Ad-Libbing

Today was the annual children's program at church. The children work hard all year learning songs to sing about the theme for the year. Each child also has a speaking part. The message always centers around Jesus Christ and His gospel.

I look forward to this Sunday each year--and not just because it is the one Sunday where my children are under someone else's supervision--but because it is such a sweet, spiritual (and often funny) experience.  This year's program did not disappoint.

I waited excitedly for each of my boys to have their turn saying their part. We had practiced at home so I felt confident that they would do well.

Nate said his line with only a minor glitch of being in the wrong spot and saying his line before he was supposed to.

When it came time for Daniel to say his part, he was supposed to fill in the blank. The teacher said "I can follow the prophet by. . ." Daniel had practiced saying "being a good brother" but at the last minute he thought of something he wanted to say more:
He leaned into the microphone and clearly said, "Uhhh, my mom is awesome!"

I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud. So did a lot of other people.

He didn't get his line right, but it kinda made my day. I got lots of comments from friends after the meeting. I reassured everyone that no, I did not bribe him to say that. I really am just an awesome mom.

At least he thinks so.

Happy Fourth of July

I love the Fourth of July. We had a nearly perfect day celebrating with our own little family and some great friends. So, what makes a nearly perfect Fourth of July you ask? Well, let me tell you.

We started the day by flying our flag and having a brunch of red, white and blue pancakes (pancakes topped with strawberries, blueberries and bananas) and bacon. The bacon is a must if you want the day to be nearly perfect.

I made the boys pose for pictures wearing their red, white and blue.

After the obligatory posing for pictures we headed on over to our friends' house for dinner, swimming and games. We ate watermelon and my Grandma Carter's potato salad and drank lemonade. We had white hots (that we brought home from our trip to Rochester in May and stuck in the freezer for just such and occasion) cooked on the grill and too many desserts. We had jell-o shaped like the United States. I ate New Mexico.

Before dinner there was swimming. After dinner there was an epic game of wiffle ball--parents versus kids. I think we played something like fifteen innings. The parents won by one in the end but the kids had some pretty amazing plays.

After the game, we packed up our stuff and headed home for a quick break before the city fireworks show.

My sweet friend gifted me some sparklers after I mentioned to her that I wasn't able to find any anywhere, so we lit those and had a ball. We tried to write words and take pictures but I am not a skilled enough photographer to make it work.That's okay. It was still a blast.

Danny was prepared for the fireworks. He covered his ears the minute we got into the car and didn't uncover them until the show was entirely over.

After the sparklers we piled into the car and headed to the same spot we watched the fireworks last year. If we are still in Auburn next year we will have to do it again and make it our tradition. The fireworks didn't disappoint. Nate and Danny both fell asleep before the end of the show. Three of the four boys were asleep in the car by the time we got home around 9:30.

We played hard today. We got sunburns and bug bites. We came home exhausted and happy and content and grateful. I love America. I love the freedoms we are blessed to enjoy. I love the men and women who have sacrificed for me and my family. I love our founding fathers and how inspired they were when they established this nation. I love that we are all entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I love that I can celebrate all these things with my family.

Happy birthday, America! God bless you!

He's Strong to the Finich

"'Cause he eats his spinach. . ."

The birthday boy.

Spinach on the birthday cake.

Today we celebrated Nate's 7th birthday. He requested spinach, spinach and more spinach for his birthday dinner. It is his favorite. He even asked that his birthday cake be decorated with some spinach leaves just for him. The other boys were glad that they wouldn't be expected to eat spinach with their cake. 

Birthday dinner. Yum.

We had Creamy Lasagna Roll-Ups Florentine (Thanks, Heather!), Strawberry Spinach Salad (Thanks, Danielle!), breadsticks and the cake. It was all delicious. I'm with Nate. No wonder he loves spinach--it is so good!

Making a wish.

Taking a breath and getting ready to blow!

Blowing out the candles after I had to relight them because Danny blew them out the first time.

After dinner we did our traditional family party with cake and presents. Nate waited patiently all day long to open presents so he could do it when David was home. I remember how hard it was to wait when I was that age, but he was a trooper. We sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew out his candles but he wanted to open presents before eating cake so we acquiesced.

Opening his new Lego watch from Grandma and Grandpa.

The first of the Legos.

Opening presents is serious business, apparently.

Holding up the Legos he just opened. That was about as excited as he got tonight.

We wrapped up the evening by joining several friends to watch the fireworks in our neighboring town. They put on a great show. We told Nate that not everyone gets fireworks on their birthday. I've never had them on my birthday. Have you?

Nate has always been a firecracker. He entered the world with a bang--my beautiful 9 pound 12 ounce baby.

The Sampson of the NICU.

He scared us a few times early on but he has been a healthy, vivacious, bright child. We love him so much and are so glad he is part of our family.

First birthday--six years ago.

Seventh birthday.

I have to include this short clip of the fireworks tonight. Seeing my husband laugh, having my children around me--it was a perfect end to the day.

Fourteen Years

Daniel tells me I am a princess when he looks at this picture. I felt like a princess that day.

Yesterday we celebrated our fourteenth anniversary. I remember how happy I was the day we got married. And how young. I had no idea what life had in store. I still don’t, but I’m glad that my best friend and I are facing the unknown together.

