Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Birthday blessings

This morning, Dusk and I were lamenting how tough things have been lately, with this never ending lawsuit and our refrigerator that decided it's not working again. And then, like God always does, he nudged me a bit via a Facebook reminder of what was happening 7 years ago at that exact time in the morning. We were sending our 6 day old son back for his first open-heart surgery.

Ok, God, I got it. 
This, everything else we're dealing with, it's the small stuff (well, except for the health stuff - there's nothing small about the health issues Dusk and Bodie are facing). But everything else is annoying and overwhelming at times, but still just little stuff. 

And that seemed like the perfect time to share some pics of Bodie's birthday party this weekend. 
Bodie picked a skateboarding theme. I did my best, but the kid gave me a run for my money this time. But we played "pin the wheel on the skateboard" and had skateboarding coloring pages and mini-ramps for the kids to decorate. So I think I earned at least a little mom cred on this one.


But really the coolest part of the party was the cake. I'm not gonna lie.
The cake was phenomenal.

We went through Icing Smiles again, an incredible nonprofit organization that works with bakers across the country to provide birthday cakes completely free of charge to families impacted by the critical illness of a child. So we asked for a skateboarding cake and boy, did they deliver.

Look at this cake!
Amazing. 

And SO SO good. 
Bodie was not the only one who couldn't get enough of it (and I may or may not be eating leftovers every night after the kids are in bed!)

Here's the coolest part. 
Icing Smiles works with a network of bakers. 
So you give them your request and they put out the call to the bakers in your region, asking if anyone is available to do a cake with a particular theme on a particular date. And you get whatever baker is available. 
Well, the baker this time was the EXACT same baker who did Bodie's cake the last time we used Icing Smiles (when she made an amazing minion cake for his 4th birthday)!!! It was so wonderful to have the same baker, and to give her a hug and for her to see how much Bodie has grown. 

I cannot tell you how much I cherish this:
AND she even brought a set of books for Sierra!!! 
I know, amazing, right?!?
Christine is truly an angel - I kind of feel like she's our personal sugar angel!!! 
If you'd like to give Christine some love (and seriously, you should - she is an incredible human being), you can check out her Facebook page here

Anyway, the party was so fun. A wonderful celebration of our sweet, brave boy. With 20 kids running through our tiny little house, it was a bit chaotic (and it took my introverted self 2 days to fully recover!), but so worth it. Kids were running around and chasing each other and having so much fun. 
Bodie didn't hate having the girls fighting over who got to sit next to him. 

And Grandma Jan and Popo Alan even flew out for the celebration and got to stay a couple of extra days, which proved to be icing on the cake for us!
I'll leave you with one final picture. Because I think it encapsulates who our son is.
In case you're wondering what hope looks like, this is it. Half a heart, currently in heart failure, running around barefoot, clobbering a pinata at his 7th birthday party. If this picture doesn't capture this kid's indomnitable spirit, I don't know what does.Photobucket

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