NINE

"I can't believe I am nine. I am getting old."

 "I just want a cake that is a number 9 but is green."

"It doesn't feel any different being nine."

My Favorite Day of the Year

I love Independence Day! It's long been my favorite holiday, but I found myself loving it even more this year. Perhaps it is because in the 365 days since the last one, I've visited Washington DC twice, and NYC once--places that can't help but make one feel patriotic and proud to be an American!

As I stood for the passing flag at the local parade, I thought of the early immigrants to Ellis Island, and of course this country's great fore-fathers. What a wonderful nation!!

Our morning was a little chaotic, but I gathered what children I could for our annual pledge and national anthem singing. I'm quite certain the older two (and Mike) were not disappointed to have missed it.

I suggested not going to the local parade this year, but that didn't go over well with most, not all, family members. Especially Luke: "What?! The first time I am in the parade and you aren't going to go?!"

We attended the parade.

(Luke was most excited to throw candy at his siblings. That's what he's doing in the photo. Throwing candy. Not waving.)

 (Not sure where Megan was during the photo.)

After the parade we returned home to get ready for my favorite party of the year! Love, LOVE, LOVE our July 4th Water Baseball BBQ tradition!

Usually we have a plethora of photographers. We didn't this year. No action shots of sliding into home-base, or water squirted in faces. But that makes me happy! We were instead, all engaged in the game! (I thought to grab my camera towards the very end to at least secure a few still memories!)

 By the end of the day, the slide needed to dry out--but the children still had hours of fun on it late into the evening!

My country tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty,

Of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died!

Land of the Pilgrim's pride!

From every mountain side,

Let freedom ring!

Six Forever and Ever

Stating the obvious...I haven't blogged as regularly as I have in years past. But I didn't realize that I haven't even mentioned birthdays lately. In fact, I didn't even "review" the photos I took on Drew's birthday until last night, Joshua, Drew and I found ourselves scrolling through several weeks of photos. When I came to the ones of Drew's birthday, specifically of his birthday cake, he sighed, "My birthday was the best day ever. I loved it."

Drew's best day ever, and I hadn't permanently recorded it. Point taken.

A few things not to be forgotten about March 30th, 2015:

For months, Drew has taken to frequently calling Mike, "Mike Wazowski with One Eye." Additionally, as mentioned before, Drew has a unique love of stuffed animals. So when I saw this at a store several weeks before his birthday, I knew I needed to make the $5 purchase for Mike to gift to Drew.

Drew really only had one request for his birthday. BMX clothes. Wish/request granted.

The morning of Drew's birthday, I taught him the poem "When I am Six" by A.A. Milne. I adore hearing him recite it. Even weeks since his birthday, I hear him repeating it, and when he gets to the part, "Now I am six, I'm as clever as clever. I think I'll be six forever and ever" he gets a giant grin on his face and I wish in that moment time would freeze and there was a way to slow my baby's age. There isn't, so instead I smile and bask in the moment of his innocent childlike pride.

In the days leading up to Drew's birthday he couldn't decide what exactly he wanted to do; Something as a family, or a party with friends. Something with family AND a party with friends AND then go to a restaurant to eat dinner.  All seemed options to Drew, despite him being told repeatedly it was a party with friends, or something as a family.

Within just a few days before his birthday, Drew opted for a party. But then what type of party became an issue. (Because birthday parties have to have a theme???)

A football one or a Curious George one. I knew what I was hoping for, but I kept my mouth completely closed and let him choose. Finally he announced, "I want a George one." I was thrilled! As this is probably his last year to get away with a Curious George party, but he can have football ones for years to come.

(Sidenote: My children LOVE Curious George. Even Luke during one of his recent strep episodes laid on the couch watching hours of Curious George over a couple day period.)

We had big plans for a giant "Man in the Yellow Hat" to be printed with Mike's large printer for a "Pin the Hat" game. The morning of the party, the printer didn't work, but as I hung up the phone with Mike I saw hanging on our pantry door this portrait drawn by the birthday boy himself just days before.

I copied it and made extra hats and had our own personalized game. Which really, this little portrait attempt far exceeds any printed Google image I found.

