May Birthdays

With how much our family has grown we have started to celebrate birthday's in groups. So yesterday were the May birthday's...Tristan, Lacey and Jalen. I can't believe that Jalen is 3 already! All the great granparents and John and Robin came to the party. We of course had good food as we always do, opened some presents, watched the kids play outside and then had some birthday dessert. The big hit for Jalen was the new fishing pole that Lace and Aaron got him. He immediately took it out to the pond and proceeded to jump the rocks to get closer to the fish...I can already see the worry this will cause me this summer! Little does Aaron know he has a new little fishing buddy! We had three different dessert...Mom made Lacey's favorite cream cheese pie, Papa Ben made my favorite angel food cake and the kids and I make monkey cupcakes for the little birthday boys! Jalen had just as much fun helping mix it and licking the beaters as he did eating the actual cupcake but they turned out so cute! It was a beautiful day to enjoy family and watch all the 6 kids play outside. I started to reflect on the last 3 years realizing how fast time goes. Tristan came over in the same shorts that Jalen wore on his first birthday and it brought back so many memories. If you ask Jalen how old he will be on his birthday you will get a different answer everytime ranging from 5 to 8 to his latest 6 and 1/2...think he soaks up what his sisters say or what?! He keeps all of us laughing...whether it's watching him ride his quad through the field, get stuck, get off and push it off of the bump...riding his bike in circles around the kitchen...insisting on hitting Daddy's "big driver" instead of his own golf clubs (and yes he knows which one is a putter, iron and driver and when to use each!) while wearing a lady's golf visor because it has golf balls on it...stripping off his clothes everytime he walks into Addie's house so he can wear her "pink" clothes...and when you ask him what he wants for his birthday he says "flowers...pink ones". For as much as he gets into...gasoline is his current favorite...he makes up for it with his sweet nature. For no reason he will reguraly say "Mommy, I like you" or if I'm really lucky "Mommy, I love you...so much". He has made me understand the meaning of the term "Mama's boy". Many parents can put on cartoons to act as a temporary babysitter so they can get something done...but Jalen of course says "Mommy lay with me?" in the cutest little voice it's hard to resist. So I have watched more than my share of Dora, Diego and Handy Manny! As we celebrate almost 3 years I am so thankful that God blessed me with Jalen so I could experience this crazy, exhausting, and dirty world of boys...I love it!