Chatter Boxes

We were able to celebrate the boys' birthday in Oklahoma with Grandpa and Grandma.  It was even more special because the boys share a birthday with John's dad.

When John had birthday parties as a kid, his mom would make pocket bread with chili and he and his friends would celebrate at Clayton Lake.  Since we would be there for the boys' birthday we decided to do it too!

Grandma made her special birthday lunch.  I made a cake (barely...for some reason my birthday baking is jinxed.  Things I bake come out fine the rest of the year but nearly every time I attempt to bake for the boys' birthday it goes haywire.  One year, ants enjoyed some beautiful sprinkled cupcakes I left out on the counter overnight and I had to make a last minute run for a store bought cake as guests were arriving for the party. This year, I was distracted by a story John was telling me and added three times the amount of oil I was suppose to.  There's no grocery store to run to near Grandpa and Grandma's house so we managed to compensate for the oil overload and I got the cake frosted.  But on our way to the lake, Seth was tossing a football around the back seat and it veered to the front seat and landed smack on top of the cake!  I think my birthday baking is doomed.  Next year...ice cream sundaes!)

Aunt Kelly mailed birthday cards to the boys.  They love getting mail!

The cards had cut-outs.  Seth is Iron Man and Colin is a pirate.

The cake!  Not too shabby all things considered.

The Birthday Boys!

Colin got a wii-mote charger (I know...it's very practical for a 5 year old but he did actually ask for it so he could "keep playing instead of not playing when the batteries need charging" - actual quote).  He also got this, which I highly recommend to parents of small children.  It's like paper dolls only with magnets and they come in different themes...robots, houses, planes, dolls, ballerinas, etc.  It's great for the car.  We all played with it on our trip home.

Seth asked for "something to play music in my ears" after watching mommy do yard work while listening to her ipod.  So, he's now the proud owner of his very own mp3 player and headphones.

I gave the boys Silly String in their Christmas stockings last year and they've been asking for it since.  Which is how we came to have a birthday Silly String fight at Clayton Lake State Park.

Seth is clearly winning this battle.  Mommy stepped in to aid Colin after taking some pictures.  As they get older Colin will figure out how to work those aerosol cans and Seth better watch out.  Youngest children always seem to get their revenge.

It was kind of nice having a small little party.  Big parties with friends are fun too but this year it felt nice to relax and enjoy these two boys.  We didn't plan for things to be so simple but I felt especially grateful for it on this day.  The boys felt sufficiently celebrated and I wasn't stressed about keeping people entertained or well-fed (although most of the time I enjoy being the hostess-with-the-mostest!).  We didn't rent any air-filled climbing, jumping, sliding apparatus or reserve a party hut, tent, cabana or room.  As I watched the boys splashing around in the lake with their dad, squealing on the playground, and smiling as they opened their small stack of gifts I was struck by how easy it is to over indulge the emotions of our kids.  We, of course, want them to feel special and loved on their birthday (and every day) but it may not take as much as we think it does.  I credit John's mom for helping us have such a great time together.  She may not have meant to,but she was the mom of two small boys once who kept things simple.  Maybe somewhat out of necessity (not a lot of party places close by).  She fixed a special lunch, went to a special place and decades later one of those boys did the same with his two small boys and they loved it!

The boys will get older and the pressure on them and us to create the biggest, most magical, most spectacular birthday ever will come, no doubt.  I hope we all remember this year and what it was that made it feel special.

The official end of summer weekend found us visiting John's parents in Oklahoma.  We enjoyed a long weekend at the cabin.  It was pretty hot so we didn't have energy to do much other than fishing and swimming, but we definitely took advantage of the opportunity to do both those things.

Check out this haul!  Sorry if your squeamish but we're pretty proud!  This was definitely a group effort.  Colin caught the biggest fish in the first five minutes of being on the pond, which is good given his current attention span.  It was his only catch of the day.  We think Grandpa caught the most.  Seth gets the prize for getting the most fish in the fastest time.  With his lucky fishing pole in hand he caught two fish in two minutes.

John took the boys to one of the "swimming holes" he played in as a kid.  The boys thought it was "awesome" and said it was more fun than our local aquatic center with water slides, lazy rivers, and climbing walls. I think there's something innate in little boys when it comes to the outdoors.  There's a little Huckleberry Finn in all of them.

Look for a separate post today with pictures of the boy's birthday!