Birthdays with Kids

A few days before my birthday last week, I went over to Mom's to help out with the kiddos.  I walked in to this!  Opps.  I spoiled the surprise but I don't think anyone cared.  The boys were helping Mom make my birthday cake...a strawberry one (my favorite!)

It was sweet how they all wanted to help and all had their own jobs.  

John Paul took a huge bite of the dry ingredients, but other than that, the making part was a huge success and it turned out so well!  

Then, on the night of my birthday, we held hands (Peter's suggestion) while they sang happy birthday and gave me a card.  

Every year with these people just gets better!  They're the sweetest little kids and I wouldn't want to spend my birthday doing anything else but being with them.  

What's so neat, too, is that them making my birthday cake was the culmination of a week or so of learning a lot of new things with Elley.  The kids can now wash their dishes (mostly Carter and Peter), sweep up their crumbs under their chairs, gather wood for the fire, sleep together in one room and a few other things.  It's so neat to see their pride in being independent and being able to truly help out.  

They didn't just learn to work.  They had a ton of fun while away with the grandparents, too!  John Paul had a few days where he ruled the roost in Amarillo and enjoyed only having to share the attention with his non-talking baby sister.  Here, there was a park playdate, building towers and saying a rosary by the fire as they fell asleep.  They used a blow up mattress as a fort, slide and tumbling mat. They kept the dogs fed and built a ton of towers with Picasso tiles.  And, they learned to love cheese toast. 

I think spending those days with both sets of grandparents was so good for them.  They needed a change of scenery, and I do think it's something at least Carter will remember forever (I can't remember what age I can remember back to).  

And, it was a huge blessing to me.  As much as I missed them, it was a nice break...to recover, to get a few housekeeping things out of the way and to enjoy being with Jeremy.  I'm not so sure I'd volunteer to have another organ out just for a break from daily life (ha!), but since it had to happen, it was such a blessing to be near family who are so incredibly generous.

33, it will be hard to beat 32, but I'm ready for you!