Saying Goodbye

Its never easy to say goodbye.  As a matter of fact, I've always been pretty bad at it.  Add saying goodbye to my dearest companion for the rest of eternity and well, I'm pretty much a wreck.

Cosby, my faithful furry friend, left us about two weeks ago.  He was 16 years old and in excellent health according to his physical exam just a few weeks prior.  And although he was old, his departure was shocking, unexpected, and took us all by surprise.

My little buddy went in to have a tooth removed and didn't wake up.  I never even got to say a proper goodbye to him.

My heart is completely broken and probably will be for a while.  Cosby has been around forever, like since before hubby and kiddos.  He was by my side all those days of teaching K & 1st grade, my adventurous single life, meeting Clay {and finally approving after a good year}.  He watched all three babies come into this house and figured out they weren't going anywhere.  He watched them grow up and spent many days outside with them.

He protected me with his obnoxious bark, walked the neighborhood with me, traveled everywhere we went by car, and ended his day snuggled up right next to me.

He was as much of a part of my life as life would allow.  If dogs were permitted, you better believe Cosby was with us.  He made our party of five an actual party of six.

As I've cried my eyes out the past few weeks, I've also tried to remind myself what a gift he was to me. It isn't always easy to see a bright side, but I try.  Not a lot of people get to spend 16 years with their furry bestie.  16 years of an active bestie too!  Wow, that's pretty special.  I was blessed to have him, to hold him, to pet his sweet fur, and kiss his wet nose for as long as I did.

My love for him and his for me was truly unconditional.  Something I will never take for granted.  He will be greatly missed around here for many many years to come.

We love you Cosby!  Thank you for 16 spirited years! All my love 💙

Blue & Yellow "Theme"

This is the kind of birthday party you get when your son comes to you and says, "I don't want a theme for my birthday this year, but I want it to be blue and yellow and I want a foam machine".  Hmmm...

Where do I start?  The "no theme"...dagger to the heart right there.  The "blue & yellow"...okay there may actually be a sliver of hope.  And the "foam machine"...um? is that possible? and where do I find that?'.

So crisis averted.  Jack did his research and actually found a company where you can rent foam machines.  I mean, who knew? And I'd like to think this party DID have a theme and it was "Blue & Yellow".  All is well.

Jack prefers smaller intimate celebrations, so he narrowed his usual list down to just a few boys.  I can't say I didn't appreciate that, as we did take them to the lake and have a sleep over.  Mommy's hands were full.

We arrived on Saturday late afternoon with Clay and I caravanning the crew.  And wouldn't you know, straight out of the gate the boys ran down to check out the lake.

And a few fools even got in.  Freezing!

I served an early dinner before the festivities began.  By the table decor, I'd like to think we did have a theme after all. Right?

While the boys goofed around, I set up the foam machine.  It was super easy to use.  So much so, the boys set it up from here on out.  After a wardrobe change, they were in!

And in...

And in some more...

I actually had to pull these boys out admits flying soap suds.  It was endless entertainment.  But, I wanted to get the Blue & Yellow paint ball game in before dark.  Sunday was threatening rain, so it had to be done.

I made each of the boys a tee shirt with their names and filled buckets with throwable paint balls.  I got the paintballs at Michaels.  They are super soft and don't hurt when thrown.  But, be forewarned, they do wash out.  Which can be a good and a bad thing.

Let the color war begin...

From there, the boys were on their own for the evening.  They played flashlight tag, hide and seek in the woods and roasted s'mores.  I would like to assume they slept at some point.

The next morning, I was back on party duty with a Blue & Yellow breakfast to await the sleepy heads.  Rise and Shine...the party continues!

Sunday was spent waiting for the rain.  We knew it was coming, just not sure when.  Luckily, the hour by hour forecast was extremely inaccurate.  So those boys found plenty to fill their time before the rain set in.

They were able to get more quality time in the foam machine {imagine that}.  This time experimenting with rafts, balls and maneuvering the machine itself to get the best results.  They also squeezed in a boat ride.  Which lent me a few minutes to get lunch set up.  A Blue & Yellow lunch mind you.

I have to admit, it's kind of impressive how many food items are packaged in blue and yellow.  Jack just may be on to something with his favorite colors.

After lunch we sang to the Birthday Boy.  And celebrated with the dessert of his choice...Bundtinis from Nothing Bundt Cakes.

Yep, that's 11 candles.

And post lunch and cake, guess where we found the boys until the rain came pouring in...

Needless to say, the foam machine was a whopping success.  Call me crazy {which you probably already do}, but I put my rental cost toward the purchase.  It was a mere difference and I have a feeling we will get plenty of use from this thing.  So if you've got any foam parties in your future, guess what?, I have a machine you can borrow.

I'm happy to say this "no theme foam sleep over party at the lake" was a blast of a celebration for my boy!

Ooh and I forgot to mention {and take a picture of}.  The boys all went home with fabulous blue sweatshirt  blankets that I cricuted their names on in yellow.  Hoping I will see a lot of those at camp drop off this summer!

Happy Birthday to my smart, creative, kind, intuitive, healthy, responsible, boy who continues to keep me on my toes!  Love you!  xoxo

Happy Birthday Jack

 Look who woke up as an ELEVEN year old today?

I mean stop!  Where do the years go?  Last I checked, I'm not even old enough to have a kid this old.  He's almost as tall as me and I'm pretty sure he is smarter than me.

I know I'm his mom, but he serioulsly ROCKS!  Love this kiddo!

And because I love him soooooooo much, I wanted to make his real day as special as possible.  I made him cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Trust me that is a huge feat...we don't bake on school mornings.  Then he opened his gifts from his sisters and a few family members before hitting the carpool line. And let me tell you, that made him happy!

Later, I took doughnuts into school for his classmates at lunch time.

And I took him and two of his besties to his favorite restaurant for dinner...The Big ketch.  Kind of nice for an 11 year olds birthday and super delish!

Next up....a real Birthday Party...at the lake...no theme {per his request}...but everything blue and yellow.  #jacksfavoritecolors

This is gonna be good...

Spring Break 18

It's SPRING BREAK and I LOVE it!  I always get summer vacation fever this week.  Nothing like a little taste of schedule-less days ahead to get me and the kiddos all giddy!

It did fall a little early this year and it was chilly on occasion, but we made it work.  So you may be wondering, why are my kids in an ice cold lake?  I'm totally with you, I thought they were cray-zeee!

I think the excitement got the best of them.  

You see we spent the week at our new lake house.  Yes, it's ours.  And we are super excited to make some amazing friend and family memories there.  More explanation coming, I promise.  But, for now,  here is a quick peek at our week.

I regret to say, there was so much setting up and getting settled, my poor camera hardly made an appearance.

Over the course of the week, we made several Home Depot runs and a few Walmart ones too.  It's going to take a while to get settled.  But the best part were the visitors who came and bunked and ate with us.  So much fun!

I promise Jack was there too!  I vow to get some lake pics of him soon...geez.  Mommy fail!