Happy Birthday to Me

I just turned 30.


At first I was excited. I have wanted to be thirty since I was a pre-teen. But as it came closer I got the blues. I wanted to celebrate in style, but felt lame throwing myself a party. Half my friends were going to be out of town anyway. Then I wanted to spend the day out of town shopping or refreshing, but some relatives and family friends were visiting from out of town so that wasn't going to work. Also I share my birthday now with one of my beautiful nieces (best birthday present I ever got by the way) and she happens to be Sadie's best friend, so it's usually all about her party on my birthday. Which is totally fine with me, I love to make birthdays special for kids. And she wanted a party at the water slides, so that was fun. But this was going to be my 30th. And for some crazy reason 30 has been more important to me than any other birthday. Better than 16, way cooler than 18, and more exciting than 21, 30 just hits the spot with me, it's weird I know. But I was a little let down that noone was offering to have a party for me. I had even straight out told my sister to throw me a surprise party. But she refused.

Oh my sweet sister never disappoints though. Ok that's a lie, there have been times when she has disappointed me and I'm sure there will be more, she maybe close to perfect, but she's still human. But this time she didn't disappoint me. She threw me not one but two surprise parties.

First, on Saturday, the day after my birthday party she and two friends were going to take me out for dinner. Our other friends were out of town like I said so she it was going to be a small group. So when we arrived at the restaurant I was surprised to see several of my friends waiting for me with balloons, big fake plastic earrings, matching sparkly plastic tiara and everything. There were friends there my sister didn't even know very well, and my best friend from out of town. What a fun surprise. Of course we ate too much, then went over to another restaurant for coffee and desesrt and which also turned into some appetizers and we again ate way way too much. But it was fun and memorable, and so very very sweet.

Next day a small intimate family bbq was planned. I invited Janet, my out of town friend to spend the night and join us for the bbq. Little did I know that was the plan the whole time. The next morning she suggested we go out to breakfast like old times. My mom offered to watch the kids and said take our time. So we ate a long relaxed breakfast, Then we stopped by the grocery store to see if another friend was working and the Janet wanted to go to the mall so we hung out there. I was rather embarrased because I had chosen to just wear my sweats out to our little breakfast jaunt, and now found myself cruising the mall but hey I'm 30 who do I need to impress. Then we finally got back to my parents house just in time for the bbq. I walk in and appologize for being almost late. Not a big deal I'm told relax and enjoy my birthday weekend. We head out to the deck to have some chips and dipand wait for lunch to be ready. And then....

Down the lake a bit I see a train of boats coming. Don't think much of it there is a boaters club on the lake and they get together a few times a year and parade around the lake. Didn't know what the occasion was but when i saw santa on the bow of the first boat I thought "cute christmas in July, maybe they are promoting their christmas morning parade". Then my mom points the sign out to me "what's that sign say?" she asks me. "I don't know mom looks like maybe a phone number to me, 3-0- something" it still isn't hitting me. Then I recognize some of the people. "Hey that kind of looks like the Hadfields. Oh and that is your boat and there's Dave and the sign says happy 30th ye olde farte. And I'm guessing it's Cheri in the Santa suit." And boy was my face bright red. I was surprised AGAIN! They all came to shore and we had a great big bbq and even more friends stopped by and the ones who were out of town had gotten back into town and we had a blast. Thanks to all my dear friends and family and especially my sister for showing me just how much I really am loved. I won't forget!

Slippin' into Summer

My hunky hubby surprised the kids with a spiderman slip-n-slide during his lunch break. Sadie was the first to mater this new toy, and Addie was right behind her big sister. Philip was little leary of it and Carter liked the water squirting into the sky but was fond of the idea of sliding down it on his tummy. Of course when Jose got home from work he couldn't wait to try it out for himself. Actually it was so hot out that I even took a couple turns sliding down it. Once we turned the water off Carter felt more brave and slid down the slide on the water that had collected and pooled in the cener. After a couple of tries without the hose he was ready for a water blast, but Philip stayed on the sidelines. Maybe we will get him to try it out before summer is over.