We celebrated by going out to dinner and then going to our favorite hangout—the bookstore. We laughed. We reflected about our lives together. We talked about the funny and sweet things our kids do. We talked about how we have been through some really hard things in our marriage but how we have been blessed through it all. We talked about where we might be in six months and the possibility of being “expats” and about the possibility of living in Kansas or New Mexico or Maine or Texas or California or staying right here. . . (Of course it’s all speculation at this point, but I am starting to try to get ready in case an opportunity comes up quickly). We held hands.

Fourteen years from now I imagine we will be more settled than we are now. I’m sure adventures and wonderful blessings await us. I’m sure we will have lots of things to worry about and our share of trials to face. And I’m sure we will still be holding hands.

Surprise!

I love the banner I made using a Lego font I found for free on the internet.

 

 

We did surprise him too. There were times when I was a little doubtful that we’d be able to pull Joel’s Lego-themed affair off--he is just way too smart and nosy for his own good sometimes--but the whole thing was a smash hit. I have a few small things that I wish I had done differently or planned better, (Like why do I always think about videoing things after the fact? Instead I have a couple of kind of blurry pictures that don’t adequately capture the moment) but overall I was really pleased with how everything worked out. I owe a special debt of gratitude to my friends Stacy and Wayland who saved the day by going out and getting another cake, more plates and more forks after we had a few additional guests show up. They also took Joel out to lunch to get him out of the house for the surprise and Stacy made Joel a special Lego-themed birthday cake that I thought was darling.

Lego cake!

I know she felt rushed for time, but I thought she did a fabulous job decorating the cake with real Legos including this cute little Mini-fig artist. Look! Even the tip of his paintbrush is green as if he had just finished painting the number ten. So cute!

Kids all getting ready for the big surprise.

SURPRISE!

One of my favorite things was when Joel pulled up. All the kids were so excited they were all running around looking for places to hide (which we have very few of in our little town home). Most of them ended up just laying on the floor and jumping up when he came in the house.

Joel taking it all in and looking pretty pleased surrounded by friends and family.

Joel trying to decide on a name for the Lego creation that everyone built together.

 My favorite thing about this picture is Danny off to the right. He dressed himself again.

Once Joel was at the party we played a few games. We had one where the first person took a Lego and then passed it and the next person added another Lego and so on until every kid had a chance to add a Lego to the creation (kind of like that game where everyone has to make up one sentence of a story). We also did a Lego-drop where they had to try to hold a Lego on their nose and drop it into a mason jar; a guess-how-many-Legos-in-the-jar contest; a tallest tower contest to see who could build the tallest Lego tower in one minute and a Lego scavenger hunt. That was my favorite. I had a big long list of stuff to look for and we just dumped out all our Legos on the floor and everyone had a certain amount of time to try to find the item--a purple Lego, a Lego helmet, a Lego based on a movie character, a Lego window or door, etc. The person with the most items at the end won.

Opening presents

Tasting the frosting

Singing "Happy Birthday!"

Blowing out candles

After the games we opened presents then had cake and ice cream. The kids ate outside since there weren't enough seats at the table with our extra guests. It was good though because there was the inevitable spilled Kool-aid and dumped over cake and I didn't have to clean it up.

One of my least favorite things was when one of the kids told me I needed to make more Kool-aid and add more powder this time because the last batch was watery. :-/  Despite the watery Kool-aid, we all had a lot of fun. I was especially grateful for the help of the adults who came and stuck around. I don't know how I would have done it without the extra hands.

I had little boys in and out of my house all day--not just at the party. Last night I counted them all up before I went to bed and there had been a total of nineteen little boys (and one little girl) in my house at some point during the day. I was really happy today to be able to just laze around and not do much. Danny's birthday is next up and Nate's is just a week and a half after that. Then I'll be able to breathe a sigh of relief since birthday season will be over until the end of November.

We have not done a lot of birthday parties in my kids' lives. I feel like I'm still learning some things about how to do it but I felt that overall it was successful. And because I had fun with the little details I have to share pictures of those things as well:

Favor bags: the front was a Lego brick and the tag was a Lego guy head.

This is the loot that was inside each bag.

These little color-able notes were in each bag as well.

The candy bricks were my favorite part of the goody bags. They were very cool.

I had veggie cups with ranch dip available but didn't have any takers. My kids love vegetables but apparently they are the only ones who do. We ended up eating these with our dinner.

I stuck with simple decorations--primary colors, some balloons, and of course, LEGOS!

A close up of the "Surprise" banner. It makes me happy.

 

This was the invitation I made using my mad photo-shop skillz.

More balloons. The Party City people lied. They said the extremes in temperature from the store to the outside wouldn't affect the balloons. They looked at me like I was crazy when I asked them if it would.  However you'll notice this bunch of balloons doesn't have a green one. It did, but it shrunk down to nearly nothing and lost it's floatability before the party ever started. Meh.

My boys and some of the neighbors stuck around after the party to play. Legos are almost like magic. I hear very little fighting when my kids are playing with them. They generally are just using their brains to create and have a good time.

I don't know if I'm just a little insecure or what but I was afraid that no one would come; that everyone would forget or something. Maybe it's because I've forgotten plenty of parties myself through the years. Maybe it's because I know how busy people are. Or maybe it's just because I personally don't even like birthday parties that much. Whatever it is, it makes me feel loved to know that people remember, take time out of their busy schedules to help us celebrate, to haul their kids to my house and then come back again to pick them up and to just generally make the occasion special for my kid. Thanks for coming, friends. Thanks for making it a great day! I promise we'll get a real thank you note in the mail soon! ;)