Lucky 7!

Exactly one week ago tomorrow, our sweet baby boy turned 7 years old.  Really?  Has it really been 7 years since we were admitted into the hospital to give birth to this little guy?  Has it really been 7 years since I heard the words "It's a boy" at 9:14 am?  Where has the time gone?

As I wrote about earlier, we had a small get together the weekend of Mother's Day to celebrate with our family.  We decided Saturday would be a great time to celebrate with our friends.  It's always hard for me to decide what kind of party to have for him.  Most of the typical kids parties are out of the question for us because I kind of refuse to have a party that John can't participate in.  I don't do fun jumps because he doesn't like them.  That also typically rules out any kind of indoor inflatable place. The first two years, we invited so many people that we had it at a nearby park.  We reserved a pavilion for a couple of hours and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs while the kids played on the play ground.  One year we had a backyard party after we got John's swing set.  One year we used the indoor playground at our church.  And last year we went to the Little Gym in Katy.  They all were good parties, and John was able to participate minimally.  This year, we decided to do a backyard water party.  I think Tommy was a little skeptical at first, but it actually turned out to be a blast.

We borrowed two blowup water slides from two separate friends.  We put a slip and slide down and we blew up a small pool.  The pool was more for John, since that would be the only part he could participate in, but we found out that all of the kids enjoyed time in the pool.  Of course we also had the swing set.  That was put to good use as well.

I felt really unorganized this year and a week before the party, I still didn't have an idea for a cake.  The theme for the party was sock monkeys (surprise surprise) and I really wanted to try and have some kind of sock monkey cake made.  During a casual conversation with my neighbor, I somehow ended up enlisting her to make cupcakes for me.  Now that it was decided that she was making cupcakes, the search was on to figure out what kind.  It took us several days to finalize the details.  We decided it would be easier to make cupcakes with chocolate icing and to put toppers on them to go with our theme.  So I went online to the website Etsy, and found someone who was selling cute sock monkey cupcake toppers.  I paid her for the file and I was able to print out as many as I needed.  I have to say that it if wasn't for my very creative and helpful neighbor, there may not have been cake of any kind at the party.  She baked and iced all of the cupcakes and she cut out and put together all of the toppers to go in the cupcakes.  She even put together the party favors for the kids.  She definitely wins neighbor of the year award for that.

The party was a huge success.  We grilled burgers and hot dogs and of course had cake and ice cream.  The kids had a blast playing in the water.  I got in the pool with John and he splashed around for a little while.  Then I got him changed into dry clothes and Tommy took him to swing.  Even a few of his teachers from school showed up.  We almost weren't able to get the kids out of the water long enough to eat and open presents.  It was definitely one of the best parties we have put together.  We just might have to make it an annual thing.  Hopefully he will be getting his trach out this summer and next year he'll be able to play more in the pool and some on the slides.

We asked one of our friends if he would bring his camera to the party and take pictures for us.  He did an excellent job.  Go to his website, http://curtislawson.smugmug.com/ and check out his work.  And you can follow the following link below to see pictures from the party.  We are looking forward to another great year with our boy.  Hopefully next year, we'll have even more to celebrate.

http://curtislawson.smugmug.com/Families/JTs-Birthday-Party/