Last year's Sweet 16th birthday was the best ever. Nothing could compare to that magical day. However, who would have predicted what birthdays would look like come 2020?! This year said it wasn't even going to attempt to match last year's birthday!
Kayla woke up on her birthday (last month, I'm late in posting!) so excited to be SEVENTEEN! She came downstairs and saw the little bit of decorations I put up in the kitchen and declared it the "best birthday ever!"
I was like, "Ummm...Kayla? Better than last year? Really? Your Sweet 16 going to Boston, seeing the Red Sox, getting a ball from Mookie Betts (we won't talk about the fact that he's with the Dodgers now!)? Wasn't that your best birthday ever?
She paused and said, "Best family birthday at home ever!" Haha! I somehow think the birthdays spent at home when she was actually able to have a sleepover with her friends and go to the water park were better birthday celebrations, but I'm glad she she is easy to please! She picked breakfast (pancakes) and dinner (pizza) and she had a fun video birthday tribute which she enjoyed seeing all the birthday wishes sent her way.
Birthdays in this covid-world are definitely different, but you just make the most of it and make it as special as you can!
Kayla turned 16 on July 15th. Sweet 16! I know, right? How did this happen? It was a magical sweet 16 and one that I hope she'll always remember.
We took a road trip to Massachusetts with stops in Maryland and Connecticut. We had a visit with my dad's side of the family and a birthday celebration for Kayla and my cousin's daughter (who turned 18 two days after Kayla turned 16).
One of the main reasons we made this trip was for Kayla to participate in the National Down Syndrome Society's PLAY Campaign with MLB (more on that in another post). When I saw the date for the event at Fenway Park was on July 15 - Kayla's birthday - and that the Red Sox were in town and playing a game that night, I knew I wanted to make this happen. I've been wanting to take my kids to a game at Fenway Park and this provided a perfect opportunity!
A quick birthday celebration with a few gifts before heading into Boston for the PLAY Campaign in the morning and the game that evening.
Her favorite player is Mookie Betts. When we first told Kayla what we were doing for her birthday she was so excited and said she wanted to meet him; I told her I wasn't going to promise that would happen and knew it was unlikely, but that we were sitting in the right field section so she would at least get to see him play.
In between the PLAY Campaign and the game we explored a little bit of Boston. We took the water taxi across to the North Side and the USS Constitution. On the way back we got on the Green Line at Government Center and the train almost immediately started getting crowded. Joe and Kayla were holding on to a pole at one side by the door and Lucas and I were on the other side. At each stop more and more people kept squeezing on. Kayla was getting anxious and there was a lady who seemed to notice and started talking to her, trying to distract her. She noticed Kayla's Sweet 16 headband and was asking if it was her birthday and then she got everyone on the train to sing Happy Birthday to Kayla. It was pretty cool to have a car full on the MBTA sing to her! This was my view - nothing but armpits, ha!
At the top of every inning Kayla would go down to the wall and wave and try to get Mookie's attention as he was warming up with someone from the bullpen. People in the crowd took notice of her and started cheering and calling his name, trying to help her get his attention. One guy who had a ground foul ball thrown to him from the Toronto right-fielder gave Kayla the ball.
We had seats about 5 rows from the front of this wall, but the people sitting here left early and told Kayla and Lucas they could have their seats. One of the guys managed to finagle a ball from the bullpen (at least we think that's what happened because no foul or fair balls were hit in our section) and he gave it to Kayla on his way out. So now she snagged TWO baseballs! But it didn't stop there.
The usher for our section let me know that at the top of the 9th inning after Mookie finishes his warm up, he comes over to find someone to give the ball to ... so he was saying make sure Kayla would be up waving her arms.
AND IT HAPPENED!! Mookie Betts, her favorite player (and one of mine if I'm being honest!) and all she wanted to do was meet him AND SHE DID! He came over and gave her the ball, shook her hand, and said "Nice to meet you."
It made her night. It made all of ours night. The crowd around us were cheering and clapping and yelling, they were so happy for Kayla.
Here is the video from Joe's phone and from a lady who was behind us in the stands.
We all signed Pesky's Pole after the game. Kayla wrote Mookie's name, and her own.
Lucas wrote "Lucas wants red socks" haha!
He also ended up with a baseball given to him by the usher, and it was scuffed up, so it was used in the game at some point!
Then Kayla signed the bottom part of the pole with "Mookie to (the) best player. I said hi. Kayla"
What a magical birthday! Going to her first Red Sox game at Fenway Park, seeing a grand slam by Michael Chavis, the Red Sox won 10-8, 4 baseballs between Kayla and Lucas, and shaking Mookie Betts' hand!
My boy. My baby. He turned eight today. Both of my children will always be my 'babies' but he is the last, the youngest. Eight is still young, but it also seems so old compared to just three years ago when he was five. Such a lifetime of difference in those years.
Lucas is a kind, inquisitive, creative, caring, big-hearted, sensitive, social, a bookworm, adventure-seeking, tree-climbing, soccer-playing, Lego-building, outdoor-loving boy.
He has also decided that he wants to live in the jungle when he's older. The jungle!
I had him help me re-make his bed by putting the fitted sheets on and he said he wasn't good at it; that it was hard to do. I told him that's why he was helping me, so he could learn how and be able to do it by himself one day. He reasoned, "I won't have to be making a bed in the jungle, I'll just be sleeping on a pile of leaves and stuff." Me, "Well yes, but there are a lot of years to go before you live in the jungle!"
We completely surprised him for his birthday when we showed up at the Charlotte Convention Center for the Lego KidsFest this past weekend. Suffice it to say he had a blast.
The moment he realized where we were:
Awww, after all these years he still loves me!
Yes, there are only 7 candles on his cake ... I must be in denial that he's growing up - oops!
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!
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.
Hopefully there are some procrastinators out there (like me, ahem!) that haven't made/ordered their holiday cards and can use this great promotion!
I really had no idea what photos I was going to use for our holiday card this year and hadn't even yet attempted to get any photo-card-worthy pictures. Thank goodness for our trip to Chicago though! We had a photo shoot while we were there. Well, the photo shoot was really for Kayla, but they were very generous and did family photo as well. So now I finally have the perfect pictures to use for our Christmas cards.
The hard part was picking the perfect card to fit those pictures in! I like the cards with more than one picture on them as it is so hard to just pick one picture to use!
Right now cards are up to 40% off and you can get free shipping on orders of $50 or more by using code SHIP50.
While looking around on the site (because they also offer more than just prints and cards) I got some great ideas to use for photo gifts. Especially helpful for the people that seem to have everything and you have no idea what to get them!
This is what I finally ended up getting. We didn't get a professional picture of Kayla and Lucas together in Chicago so I used the one that was taken at the NDSC Convention this summer.
If you'd like to win a code for 25 free cards just leave a comment on this post (making sure I have a way to get in touch with you!) telling me which design is your favorite.
I received my own set of free holiday cards from Shutterfly in exchange for this blog post.
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