(Too bad that at the party, Drew decided he didn't want to play this game after all.)

Drew had a fun party with a handful of his little friends. I didn't take photos, I enjoyed the moments instead. But I do kinda wish now that I had photos of them playing Curious George Character Chardes, Pass-the-Parcel, or Dance Like George.

I've always felt a sense of pride about my efforts each birthday to make home-made birthday cakes in the shapes, patterns and designs my children request. We've had a few good ones, intermixed with some truly terrible ones, but they have ALWAYS put a smile on my children's faces. (Well, except for the infamous Barney one I made when Megan was two and she looked at it completely straight-faced and asked, "What is that?") 

A couple days before Drew's birthday, Joshua and Drew were home sick from school. Joshua had been throwing up, and I had NO IDEA what or who was next for our family. (We had a bad 2-3 week  sick period around here.) I detest store bought cakes, especially for children's birthdays, with the exception of ice cream cakes, which I cheated and did for Ellie a day late last year after she'd spent her birthday in LA with Mike.

I mentioned a Dairy Queen cake to Drew and told him, perhaps we could go and see if they had a Curious George pattern they could make for him. Drew was soooo excited, that he requested we go right then and there. Which we did. Him in his pajamas, with a pale-sick face, (I'm a good mom like that.) and me feeling relief at the possibility of not having to make a birthday cake.

Lo and behold, there in the freezer of Dairy Queen was a Curious George cake made up, ready for sale. I think I felt such exhaustion at the previous few weeks of my life (remember post-surgery, two cases of strep, couple cases of stomach flu, etc.) I may or may not have started crying when I saw the perfect George cake staring back at me.

Drew loved it. I loved it. And I felt zero guilt the morning of his birthday not having a birthday cake to make.

We ended up the day as a family enjoying a picnic at a park.

According to the newly turned 6 year old, "It was the best day ever."

I loved Luke's sentiments on Drew's birthday when he exclaimed, "I love birthdays at our house. Even when it isn't mine. I just love birthdays."

I do too.

PS-I really should do a whole blog post about Megan's new vlogging hobby. She recorded a lot of great highlights of Drew's birthday, including Mike and me on a teeter-totter... Her vlogs will surely be treasures one day.

Drew is FIVE and a HALF

A half birthday according to Drew...

"Aagh. I have to do homework? Well, it's my half birthday."
"Why are we having tacos for dinner? I should pick dinner. It's my half birthday."
"Can I not do my spreadsheet today? It's my half birthday."
"Luke! I get the first piece of cake. It's my half birthday."
"When are we eating the cake?" (repeated 3,473 times)

A Fairy?

The long awaited day arrived recently...Joshua FINALLY lost his first tooth. He and Megan had a co-op effort to remove the tooth, and it was immediately placed under his pillow to await the over-rated yet highly anticipated tooth fairy.

Joshua woke up earlier than usual on Friday morning, and with a big grin on his face announced, "I got a dollar from the tooth fairy." His toothless grin and excitement over the mysterious placement of money under his pillow made me feel encouraged that I'd chosen laziness and had slept through my early morning Pilates class and was still in bed to greet him.

I like to think I somehow deserved the reward of seeing his early morning elation regarding a dollar bill under his pillow.

Luke on the other hand, upon waking up greeted me in my bathroom and asked in a somewhat accusing manner, "Why did you hit me in the face last night?" Despite no one else being around, I gave him that "mother look" and in a hushed voice said, "I wasn't in your room last night." To which his all-knowing 12 year-old prowess stated, "Well the Tooth Fairy is violent and she says bad words" as he turned to leave me to apply my mascara with no further interruption.

Seriously.
Children.
Forget the children. Where's the person that started the dumb (d_ _ _?) tooth fairy tradition in the first place? I have a few words to say to them?

Do they not know that the summer has already taken a toll on this mother?

Do they not know the skip in my step as I walked down the upstairs hall late the other night, encouraged that for the first time in A LOT of lost teeth the highly esteemed and sometimes forgetful Tooth Fairy was actually coming on the FIRST NIGHT???

We'll let my late-night Facebook Status tell the rest of the story....

