We have entered our Birthday Season. Landen's birthday is February 26. My sister turns 25 on March 4. I follow with my 32nd birthday on March 11. Then Jake will turn 11 on May 8. So, to kick us off, I made this kickasstastic birthday wreath.
I took inspiration from two wreaths I found on Pinterest - one fully covered in balloons and one wrapped in burlap with a banner balanced by some flowers - and combined them. I wrapped a straw wreath from Hobby Lobby with some burlap ribbon I got in the floral section of Michael's. I then spent the amount of time it took me to watch the Sex and the City movie with commercials and drink a bottle of prosecco (oops) to use floral pins to pin about 250 balloons I picked up in bags from the dollar store onto about 1/3 of the wreath. Advice: put the floral pins through the balloons to keep them from sliding. You can also space yours out more than I did mine. For the banner, I cut stiff pieces of felt into triangles and stenciled letters on them with paint and a sponge in the same rainbow colors as the balloons, then used my sewing machine to put them on ribbon and make a banner. Finally, I used the floral pins to attach the banner to the top corner of the wreath.
I am ridiculously proud of this wreath.
Which was hanging on the door when Landen's friends started arriving for his sleepover (his himber party) around six on Friday. We had five of Landen's friends, plus a brother Jake's age, who came for pizza, cake and several hours of high-volume playing upstairs in the boys' room and in our backyard. By 11, only two remained, twins who were staying the night. We put the three younger boys to bed at 11:30 with a movie and they were asleep in less than thirty minutes.
It's so wonderful that Landen made friends who wanted to come spend his birthday with him, because it's always a fear that no one will come, because he's new at the school, Corey and I are never able to help with classroom activities or field trips so no one knows us and it was at the tail end of the Mardi Gras holiday. He was ecstatic that all but one came to his party and that any of them stayed the night.
I'm ridiculously proud of this kid, also. I would not always describe him as a Joy to Raise, but this boy is full of love and good intentions, and he loves his friends. I'm pretty sure that when he's grown, and we've all survived his teen years, I'll be proud of the opportunity to have raised him, and of the person he's turned out to me.
But really, at this age, aren't they all just full of potential? They can go awry any day.
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| This is more kids than I would expect to fit in our sunroom. |
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| Landen's cake was a three-layer chocolate cake covered in a peanut butter cream cheese frosting with mini Reese's cups around the bottom and crushed on top. |
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| All raptly watching a cartoon while having a pizza feast. |
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| Blowing out his birthday candles. |
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| He only asked for one thing, and was crazy surprised when he opened it. Jake knew he was getting it, but his hands were still very enthused. |
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| Manna from heaven. Or Amazon.com. |
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| Today is the day he actually turns nine. This morning he acknowledged that we have now loved each other for half his life. (He was four and a half when we met.) |
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| Dad got him Batman: Arkham City for his Xbox. I'm unclear on which one of them will benefit the most from this gift. |
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| We also gave him the Guiness Book of World Records. He could not wait for Jake to wake up so that he could show him the "World's Longest Fingernails," which belong to an American woman and are 10 feet long. |
We are taking him to lunch today and I am making brisket for dinner. He'll also get to play more than his normal amount of Xbox today, because we resume our regularly scheduled video game limits when school starts back tomorrow.
Also, fun fact. Nine is the number of openings into the body possessed by human males. Count them. There are seven on their faces, and two elsewhere. Luckily, at the age of nine, they are not yet ruled in their actions by one of the elsewheres. Unless you count tooting, which they do ALOT.
Happy birthday, baby boy! Thank you for taking me and cooperating (mostly) as Dad and I figure out how to raise you.
