Happy Birthday Mission Style

Nineteen years ago I became a mother for the first time. Every year since then I have made Esteban's favorite foods, planned parties, and made a cake on his birthday. For the first time since his birth, I was not there to do these things. Thankfully those around him took care of him. I will be ever grateful.

The day after his birthday the bishop in the ward where he is serving hosted a Jiaozi (dumpling) party. My understanding is that the Chinese members, new converts, and investigators get together to socialize while making dumplings.

The bishop posted these photos on Facebook.

They even surprised Esteban with a birthday cake!

Esteban said they also had ribs on his birthday. He was pretty happy about it. As a Texas boy, a nice plate of ribs would be the perfect present!

Elder Dunyon made him some banana muffins for his birthday breakfast. Muffins are  another one of his favorite foods.

Oh, how I miss this face. It is hard to have him gone. I miss him every single day and especially this day, but I would never want to take these experiences away from him. I am at peace knowing Esteban is doing a great work and that he is surrounded by people who love and care for him. 

 Happy Birthday, Elder Womack!

Sweet!!

My sister came for a weekend in November. She was here for Esteban's 18th birthday. His birthday was pretty sweet!!

Chabeli gave him a gigantic Reese's.  That is my favorite candybar. Is it wrong to covet your son's birthday present?

Laurann brought a box of football and soccer cookies. They were delicious and almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

 He wanted an ice cream cake. This is his usual request.

Oh, how I love my little boy. He happens to not be so little these days. We gave him a luggage set for his birthday. A sign of things to come. It breaks my heart a little bit.

That weekend the boys had the opportunity to ride in the Veteran's Day parade. There are eight different high schools in our town. Instead of each school having their own homecoming parade they all participate in one big parade. Each marching band, football team, and homecoming royalty had their spot in line at the parade.

My favorite of course, was this royal couple. I loved all the texts I received from friends along the parade route commenting on seeing him. Este later told us how difficult it was to smile for 40 minutes straight. None of us felt sorry for him.

Ethan rode on the float with the varsity football team. They were proud to be playoff bound. Even though he as on the other side of the float, I still managed to get a smile and a photo.

The highlight of the parade for Vanessa was candy. We were told parade participants were not allowed to throw candy from the floats. We thought that meant there would not be any candy at the parade. Well, many participants simply walked the parade route handing our candy and treats. Vanessa "borrowed" my camera bag and was happy as could be. She loves to feed he sweet tooth.

Laurann and I visited downtown and the local popcorn shop.

Aaron took her on a tour of his office and all the products they manufacture. He let her take a few things with her.

Luckily we also paid a visit to our favorite store Sam Moon and she was able to pack everything in her bag going home. Sisters are the best. It is always a treat to have her here.

A Promise is a Promise

I flew to Utah on Aaron's 40th birthday. Years ago he made me promise that I would never throw him a surprise birthday party.

The thing is, my sister-in-law never made such a promise. She blew up balloons, hung a banner, fixed dinner, bought a cake, and had hats for the entire family.

Shortly after I arrived in Utah, Aaron texted me this photo. Thank you Melanie!! The nice thing is that I can't be blamed for the party. A promise is a promise.

Perfect!

My sweet Savanah turned 10 years old recently. I love her so much! The boys like to give her a hard time about being the "perfect" child who has never even been spanked. (We'll save the debate on childhood discipline for another post.) It's true though, she has been almost perfect since the day she was born a decade ago.

I took lunch into her at school on her birthday. At the schools here, the parents have a designated table to sit and eat with their child. I really enjoyed having some one on one time with her. I LOVED having her all to myself for a minute. While we were there eating, a soldier walked in and tapped a girl on the shoulder. It was her older brother surprising her with his return from Iraq. She absolutely leaped into his arms with squeals of delight. It was very touching to witness and of course, made me get a little teary eyed.

After doing some shopping at the mall for her birthday we went to dinner with Aaron on her birthday date. She chose to go to a local restaurant. This is what it looks like from the outside...

