoms the week before). We made it to the statue, snapped a quick picture and tried to get home as soon as possible. I don’t remember much about the long drive home except for my poor sister looking miserable. Truly a birthday and trip to remember.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I don’t regularly share personal anecdotes here but figured, if any day was a day to share something different and rambling, my birthday was that day. Is there a purpose or a moral to this story? About that I’m unsure except that I felt like sharing it. Pondering on it throughout this week had me seeing it from my parents’ perspective and feeling so much gratitude for their efforts. Despite the hiccups, they rolled with the punches and managed to make me feel their immense love. Life is hard, things go wrong even when they’re as trivial as a postponed party, a sibling meltdown in the store, or as difficult as our current situation. Things we can’t control will always come. However, our efforts, intentions, love, and ice cream cake won’t be forgotten.

Wiksten Shift Dress Info

The dress worn in this post is the Wiksten Shift Dress. It’s a fast, easy sew with simple lines that let this fabric do the talking. I left off the pockets and optional belt for an unstructured, 1970’s house dress feel. Fabric is a Ruby Star Society rayon purchased from Suppose. I sewed a size 4 graded to a 6 at the hips and below, added 1 inch to the length, and sewed the side slits one inch lower than indicated on the pattern.

Thanks for reading!