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!