A Tale of Two Birthdays
Before you begin to think more highly of me than you ought, I really am not that person. You know that person. The one whose house is impeccable, whose kids are dressed in pristine white clothing, and whose homegrown, homecooked family dinners are served at 6pm sharp and hit all the major food groups (her farm to her table).
Excavate at Your Own Risk
Knowing my 6 year old’s Prehistoric Marine Reptile Dinosaur birthday was around the corner (his theme choice…as if that needs to be clarified), I needed some small party favors to take to his kindergarten class that were non-edible. (Non-edible, because when the youths today eat sugar, food dye, gluten, or non-grass-fed meat they spontaneously combust. It’s easier not to feed them at all.) I ordered a few things from Amazon – some dinosaur stamps and stickers – but I needed just *one* more little something small to stick in the bag. This was, after all, his first ever birthday to be celebrated at school. It was A Huge Deal.
20 Things I Learned in my 20’s
I was kind of an expert of everything in my twenties. Especially my early twenties. (I think everybody is. It’s a rite of passage.) I’m entering my thirties this week, a fact I can confirm not just by the date on the calendar but by how different my mindset is today than it was two, five, ten years ago. Now, I hear a young twenty-something person provide invaluable, irreplaceable expertise on life to an older adult and I smile. I was you, like 1 second ago. I knew it all, until life proved I didn’t. I was an incredible wife before I got married. I was an excellent businesswoman before I started my first job.…
Calling all Foodies!
For as long as I’ve known Hutton Brooks (3 years and 9 days), I’ve wanted to throw him a food-themed birthday party. Food is his #1 love language. That said, I’ve also felt like our window of time for such a theme was running out. I mean…at some point, constant eating becomes, like, a self-control issue or something. A 36 year old sprinting to the kitchen at the mention of chicken nuggets? Not cute. A 3 year old? Totally hilarious. And totally still fair game for a birthday theme.
My BFF, the 3 Year Old
My very best friend turns 3 today! (Well, one of my best friends. Easily top 4.) If you’ve never had a 3 year old best friend, you’re missing out. They are a riot. They’re messy and unpredictable, too, but mostly just fun.
Nifty {Slightly Traumatic} Sixty
If there is one thing our family does not excel at, it is vacationing. Like the time my 13 month old got strep and a double ear infection on our beach vacation. (The same one where we hit a deer…possibly the only deer in the state of Florida.) Or the time – on our first solo vacation since our honeymoon – my husband contracted Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease and my 8 month old broke his collarbone at home. We do not travel well. Which is why when my brother, my boys, and I decided to drive up to Kansas to surprise my mom for her 60th birthday last week, I should’ve expected…
Bro-thday Bash
One year and one week ago, I was miserably, hugely pregnant with our 3rd. I didn’t care when he came out or how he came out, just that he came out. So on the night of our firstborn’s 4th birthday, I didn’t even care when I started feeling signs of impending labor as I play skeeball at Chuck-e-Cheese. And I certainly didn’t care when our baby finally made his grand entrance the next day, making him and his oldest brother 4 years and 1 day apart.
30 Reasons to Celebrate our Favorite 30 Year Old
August 7, 1986: our favorite man in the world was born. 30 years ago today. What a beautiful life he has lived up until this point. I mean….he’s created 3 additional humans, among many other accomplishments. We are opposite in many ways. (Ok, every way. And then some.) I love talking. He loves silence. I love chaos. He loves order. I love spending time with 82,305,342 of my closest friends. He loves spending time with our family of 5. I love big parties. He loves when people forget it’s his birthday. Unfortunately he’s out of luck this birthday because THIRTY. It deserves extra attention.
Smash and Crash, a Monster Truck Bash!
I live my life under the assumption that every stranger is one good joke away from being my best friend. I fancy myself a people collector of sorts. I also collect children, as the past 4 years has proven. When you collect both friends and children with the same fervency as you collect Beanie Babies, birthday parties can get out of control. “Hey, bae, I made the invite list for the party. Do you think 825 is too many? How big of a nugget tray would we need?” It’s oddly hard to transition from family-style, “come one come all” birthdays to “send your two year old only, please, because all of…
HutTWOn
When I was getting out of the shower a few weeks ago, Hutton pointed at where he thought my male parts should be (but clearly weren’t) and said, “Broken?” This is one of the many, many reasons I love our Hutton Smith. He makes us laugh on a minutely basis. (It’s also one of the many, many reasons mommy’s bathroom doors now stay shut.) So, anyway, this little cheeser just turned TWO. Side note: on rare occasion he’ll cheese at me like this and I think, “Thank heavens for that one time we had to shave part of your front teeth off. If you were still in your original, unaltered, God-made form, the…