Super Starting Summer

Here they are my gorgeous family all enjoying a hot summer day. Just looking at them makes me smile. I hope our summer is filled with lots of moments like this one, just enjoying eachothers company.

Walk-A-Thon

It's a great thing when we see our children get excited about something. It's even better when that thing happens to be a good cause. Sadie decided that she would make a difference for her school this year. Since I am the Co-President of her school's PTA she hears a lot about the needs and goals of her school. Lately we have been talking a lot about the playground because her school is in desperate need of some new equipment. They had to remove over half of the equipment when they put in a few new pieces because they couldn't get them insured. This means there isn't much for the little kids to play with, especially the pre-school age special needs kids. I hadn't talked about the Walk-a-thon plans much with Sadie, I didn't think she would be all that interested, but when she heard the details at the all school assembly she got excited. Of course the big prizes had something to do with it. She also wanted to see her sister and brother happy on the playground. She talked about seeing them out on the playground and noticing they didn't really play with anything because it was all too big for them. She set a goal to raise $500 and solicited the twins help. She had them draw pictures and she wrote a letter and asked me to mail it to everyone we know. She also made a few calls and some personal appearances, although that was a little nerve wrecking for her. To my amazement she met her goal, donating the last $12 from her own pocket. She had hoped she would be the top seller in the school and earn the chance to be principle for a day, but she was 2nd place and still got a pretty cool prize, a party at our sports plex with all her friends. I am so proud of her. To see her set a goal, and a high one at that, then take the steps needeed to meet that goal, stepping out of her comfort zone as needed, it really shows character. that girl will go places in this world.

Last Day of School

It's the last day of school for Sadie and I can't help but reflect on the year. She has learned so much and come so far. She has learned to problem solve and stay focused, both of which were big challenges for her last year. She has become an excellent reader and greatly improved her comprehension skills. She has mastered addition and subtraction and is starting to understand the concept of multiplication. She has studied many areas of science and has a growing thirst for knowledge in this area. She met lots of goals this year and won awards including being the top reader in her grade this year for the the read-a-thon, and being the second over all collector for the school walk-a-thon. On top of this she excelled in Awana and was persistent in her piano lessons. That is one motivated girl. She truly amazes me and I feel so blessed to be her mother.

Piano Recital

Grandma pins Sadie's corsage on her right before her piano recital. Sadie preformed beautifully at the recital. She was calm and confident. She didn't feel the least bit nervous, it was as if she was made to preform. The past few weeks she has been playing the piano non-stop in anticipation of the big event. It was hard to believe there was time during the winter that I had to make her practice and now I'm telling her to leave the piano to rest for minute. I hope her enthusiasm for piano lasts through the summer.

Goodbye Sweet Bunny

Sorrow and tears

There is one thing about being a mom that I just can't handle, the complete devasting and heart wrenching feeling of seeing your children in any kind of pain or loss. I'll be the first to admit I'm an emotional person, but I've learned how to deal with my own emotions and sadness. When it comes to my children it's a different story.
Recently I had to tell Sadie that her bunny passed away. She had been staying at her grandparents house for a few days so I was able to put it off awhile, but when she came home I had to break the news. She was devasted. At first she just looked at me in disbelief or shock, slowly processing my words. Then I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back and the reality sunk in while tears streamed down her face. he cried out, "But I don't want Stormy to be dead, I love my bunny, I love him, I love him."
This was her introduction to death, and it hit hard, for both of us.
We had only had the bunny for 9 months, but she really loved Stormy, and I have to admit that I did too. He had a great personality. He had rescued this rabbit on a windy and rainy night from the middle of a busy road. he was abandoned and was ill when we got him so we knew his time with us would be short, but it was still hard to say goodbye.