Mason's 6th Birthday

Birthday party planning is an art. After seven parties between the two kids, I thought I'd figured it all out. 

Step 1: Pick a theme.  This should be relatively easy.  Mason loves Super Mario and Mario Kart these days so a Mario party seemed like a really good idea.  And he happily approved it.  One trip to the party supply store and I quickly realized a Mario party wasn't going to be so easy after all.  For some reason none of the stores had Mario party stuff.  No favors, no plates, just some expensive candy.  So I made the invites myself, which actually turned out pretty cute.  And just had to make do with favors in the primary colors of Mario.

Step 2: Pick a date and time.   Again, this should be easy, but as soon as the invites went out we found out we had a problem.  We decided to invite Mason's closest friends from school this year, and wouldn't you know it one of those friends had scheduled her birthday for the exact same date and time.  We'll have to coordinate next year, but for this year we ended up being able to change the time.  Crisis averted, and all the kids were still able to come.

Step 3: Pick a place.  September is hit or miss with the weather.  For his first four birthdays, the weather was beautiful and we had indoor parties.  Since we'd gone four for four, last year we had an outdoor party and while it didn't rain, it was cold and gloomy.  So we reverted back to an indoor party and held it at the bowling alley.  (Wouldn't you know the weather was beautiful, but the party was super fun none the less.)

Step 4: Invite friends.  Because Mason's party was so early in the year, he didn't have time to make friends with the new kids in his class so we just invited his closest friends from Kindergarten and daycare.  This ended up being probably the easiest of choices, and he was so excited when each one arrived. 

So we had Mary, Bradley, Lyle and Raina from school.  Zoe, Blake and Emma came too and of course Mya and Julia and the whole Rowe family.  It was a full group of kiddos - somehow we managed to wrangle a few of them for a picture. 

I will say, adding a bunch of kids to the mix definitely made it more of an adventure.  But I think they all had fun, and I know Mason loved having everyone there to celebrate with him.

Step 5: Eat cake!  We've done some pretty exciting cakes in the past.  But after we ordered cupcakes from the Meijer bakery for Mya's party and found out how easy and cheap that was, I'm not sure we'll ever do anything different again.  No matter intricacy of the cake, the excitement of singing and blowing out the candle is still there. 

In the end, we had another successful party in the books.  Yes there were bumps along the way, but as long as the birthday boy is happy, I feel like I've done my job.

Here's hoping for many more wonderful birthdays for our sweet little guy.

Welcome to the Family

It doesn't seem that long ago I was posting about meeting baby Julia for the first time.  So it's no wonder I'm feeling a little twinge of nostalgia when writing this post about meeting Mason & Mya's newest cousin, Jackson.

The kids and I ran up for a quick trip to my sister's house to see Jackson for the first time.  He was sleeping peacefully when we arrived so both kids peeked at him and ran off to play with Julia.  I can't blame them - Julia was certainly much more fun for them than a sleeping baby.

And since they didn't care about holding him, it just meant more auntie snuggle time.  The thing that always strikes me when I see a brand-newborn is how small they are.  I know, I know, of course they're tiny.  But they always seem so much smaller in person, swimming in their newborn-sized clothes.  As Megan reminded me, they'll blink and all of sudden the newborn clothes won't fit anymore.  

Eventually, Jackson woke up a little bit and Mason decided he'd like to hold him.  He did surprisingly well, and the two of them sat and watched the Lions play football.  It's nice to add another boy to the mix.  Poor Mason was getting a little overrun by estrogen with a sister and three girl cousins.  Now he'll have a kindred spirit to pass on the legends of Sodor and Radiator Springs. 

As we were lying in bed this evening talking about the day, Mason paid sweet little Jackson the highest compliment.  He said he wished Jackson was a part of our family.  Another baby definitely isn't happening for us, but I think we're going to have fun watching our cousin grow.

First Day Jitters

It was the night before Mason's first day of first grade, and as I got ready for bed I couldn't shake this uneasy feeling inside of me.  At first I thought I might be getting sick so I started thinking about what I'd eaten during the day.  Then it hit me - I had a serious case of the back-to-school jitters. 

I'm still not totally certain what brought this on.  Maybe it's because our bedtime routine was thrown off and I didn't get a chance to read him "The Night Before First Grade" like I'd planned.  Maybe it was just genuine excitement for my kiddo.  And maybe, just maybe, it was that not-so-tiny perfectionist voice inside me wondering if I'd done enough to keep the summer brain drain at bay. 

I don't recall parents having to be so involved with their kids school work back when I was a kid.  I'm sure my mom helped me with homework when I needed it, but I don't really think she had to encourage me to do my homework.  I liked to do it, and I liked to do well on it.  (I'm also sure I didn't have very much of it, if any at all, back when I was in elementary school. Certainly not the weekly packets Mason had last year.)  I don't know if other moms are feeling this way, or if it's just self-imposed pressure, but I feel like how my child does in school directly reflects my momhood.  I'm hoping this is something that will wear off once Mason is old enough to be accountable for his own homework. 

It's the first day of school, and this post is about me - when it should be about my adorable little first grader.  So with that in mind, here's what's up with Mason these days:

• He lost two teeth this summer!  Sorry, no posts on this subject.  Teeth and especially the pulling of loose teeth creep me out.  I did save the teeth, which is also gross, but I couldn't bear the thought of throwing a part of my child away. 
• He is going to play soccer again this fall.  While I'm not certain he really liked it in the spring, he agreed to give it another try.  This time he's on a team of 1st and 2nd graders from his school and one of the second grade teachers is his coach, so maybe it will work out a little better this time around.
• He is getting better about having his picture taken.  (Evidence above.) There will eventually be a post about this turn of events.  I'll keep you all in suspense until then.
• The kid loves video games.  On his phone, on his dad's old phone that he inherited, on his dad's tablet and even on our old game systems.  Mario Kart is by far his favorite - imagine his surprise this summer when daddy got out the Nintendo 64 and showed him how we can play it on the big TV.  And the thing is, he's good at them!  He's legitimately beaten us both at Mario Kart and he's significantly better than me at Super Mario Brothers for SNES.  He's also been playing an Angry Birds RPG game on his phone, and at last check he was at a higher level than his dad. 

So that's a snapshot of our little guy these days.  Our little first grader.  To quote Mason, when I think about how quickly this time has gone all I can really say is "What. The. Heck."