The Golden Birthday

My little girl is 15.

Fifteen years old on the 15th. The Golden Birthday.

When I think of fifteen years it sounds like such a long time ago; yet it has passed by in the blink of an eye.

My mom will appreciate this picture and memento from fifteen years ago. She (and my sister) were in GA visiting her sister when Joe called with the news that we were heading to the hospital. They hurriedly packed their bags and got to the airport with fingers crossed they could get on a flight to NM with stand-by tickets. While in the air my aunt received this note from the co-pilot and nonchalantly walked it back to my mom. She didn't say anything to my mom except, "Read this."

And then somewhere in the skies between GA and NM my mom found out that she became a grandma. (I'm sure the timing was a bit of a surprise since it had been less than 2 hrs since Joe called to say we were going to the hospital!)

The print is fading, but I think if you click on it you should be able to read it. One thing that has always stood out to me is statement "All is well."

I certainly did not feel that "all is well" at that time; but I can now certainly say that "all is well" indeed. 

Our local water park hosts a few special needs swim nights over the summer. It is after-hours and only for families with disabilities. One of their dates usually falls around the time of Kayla's birthday and for the past couple of years we've tried to incorporate this into her birthday party - but the weather has canceled (darn summer thunderstorms!) it each time. Thankfully, this year, on her golden birthday, it was golden. She finally had her "water park birthday party."

This year before blowing out her candles, Kayla put her hands together (as if in prayer) and said, "I wish my grandfather is in heaven." I don't recall her ever making a wish (we've never really done the 'make a wish before you blow out your candles" thing before) before, much less saying it out loud. The nature of her wish caught me off guard as well (and July 12th was 6 years since my dad passed away). I think my dad's way of saying he's still around is through Kayla.

 She finished a great birthday weekend at the Charleston RiverDogs baseball game (please ignore the fact that they are a NY Yankee affiliate - I have to every time we attend a game!) where the theme of "15" continued with her seat number! This was completely unplanned as we didn't have our seats until we got to the ticket booth and didn't look at our tickets until walking to our section.

This picture cracks me up. She doesn't usually get her head in the right position on these cutout boards, and she often has her hands up by her head so her fingers are sticking out ... but this ... actually looks hysterically realistic!

I'd say she had a pretty great 15th birthday!

Magical Disney Side Birthday Party

Disclaimer: We received free products to host a Disney Side Celebration from Disney Parks and Mom Select. All opinions of said products and fun using products are our own. You can see the products we received on my previous post.

The day of Lucas' party was finally here and I had one excited boy in the house! He was counting down the hours with about 4 hours to go. Then with under an hour to go he took a seat by the window to wait for his guests to arrive. Oh the anticipation for his 'friend birthday party'!

The kit we received for free to host the party helped with all the planning and decorating.

We had the runners' cheer cards from ESPN ready to go. Joe used stencil to put guest names on each card and we had them set out on a table with markers, colored pencils and stickers for them to decorate when they arrived.

I had an old plastic bowling pin set that has Disney characters on the pins that I also set out to keep the kids busy. I was actually surprised at how much the kids were enjoying that - for a few of the kids that's all they wanted to do!

We also played Disney bingo with the cards that were in the kit while we waited for Mollie Magic to arrive and set up.

Then the real fun began with the magic show. The kids were entranced and so excited to watch the magician do all her magic tricks. That was the highlight of the birthday party for Lucas.

After that we used some props for some photo booth type fun.

For a snack I just made a chex mix snack mix, 'magic wands' (grapes on a skewer topped off with a pineapple) and instead of cake or cupcakes we used the Mickey shaped cookie cutters that came in the kit to make peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies.

Lucas was very happy with his magical Disney birthday celebration and I'm glad it's finally over! I stress so much over having a party at the house and making it fun for the kids - I'm not a party-producing mom!

And now I only have 4 months before Kayla's birthday party - but I'm thinking of a movie theater party so that shouldn't be too stressful!

 

What Makes Her Special

For Kayla's 10th birthday she had a tea party at a Victorian tea room - Time Well Spent. The girls picked out their dresses from a selection of prom, bridesmaid, and wedding dresses. They wore the pinned up dresses across the hall to where the tables were set up for the tea party. They had lemonade in tea cups and some finger foods before having a cupcake. They all had such a great time and I'm glad we decided on doing this for Kayla's birthday.