For the first time in A LOT of lost teeth, the Tooth Fairy finally remembered to come on the FIRST night. Except as she tiptoed into the dark room, she tripped on a cardboard "airport", and fell onto the toothless sleeping child. The fall made enough noise to wake the nearby 12 year old, and as she went to hug him goodnight she elbowed him in the eye. Which caused him to make a loud noise, which made the Tooth Fairy realize she needed to get out of the room quickly before her identity was at risk. While leaving, she stepped on a sharp object and may or may not have said a bad word out- loud. The Tooth Fairy is still suffering the effects of having a sharp object jammed into her foot.

Whose dumb idea was a Tooth Fairy tradition?

Knowing full well Megan's displeasure in being assigned a responsibility to actually DO a secretive task, Megan had instead been threatened enlisted and strongly encouraged to not let the Tooth Fairy forget her duties. Megan didn't fail.

Except her timing was slightly off. She came into my bedroom to remind me about the visiting Tooth Fairy as I laid in my bed nursing a sore foot due to aforementioned sharp object jamming. I was a little less than cheery towards her and likely didn't thank her for her reminder. Which I didn't need.

In case you forgot... I remembered it all on my own.
ON THE FIRST NIGHT.
Although I may think twice about remembering it next time.

D_ _ _ Tooth Fairy.

A Non-Birthday

Birthdays are a BIG deal.
A HUGE deal.
The absolute best day of any person's year.
Who couldn't possibly feel that way about their birthday?

Mike.

Every year as his birthday approaches I ask, "Anything you want for your birthday?"
His reply is always the same, "Nothing."
And then I purchase a bunch of "stuff" that he really doesn't care about, but politely opens and either consumes, wears or uses.

A couple of years ago I quit doing balloons for him. (A Sowby birthday tradition anyone else would be devastated to miss out on.)

Last year, I quit "trying" for him, and he chose a quiet day with activities of his own choosing.

This year. I got him NOTHING.
NOTHING.
Not one single present.
Not even Hot Tamales. Or Werthers. Or Orange Slices. Or cashews. Or Cinnamon Bears.
NOTHING.

He didn't even care.
And guess what?
I didn't really either.
(I thought I would, but I didn't.)

All he asked for this year was, "Good kids."
Which he didn't exactly get, if you consider Drew's behavior during dinner. Of course in front of our out-of-town cousin/dinner guest.

It was one of my favorite birthdays of his. So was last year.  Too bad it took me 17 years of marriage to figure that out. But alas I did...July 20th won't really be anything special around here anymore except for a dinner of his choosing (maybe), and ice cream pie (definitely).

Happy Birthday Mike.
This is how he feels about it for me.

 This is how he really feels about it.

Works for him.
But if he thinks this is the new norm for birthdays when October 22nd comes around, and it is time to celebrate ME, I won't be happy.

Easter Around Here

Our Easter was pretty simple. It started with an impromptu family devotional on my bed before heading downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny brought.

I love Easter. I love the simplicity of the holiday set around the greatest event of all time! I love our daily focus on the days leading up to Easter that reminds us of some of the most important events of Jesus Christ's life. And guess what? I also love Easter eggs and chocolate!

The Easter Bunny always came to my house as a child, and yet I made it to adulthood with an understanding and belief in the realities of the real reasons behind Easter. (Same with Santa and Christmas...It seems so many parents of my generation inherently think their should be no place for such frivolousness amid religious holidays.)

The Easter Bunny brought the traditional flip-flops, candy and a few insignificant things.

(Not sure what in the world the Easter Bunny was thinking by Ellie's flip-flops being 2 sizes too big!)

Joshua had ALL but one of his candies finished by 1pm church and Drew was caught hiding under Joshua's bed secretly consuming more candy than he should have. Megan flew a new twisty plastic flying wand directly into Joshua's face, and Ellie didn't want to share her new chalk with the boys.

Before church, Mike attempted to get a decent photo of the children. Mike was put in charge, because I ran out of patience about the time Joshua's church pants developed permanent grass stains on them. I'm sad to say that was before the photo shoot even began.

(Believe it or not, this is the most decent one!)

We finished up the Easter holiday with cousins and family over for dinner, games, horse-rides, and fun. All in all, a pretty decent day.

