Birthday Craziness: Part II

       Ashton has a wonderful and distinct personality that can be quite well characterized by the way he initially chose to make his entrance into my world.  I woke up one Sunday morning, a month before my due date, feeling ever so slightly...odd.  Nothing out of the ordinary, I thought, for a woman who was eight months pregnant.  So I got myself and my little one ready for church and headed out the door at the appropriate time so as not to be late.  I was the ward organist and had to be a little early.  I don't recall if I made it early or not, but I do remember that the odd feeling I had been experiencing had suddenly begun to intensify the moment I settled in to the organ bench.  I began playing the prelude music and for the first time that morning noticed that the weirdness I was feeling had become quite painful in fact, and was coming in waves.  Now my first baby had to be induced on my due date...cause he was ginormous. So I had never actually experienced going in to labor naturally.  I had no idea what to pay attention to.  And since this baby wasn't due for another month, I assumed I was having those Braxton Hicks contractions I had heard of.  Mmm...Nope! A few cacophonous chords, to the delight of the congregation, and four hours later I had an 8 lb 3 oz baby boy in my arms.  I was not ready.  But he certainly was!  So came he did, and I just had to immediately adjust.  It certainly helped that he was the sweetest, roundest, most lovable little man-baby ever (seriously, he could have been born with a bow tie and loafers on and it would not have seemed at all out of place). 

       My wonderful Ashton has kept me on the edge of my seat ever since.  He is, by far, my most active child.  Active, as in: "alive, astir, bustling, hasty, impelling, in force, in play, mobile, moving, operating, pushing, rapid, restless, running, rushing, shifting, simmering, speeding, swarming,"...you get the idea:).  So multiply this by 6 and you have somewhat of an idea of how his friends party went.  C.R.A.Z.Y.!!!  But he was absolutely delighted to have his friends over to celebrate with him, which made it all worth it for me.   

Honestly, I was just so grateful that kids showed up!  Maybe it's just my chronic proclivity towards worrying, but I was feeling so nervous before the party was to start that kids wouldn't come! With every door bell sound I felt more and more relief:).  Open play as all guests arrived...

 My attempt at making it look like a party...

Should have used a runner of some kind.  Oh well!

One of his friends is named Seth...Such a cute name, and he happened to be our favorite guest:)

 We decided on classic yard games for the activities.  Here we have water balloon toss.  I'm not sure they loved it.

Singing and cupcake time.

Gift opening.  Always so awkward.   Can we do away with this tradition please?

       I was glad we did this party for Ashton, and not just because it made him happy.  It was actually quite illuminating.  We discovered that some of the behavior we often attribute to Ashton's very real challenge of having ADHD, is shared by many nine year old children.  That was an exhausting two hours!

       We also celebrated Ashton's birthday on his actual birth date, with just family.  Quiet dinner of his choice, gift opening and cake.  I like calm:).  

I love this picture of Ashton.  I love how his feet barely touch the ground in this adult sized chair.  It reminds me of how much he is learning and growing as a now 9 year old, always striving to be viewed as "big enough" to do more things and have more responsibilities.  

His favorite book series right now...

His request for cake this year: Chocolate strawberries and cream.  It was SO delicious:).  Don't mind the sloppy writing.  I'm working on it!

       Ashton is going to be a force to be reckoned with when he grows up.   He has challenges that most kids his age don't have to deal with, and he is developing an indomitable spirit because of them. He is loyal, loving, funny, deep thinking, and bright.  I regularly marvel at the amazing soul this child has and feel ever grateful to be his mommy.

Birthday craziness!!

Birthday parties.  The observable evaluator of a mother's affection for a child and rightful place in the "good mommy" classification.  At least this had always sort of been my impression of them as I had stalked read the many blogs, noticed the plethora of pins, and overheard friends talking about them.  And I wasn't one of those mommies.  In my previous life, when my two oldest  boys were tiny, I actually was pretty good about birthday parties, theme and color scheme included.  But, after life took a few unexpected turns, it just wasn't something I was capable of doing; I simply didn't have the time, energy, or budget for them.  Instead, we had simple celebrations at home: child's favorite dinner, personalized cake, and presents, with grandparents and favorite uncles/aunts for guests. But, with gratitude to a loving Heavenly Father and an amazing man named Seth, my life circumstances have dramatically improved in recent years.  And I realized this year that I no longer had many excuses to continue to exclude birthday parties from our family life.  So I decided to try my hand at them once again.  My. Goodness.  What a difference a decade will make!

          It just so happens that three out of four of our boys have birthdays within about a two week span of each other.  Thankfully, I got a bit of a rest after Joseph's birthday party in February before the real madness began.  Seven kinetic 6-year-old boys in a basement during the middle of winter?  No problem! His party was cute and mild compared to what was ahead...

          For this post, we will highlight Talmage's festivities (Ashton's and Emery's celebrations will follow)...

One thing I learned from this experience is that when a bunch of 6th grade kids get together, the snack food that I thought would be inhaled before the pizza arrived ended up being completely unnecessary.  Except for the grapes!  The girls finished those off nicely:).  

Open play as guests arrived.  You should have heard the pre-pubescent boy-squeals ring through the house when they saw the girls coming to the door!

Pizza.  Easy.

We only had one red soda spill all evening! (Don't ask me what I was thinking with colored pop.)

Talmage decided on Minute-to-Win-it games for the entertainment.  And it was entertaining:)

Savaaaanahhh... 

Awkward boy trying to shake ping-pong balls out of tissue box strapped to his back.

And Talmage's giant cupcake.

That's all he ate!  I'm telling you.  The one thing that will distract 12 year old boys from food is girls.  

          So the party was supposed to end at like 8:30.  These pictures don't quite give you the full appreciation of the noise and chaos level that reigned the night.  Pretty much by about 8:15 Seth was ready to set a smoke bomb off and clear the house.  It was a little rowdy.  But the kids had so much fun, it was hard for me not to be delighted inside that we had made Talmage very happy.  In all sincerity, this party was earned.  


          Let me tell you a little about Talmage right now.

          This boy has been enrolled in five elementary schools since Kindergarten.  Five.  This school year, his second  here in Pleasant Grove, he finally felt like he belonged somewhere.  He has made good friends, a best friend even (his name is Tim and he's the type of best friend he could potentially have for the rest of his life).  Talmage has made tremendous strides in maturity and spiritual strength in the last year.  On New Year's day, he and I were talking about resolutions and he shared with me what some of his were: to read the Book of Mormon every day (which he has done almost without exception) and finish it, to begin reading "Jesus the Christ" and make significant headway with it (he knows that one will be difficult), and to earn a lot of money for his mission and college.   We have watched Talmage make improvements in the way he treats his brothers and has tried especially hard to be more patient with Ashton.  He has put hours and hours of effort into developing his basketball skills and has kept up with his piano instruction even though he really doesn't like it.  He continues to excel in school and is now putting 100% into fulfilling his priesthood duties as a deacon.  He has even asked his dad on his own volition if he can come to our ward every week so he can be a reliable member of and full participant in his quorum.  His most recent impressive demonstration of his growing maturity was taking the initiative to obtain his limited use temple recommend, even making an appointment with the bishop on his own right after he received the priesthood .  Seth had the privilege of taking him to the Timpanogos temple and performing the baptism ordinances for him for the first time.  (I will be taking him next:)).

          So really, inviting a houseful of rambunctious pre-teens over for a Friday night of frenzy...was a pleasure:).

We love our Talmage and are so pleased with the young man he is becoming!