Half a dozen years

December 16, 2013 by Kelli

My baby is six today. This child brings so much joy to our family, and I am grateful every single day for his smile, his humor, his giggles, his freckles, his energy, his sweetness.

He is so precious to me.

He’s currently keeping his hair longer because, in his words, “I wanna be able to flip it.” Um…okay.

He’s always good for a laugh.

That face. I could cover it with smooches if he’d let me…

Goof

Goof take 2

Perhaps his biggest flaw is that he knows he’s cute, and he works it.

Skinned knees and elbows are part of his every day wardrobe. “Play hard of Go Home.” That’s his motto.

He hates shoes so this is what his feet look like every moment of every day.

He continues to grow taller, yet he has only gained about 4 pounds in the last three years. He’s a scrawny little bugger…

All the girls have crushes on him. What can I say? Chicks dig freckles…

I’m constantly wishing I could freeze time with this kid, and yet each new season brings out a new aspect of his personality that is so much fun. I can’t wait to see what he becomes in the future.

Posts of birthdays past if you’re interested:

Someone’s One – December 16, 2008

To My Son on His Birthday – December 16, 2009

My Christmas Baby – December 16, 2010

Four is More – December 16, 2011

Delightfully Five – December 16, 2012

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Landon Tagged With: Birthday, Kids, Landon, Life, Motherhood

It’s my 35th birthday and the day couldn’t be more crazy or indicative of what my life is these days. I have end of school awards, play dates, kindergarten registration (SOB!), laundry, dirty dishes and somewhere in there I think I’ll be allowed to breathe. It’s hectic and crazy and a skooch stressful, but altogether awesome because my life is bustling and full and rich. I wouldn’t change anything about it.

As I sat and thought about turning 35 and remembered back to the day when I thought that was SO OLD, I realized something. 35 and 21 are almost exactly alike! I mean, stand them up side by side and you can hardly tell the difference. To prove my point, I give you:

Ten Ways 35 Is Exactly Like 21

1. You are up at all hours of the night, only at, 35 you’re up involuntarily changing sheets, or doling out medicine or looking for lost lovies and on and on and SWEET MERCY I’M TIRED!

2. You eat Mac and Cheese for lunch. When you were 21 you did it because you were broke. Now you do it because making lunch for yourself takes effort and sooooo tiiiiirrrreeeeddddd…

3. An alcoholic beverage incites a bizarre amount of excitement, again for different reasons.

4. You look at a book and think of all the other fun things you could be doing instead of reading. Only when you were 21 the fun things you thought of involved less sleep, not more sleep.

5. You live in a pigsty and you don’t really care.

6. You have to clean up vomit periodically.

7. When you’re in the car, you crank the tunes. Of course, when you’re 35 the tunes are usually sung by Disney Channel teeny boppers and you turn it just loud enough to drown out the sound of arguing children….

8. You run outside to play in the rain just for the fun of it, only when you come in you now have an entire mountain of laundry to clean instead of just your own soggy clothing.

9. You enjoy a laid back movie night now and again, but instead of that creepy horror movie that allowed you to hide your face in the shoulder of the cute guy next to you, you’re watching a Disney movie with a scary bear in it while small people hide their faces in your shoulder.

10. You have high and lofty dreams of the future, but this time those dreams don’t center around you, but rather around those small people that you helped create….and you dream of a vacation where you’re allowed to do nothing but sleep.

So basically 35 is exactly like 21, only it’s better. Because I sure wouldn’t trade a single thing about where I am or who I’m with.

At 21, life was all about me – my future, my goals, my dreams, my accomplishments. Today I sat on the most uncomfortable chairs known to mankind in a room full of other thirty-five(ish) year olds and I watched my third grader walk up on stage to receive a school accomplishment award and I thought, “Huh. So this is what thirty-five year olds do.”

Afterward I walked out the the courtyard and he ran to me, throwing his long, lanky arms over my shoulders and leaning his head on my shoulder. I kissed the top of his head (because it won’t be long before I won’t be able to reach the top of his head anymore) and I decided 35 is kind of awesome. It’s awesome because of them:

The 21 year old me would have been shocked at this picture.

Heck, the 35 year old me still does a double take when I look at them.

I am blessed.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes everyone! It’s proving to be a good one.

(And if you can think of other ways that 35 is just like 21, share them in the comments. I dare you…)

Filed Under: Family, Kids, Life, Motherhood Tagged With: 35, Birthday, How 35 is just like 21, Life, Motherhood

Fasion Diva Birthday Party…on a budget

February 18, 2013 by Kelli

I love budget blogs. I love women who have the fortitude and mental strength to really think through where and how they spend money and who can save a dollar at every turn. I admire those women.

Because I am not one of them.

I work really hard at spending wisely. I do not make frivolous purchases (all the time – I’m human) and I try not to spend my money on wasteful items. But when it comes to shopping on a budget, I’m not good at it. I don’t coupon, I don’t watch for sales (though I do take advantage of them and try not to pay full price for something if I don’t have to). I don’t garage sale or search for the cheapest price online. Partly because I’m lazy and partly because I feel like I can because I am wise in where and how often I spend.

That said, recently I took Tia to a birthday party at an adorable salon for girls. A group of teenagers fixed the girls hair into little diva buns, gave them fancy dresses to wear, sprayed glitter all over their heads and let them march down a catwalk to zippy tunes by Katy Perry and Taylor Swift.

It was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen and Tia bounced all the way home proclaiming her desire to have just such a birthday. The next day I called said salon to get pricing information on their parties.

Cheapest package? $269 for eight girls. This did not include cake or party favors. I almost had a heart attack. I told you not long ago my philosophy on kid birthday parties, remember? KISS – Keep It Simple ~~Stupid~~ Silly. So I used my thinker and I thinked up a rather grand idea.

We’d have our own fashion diva party right here at home. For $5.99 I bought a can of glitter hair spray and $4.99 bought me a glittery heart stamp for their faces. I went to the dollar store and bought a bouquet of artifical flowers for three dollars and a one dollar tube of eye shadow.

I made a cake, dipped waffle bowls and pretzels into melted candy coating and sprinkles, dished out M&M’s and ice cream and by God I pulled it off.

One fancy pants fashion diva party for less than $60 (including all food and party favors)!

I pulled up the Taylor Swift music station on Pandora and blasted the likes of Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, One Direction (OHEMGEE ONE DIRECTION! SQUEEEE!). They walked the “catwalk” around the pool, giggling and squealing as only little girls can. And when they were tired of acting fierce, we had ourselves a little dance party. We even busted out a little Gangnum Style.

I pulled each girl’s hair up into a high ponytail, stuck a flower in it, sprayed on an ample supply of glitter and stamped a heart and a little eye shadow on them and BAM! Twelve little diva’s strutted their way through the festivities. An added bonus is that my house now has a fine sheen of glitter all over it, which I kind of like. Makes it feels magical in here.