Sick or Not, A Birthday Must Go On!

We were having a funny discussion last night about birthdays, and Mike declared, "Tiffany, you are not normal in this area." Megan on the other hand sided more with me about birthdays being important and that they should be a big deal. Obviously not everyone feels the same way as I do about the importance of celebrating birthdays. (Meaning, I will likely never be out of town on a child's birthday, nor will we ever not have presents and festivities to celebrate.)

That being said, you can imagine how I felt last Thursday morning, Joshua's 7th birthday, when he woke up sick. It was a sad day. I'm not sure which one of us shed more tears.

Although Joshua spent a good chunk of his day on the couch, it was interspersed with some play time, arguments with Drew, and questioning of how much longer till his party.

The football party did go on! It was too difficult to reschedule, and as it was an outside party I wasn't too concerned about the sharing of germs. (I'm a good mother like that.)

Joshua request a Green Bay Packers cake and so I put my mediocre cake skills to the test once again. One of these days, I'm going to have a beautiful, custom STORE-bought cake of the child's choosing, instead of thinking my own creations will satisfy me. However, upon Joshua seeing the finished product he declared, "Wo! That's awesome." So then again, maybe I'll skip the beautiful, custom STORE bought cakes, and provide this labor of love each birthday.

(just try to ignore the thoughts of all those sick germs being blown across the cake...)

Also to be noted, Grandpa Peter sat atop a horse for the first time in his life. He lasted mere seconds longer than my first (and last) time upon a horse 7 years ago. We're each confident in many areas of our lives, but sitting on top of a potentially moving animal is not one of those areas in which we display confidence.

(In my dad's defense of only lasting mere seconds atop the horse, he (my dad, not the horse) does have a bad cough, and I think he was concerned his cough would startle the horse. It was just as a cough was coming on that he declared he must get off. Although I think he was thankful for the cough, I don't think he would have lasted much longer on top of that thing, cough or not.)

By evening Joshua perked up and it was almost as though he hadn't been sick. Except, it didn't last too long...by Friday afternoon Joshua was back on the couch, and by Friday evening Joshua was at Insta-care being told he had Strep throat.

Like I said, I'm a good mom like that to spread Strep throat germs around children at a birthday party, and children in his classroom on Friday. Oops.

Strep or not, this boy of mine is seven, and he's pretty swell to have around.

Being FIVE

There's something about Drew that just makes me smile. Of course all of my children make me smile, but there's just something about Drew at this stage in his little life that has all of us wrapped around his little finger. He endears himself to all of us in a way that I suppose only the youngest of a family can.

I was surprised how much I didn't tear up today thinking about my baby turning FIVE! I so love the little boy he is becoming, and maybe I'm doing better at embracing and accepting what is.

Although having said that, as I tucked him into bed tonight, and kissed his little cheeks, I did blink away a tear at how quickly FIVE years have passed. I reminded Drew that even if he was FIVE years old now, he was still my baby and always will be. I told him he'll still be my baby at 55 to which he replied, "Will I still be alive when I'm 105 after I'm dead?" The moment was over, and so I planted a kiss on his big FIVE year old cheek and wished him a final Happy Birthday greeting.

Celebrating FIVE is a lot of work. Especially when the birthday was on a Sunday and it got spread out over two days. Ugh.

Dance games and pirate games, treasure hunts with bandanas, swords and gold (and a pinata) and cake and ice cream for a group of children made up his simple "Pirate Party" that he had been anticipating for weeks. (Man have my party-doing skills gone down hill over the years...)

My cake skills on the other hand have not decreased. They really couldn't get any lower. But Drew and Joshua were mightily impressed with my efforts, and everyone else gave polite compliments.

The real birthday on Sunday brought presents, a birthday breakfast with grandparents and cousins, church (supposedly a prayer in his classroom that included him praying for, "Bless we can all be happy on our birthdays."), and a birthday dinner with grandparents.

In Drew's words, "I liked my birthday."
That's what matters.

Happy Birthday Drew!