(That reminds me of my childhood in so many ways.)

This is what it looks like on the inside.

The menu consists of fried chicken, chicken fried steak, fried chicken tenders, fried catfish, smoked chicken, and pot roast. (Is it just me or does that sound a little bit like the state fair?) Along with your choice of meat, you get all these delicious sides (Mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed corn, green beans, and the best biscuits and green salad EVER!) all served family style. The food was fantastic!! No wonder it was recently ranked for serving the best fried chicken in DFW. I'm not a huge fan of fried food but, if your living in the South, ya gotta love southern food. Needless to say, I'm a convert!

When the waitress asked Savanah's age to see if she qualified for the kid's meal, I let it slip that it was her birthday. Sure enough after dinner our server brought over a rubber chicken hat for Savanah to wear while the staff sang a little Birthday jingle with Savanah flapping her arms chicken-like to the beat. She was such a good sport about it. Have a mentioned how much I LOVE this girl?

When we returned home she opened her presents which consisted of books. Lots and lots of books. She is a voracious reader. It is hard to keep up with her flying through books even with the city library and school library at her fingertips. I love the fact that she is such a great reader.

It was the perfect ending of the perfect day celebrating the life of a nearly perfect girl.

Sit Back and Enjoy The Party

AJ and his friend Josh were born one day apart but these two boys could seriously be twins. Talk about two peas in a pod! They had a joint birthday party this year complete with synchronized opening of the presents.

I tried not to be the "nerd mom" taking pictures of everything but I did manage to get a few shots of eating cake without too much fuss.

As usual, AJ tried to avoid the camera, but you know that never stops me.

Yes, those are girls at the party. So far nobody has told any of them that they should be avoiding each other at this age. They are sweet girls so I hope they never change their friendship status with the guys.



I love throwing parties for kids at this age. All I have to do is have some food (lots and lots of food) on hand then I sit back and enjoy the party. I just have to be there to make sure they don't start anything on fire. I'm telling you, with AJ and Josh around, that is always a concern.

The Princess' Big Day

No, this blog post is not about this Princess and her big day,

This blog post is about my little princess.

My princess' big day was her 6th birthday back in January. The festivities started when my mom took her out to lunch and surprised her with her cousins that are her age. The three girls had lots of fun as Grandma took them all shopping for new dresses.

Vanessa picked out a lovely dress with built in bling. She loves bling! She was able to wear her new little black party dress to her friend's birthday party later in the afternoon. Vanessa and Livvy were born on the same day and love the fact that they share their birthday. She didn't seem to mind going to a friend's party on her birthday. Livvy was nice enough to share her seat of honor. This photo makes me wonder what they are whispering about.

 We opened presents from her family that night. She was so easy to please and was excited about every gift.

Her cousins, Maddie and Hannah joined us that night for the pinata. What do gringos do with a pinata in the middle of winter? Well, we just did it in our kitchen with Aaron standing on the chair. Luckily, nobody whacked  him in the shins with a stick.

As with all royal events, the festivities lasted for days. The next day she invited her friends over for a Princess Pig Party. (Her idea.) She wanted a princess cake that I spent all morning working on. It looks nothing like the picture in the book but, she is only six and really only  cared about the tiara on top.

She had lots of fun with her friends and once again was happy with whatever gift she received.

I don't like the idea of my princess growing up. I realize that one day her photo will be like the one at the beginning of the post. For now, I will remember to enjoy each day I have my little princess beside me.

Sweetheart

Our sweetheart Savanah turned eight years old this year.

Her birthday was so fun this year. Vanessa bought her a present and was obviously more excited about the card than Savanah was.

Poor Savanah was not happy with her present from mom and dad at first. I love the look on her face! I promise it turned to a smile soon after this shot was taken.

For her birthday, Aaron and I took her on a date. She chose to go to a place that just opened called Savannah's BBQ. The food was great and we all enjoyed having time together just the three of us.

Savanah loves to read and loves school. The week she was star citizen she made this poster all by herself. She was so proud that she stayed up till 9:20pm working on it. She wanted a photo taken by it with her teacher, whom she loves.

