Blessing From the Backseat: And A Party It Was!

To celebrate Rylee's 1st birthday and Grayson's 4th, we I decided to throw a Carnival Party.

Now, Kevin may think that I am completely insane for starting the planning in January, but I....I beg to differ.

You can't create perfection on a whim. And I wanted our little girl's first....our last baby's first birthday and our son's last "toddler" birthday to be AMAZING!!! He's starting pre-K in two weeks after all.....no longer a "little" in most eyes.

Mommy is definately not "most eyes".

So our babies had a party. And it was just as it should be.

Thank you to all of my friends for being there. All 76 of you.

Usually when you send out invites, you expect maybe 3/4 to show up.....maybe half.

We had every.single.person. except for six, show up.

WOW.

Can you even begin to imagine the love that was felt in that room?

For those of you who have done this, you know what that first birthday means. It's a medal of honor, a celebration, a flag at the peak of a summited mountain. It is a memory of that very day, and it is bittersweet. Mostly sweet, hardly bitter, yet before the party started, I held her close and cried. Because I can't forget--don't want to forget--that second that changed my life.

And with him. That little boy, who is no longer a baby...but not yet a preschooler. Caught somewhere in between. Oh, how I love my babies.....every inch of them!

Overall, I searched for moments of meaning and found them. I mined my heart for any rawness, any unsettled grief, and prepared to feel a bit sad, but mostly? Mostly, I felt peace and love and contentment. The events of last year have been sewn together seamlessly with our present, and I hardly recognize anymore where the past shifts into right now.