The Big Day

One of my favorite photos each year, is the photo we take of the children right before bed on Christmas Eve night. Wearing their new pajamas, and holding onto their stockings. I love the excitement that is in the air as the (younger) children feel rushed to get to bed and fall asleep before Santa comes. I loved that this year, Drew insisted on breaking from tradition and he and Joshua left their stockings on the family room floor, but the others laid theirs by their bedroom door.

Santa delivered all the full stockings by the bedroom doors as he has every year. Santa always left my stocking on my bed as a child, and my brother and I would spend the first hour of Christmas morning exploring our stocking contents to pass the time until we could wake up my parents. When telling Megan this randomly the other week, I was shocked to realize she never knew she was allowed to look at her stocking before coming into our room!!

Ellie and Megan woke up early and passed time in their room exploring their stockings. I was shocked that Mike and I didn't hear them.

Drew emptied his entire stocking out on our bedroom floor and in a heartbroken voice said, "Santa didn't bring me a fire engine." It wasn't bratty, or self-deserving, it was simply an expression of disappointment that the one thing he talked about all month long wasn't there on Christmas morning. I suggested that maybe Santa left a few things downstairs too.

Santa doesn't wrap presents at our house. He puts the gifts inside bags that I sewed a few years ago. As the children unfolded the bags on Christmas Eve, Luke took the one he claims each year and placed it in a specific spot. Other children began doing likewise. I suggested Santa might not remember whose bag was whose, and to be surprised with any bag. Apparently no one liked my idea, and the bags were laid out with a nametag placed on each one, and a note to Santa from Luke asking him to please read the tags and place the presents accordingly. (Why oh why didn't I take a photo of the tags/note?)

Typically, Santa leaves one small gift outside the bag to identify whose bag it belongs to. It didn't quite work out that way this year...too many over-sized gifts. But I was quite relieved that Drew's precious desire of a toy fire engine was the first thing he saw upon entering the family room.

He played with it for HOURS much to Mike's dismay. Drew hadn't even taken ownership of it for more than 5 minutes before Mike said, "Santa obviously doesn't know me very well, or he would not have brought such an annoying, loud toy." I, on the other hand, found myself smiling every single time those fire engine buttons elicited sirens and wails. I said aloud more than once, "Those sounds make me smile." Drew looked up at me and asked, "Do you love fire engines too?" "No!" I replied, "But I love little boys that love them."

I think my love of fire engine sounds was intensified as I looked at Megan and Luke enjoying their new Christmas surprises and realized how quickly they have moved on from toys on Christmas morning.

Joshua spent much of Christmas Day dressed like this. Joshua's wish of a Packers jersey was granted, and the bonus of a Packers helmet was thrilling to this little football lover.

Ellie's squeal and excitement over receiving a new American Girl doll was caught on video, but not the still camera. The doll bunk-bed serves her and her two American Girl dolls quite nicely. This is the second year in a row Ellie has opted to ask Santa for "a surprise" rather than a specific item. It seems Santa has not disappointed.

(Nice that my mother-in-law captured a photo of Ellie and her new doll. Oops that I didn't!)

Luke received a fair number of Packers items too, and I guess photographing him wearing them is more appealing than a photo of him holding a new power tool he received. (That elicited an exciting loud noise similar to the sound that came from Ellie.) Luke immediately organizes his Christmas things in a nice orderly fashion. He has done this every year for years. He always claims the exact same spot in the family room.

(Hooray again for my mother-in-law for taking photos.)

I'm not going to allow myself to feel guilty for there being very few photos of Megan on Christmas morning. She, the child with more photo albums of her first 3 years of life than the other 4 children combined, will turn out just fine despite the fact the only decent photo we have of her on Christmas day is courtesy of... my mother-in-law.

The children spent much of the day playing together, with the exception of Drew who tended to rarely be separated from that darn fire engine and its buttons.

As I laid in bed on Christmas Eve night trying to fall asleep, I had an overwhelming urge to go and kiss each of my sleeping children goodnight. I didn't want to risk awakening them, and instead stayed in bed tossing and turning. As I reflected on the stresses of secrecy and hiding of the previous days, I basked in the fact that for another year, my children are young, believing, and all at home.

It IS a wonderful time of year.
Merry Christmas!