After the tea party Kayla had 4 friends spend the night for her first slumber party. Now that she's had the requisite slumber party do we have to do that ever again?! Haha, actually it wasn't that bad ... it was just getting the girls settled down to actually sleep! I knew that would be the hard part; they finally fell asleep at midnight.

I had a neat conversation with one of the girls. While everyone else was upstairs she was downstairs with me as I was painting her toenails. She let me know that one of her toes didn't fully form because the umbilical cord wrapped around it. She told me it was her lucky toe.

Then she said, "I love my lucky toe. It's what makes me special."

I heard what she just said and ran with it.

"Kayla has an extra chromosome." I told her. "She does?" she responded in wonder.

"Yep. Most people have 46 chromosomes in their body."
"So Kayla has 47?"

"Yes. We usually get 23 from our mom and 23 from our dad, but sometimes we get an extra one. Chromosomes are numbered and Kayla's extra one is on number 21. It makes some things harder for Kayla to do."

"Wow, that's some neat scientific stuff. So that's what makes Kayla special?"
"Yes."
"Cool."

When she started to say "So that's what makes Kayla" I was expecting to hear, "different", "weird" or "that's why she can't do this or that" or "that's why she acts that way" or something like that.

But nope, it's what makes her special.

I don't usually like the word special, but this time it was appropriate in an innocent child's discovery about what makes each of them special.

She is special because of her toe, and Kayla is special because of her extra chromosome.











 

Birthday Parties

Lucas's first birthday is quickly approaching, I know!, so I've got my mind on birthday parties. On the one hand first birthdays are momentous - a milestone, but do the kids even care, or remember, the celebrations? It's more for us isn't it?

Lucas's first birthday will be bittersweet what with Joe being deployed. Since we just moved to this area it's not like we really have people to invite to a party anyway. So I'm sure it's going to be a pretty low-key affair; poor kid!

Sandra recently did a post on birthday party themes and it got me thinking about Kayla's birthday (still 5 months away, and we won't talk about her turning six) and whether to do any type of theme this year. Up until this point I haven't done any theme birthdays for Kayla, except for a small butterfly theme 2 yrs ago.

Sandra linked to Birthday Express and now I'm finding all sorts of themes - Animals & Insects, Classic, and Exclusive among many others.

I like Three Ring Circus, Sea Life, and Zoology because they aren't character themes.

Now I just hope by the time Kayla's birthday rolls around in July we'll know some people to invite! When you have a summer birthday it's hard to invite the kids in your class if you don't see them regularly.

Birthday Party

A couple people asked about details for the birthday party I'm planning for Kayla. I'll talk about that, but I won't talk about her turning FOUR on July 15th. Nope. Won't do it. Because it's just not true! And if someone tells you otherwise, well then, they must be lying. My baby can't possibly be turning FOUR can she?

I've yet to do a "theme" party for Kayla. Until she tells me, "I want a fill-in-the-blank party" we're not doing one; I just find it easier not to worry about a "theme."

I saw this Beautiful Butterfly Cake and thought it looked like a cute cake to make. With some changes. We'll replace the Oreos with mini-cupcakes. We'll probably use some sprinkles instead of Fruity Pebbles, because I don't think Fruity Pebbles sound good on a cake! We won't be using any suggested hard candy rings, because this is a joint birthday party for 4 and 2 year olds. But this is the gist of it.


Then I went to Oriental Trading and found these cute little 4-piece bucket sets that would be perfect for a summer-time birthday "goodie bag" for the kids to take home.


We're getting these small, blow-up beach balls to put inside:


and this "treasure chest" full of trinkets. There are enough pieces in here to throw about 10 items in each bucket so we're good to go!


Jennifer also bought some capri suns and little snack items to send home with the kids as well.

I would like to have a nice outdoor party, but it's too hot here for that. (104 here today) I tried that 2 yrs ago, and started the party at 10, but when it was time to eat lunch we were bombarded with flies. And there just isn't enough room in the house for kids and their parents. So we're having the party at the Kid Zone on base. It's not in this room anymore, they've moved it to a smaller room (yes, smaller) but you get the idea. I thought about doing some "games" this year, but since there will also be 2 year olds there I think we'll skip it. They're still too young for "organized" games. They'll be happy enough to just play in this room!


So there you have it!