She took dance (tap and ballet) for a few weeks this fall but soon decided that dance was not a sport and she was a sports girls. This realization came shortly after someone told her she would  have to do a performance on stage. She decided to do swimming instead. Who knew we had a little fish on our hands. She LOVES swimming! She is picking it up quickly and may soon be on the swim team.

She also started taking piano lessons. She enjoys playing the piano so much that she memorizes her songs each weeks since she plays them so often. It's fun to see her doing things she enjoys.

We love having her in our family and are so proud of the person she has become.

Worst Birthday Ever

My birthday this year was a bummer. There were lots of good things about it such as  lunch with Aaron, the beautiful cake he brought home, and all the well wishes from family and friends. The bad things about this birthday, I had my Patho final the next day and I had an infection that required two doctor's visits and three trips to the pharmacy.This year's birthday, however, was not the worst birthday I ever had. That was when I was in the eighth grade.

I remember that day because woman in our small community collapsed dead leaving her husband, small children, and our entire town mourning. The high school cheerleaders were in an terrible car accident where several were hurt severely. To top it all off, I had my eighth grade band concert. A friend and I were to play a flute solo during one of the songs. When we rehearsed our special musical number, I marked my flute so the tone would be right but somehow on the night of the performance the pitch was off. I still distinctly remember the band director coming up taking my flute from me, adjusting it, and giving it back during my solo. I obviously was horrified.

I recently told my kids this story. Ethan wrote this little song.......

"An untuned flute, it makes me sad.
It makes me feel my birthday's bad.
A broken flute, an untuned pipe,
It makes me sad. It makes me gripe.
My teacher took my flute from me,
fixed it and it's melody.
Now I can play my favorite song.
All of the day and all night long.
When I get old, I'll tell my kids
Of all the things my old flute did."

The best part of my birthday this year was being with my family and having teenaged kids who keep me humble.

Happy Birthday?

In our area, they have a race at the end of the each school year. Fourth and fifth graders from five different schools compete in a one mile race. They train for months. This year's race was scheduled for a Tuesday, which turned out to be cold and rainy so they rescheduled it for a Thursday which happened to be AJ's birthday. He was happy at first that the race was going to be on his birthday. Well, Thursday turned out to be colder and rainier then Tuesday. This time the race went on.

By the time I found AJ in the crowd, he was drenched and his lips were blue. It wasn't raining when they left the school that morning so he didn't take his jacket. I wrapped him up in a blanket and we waited in the car with the heater on until it was time for his heat.

His finishing time for this race was quite a bit slower than his usual time. I told him it takes a lot of heart to run in this kind of weather. I thought he did great and I was so proud of him.

After he finished the race, I took him out on a lunch date. We went to a place that offered steaming hot soup. Then we went to pick up his birthday present and spent the afternoon playing with it in our warm, dry house. When asked how his birthday was, he replied, "The first half was miserable. The second half was great!" I thought so too. I will cherish the memories of this day forever.

No More Princess?

Savanah's 7th birthday was just last week. She wanted a forest birthday party. (I've mentioned before that she is our family's little environmentalist.) What am I supposed to do for a forest party? I tried to talk her into a princess party or a Harry Potter party. She informed me she had outgrown princesses. It felt like she had jabbed a saber through my heart. No more princess? She'll be a princess in my mind even if she has a forest party.

For her cake, we used a tirered cupcake stand with green cupcakes so it was shaped like a pine tree.

They played Moose-Moose-Wolf (duck-duck-goose with forest animals), a matching forest animal game, an animal sound guessing game, and watched a short documentary on Pandas. The hit of the party was the puppet show with her stuffed animals.

She invited 11 girls and one boy (another reason the princess party was a no-go). I'm used to working with kids in church and school. I'm not used to having 12 hyper kids running around my living room. Wow! is all I'm going to say. I survived, the house survived, and  Savanah had a blast.

Happy Birthday, Princess!!