Pool party and birthday thoughts

This weekend we celebrated my birthday and Uncle James' birthday with a pool party and cookout with family and friends at our house.  The weather was perfect and so was the day! 

Me, Claire, Becky, and Ava.  Two years ago at my birthday party we were both pregnant with these girls!

Connor, Aunt Sarah, and Anna

Pool fun!

Uncle Colby, Aunt Amanda (Ah-Mee-Nah as Claire calls her now), Aunt Julie, and Uncle James

Aunt Sarah and Anna

Playing with my water table

Curls and cuteness

Me, Claire, Beth, Izzie, Becky, and Ava.  BFFs all the way around!

Trent getting the grill ready for hamburgers and hotdogs!

My favorite family picture to date (well I have lots of favorites)!  We are all smiling! 

Enjoying the shade

Waiting for supper

Aunt Julie figured out how to bribe Claire into letting her hold her.  Diet Mountain Dew!

Three Amigos

"How many more pictures do we have to take???"

I love this!  Claire was having a blast playing in the yard with her cousins!

"Look at me mom!!!"

Connor and Claire

The infamous birthday cake for me and James (Jams....).  hahaha

Carpenter Girls:  Aunt Julie, Me, Claire (1/2 Carpenter girl), Aunt Amanda, and Aunt Brandy (soon-to-be Carpenter girl)

Candice, Jacob, and Trent playing pool volleyball

Aunt Brandy and Claire

We had a blast!  I just wish that Claire had not gotten sick.  And that she had not exposed the other kids unknowingly at the party.  I guess it's a part of life that I have to get used to sooner or later. 

I have never really thought of birthdays the way I do now. I have always thought of birthdays as an exciting time to get together with family and friends and have fun. Sometimes you get gifts, sometimes you don’t. The older I get, the more I see birthdays in a different light.

Let’s back up several years. Our parents always made a big deal out of our birthdays. We were always made to feel special. I remember after most of my birthday parties as a child, I would usually cry. I know it sounds really odd, right? It should be a fun time and I should be enjoying my new gifts. But I would feel so bad that people spent their money on me to buy me something. Weird, I know. I remember crying in bed one night after my party and my mom came back to see what was wrong (I specifically remember getting a new boom box radio - tells my age right?). I told her I was just sad because I didn’t want anyone to spend money on me or buy me things. I felt bad about it. I remember her telling me that they wouldn’t have come to the party or bought me a gift if they really didn’t want to. So I tried to accept it. I still to this day do not like a big deal made of my birthday. And still to this day, I cried as we laid in bed after the pool party. Trent had to deal with me this time and tell me that I deserved to have a party. I think I cried myself to sleep - and yes, I am 33 years old.

As I started thinking about it this year and realizing how old I was going to be, it just hit me. Birthdays are so much more. I guess last year, I was in such a daze and glaze when we celebrated Claire’s first birthday, that it still didn’t sink in then. I was just so excited that we had actually made it one whole year.  But as I think about my birthday and planning Claire’s 2^nd birthday, I realize that birthdays are super special and just how my parents must have felt when celebrating our birthdays as children.

What a day to celebrate and remember!? It’s not just a fun day to have cake and ice cream and gifts. It’s a day that celebrates the birth of that child or person. The world would not be the same without them being born and so it makes it such a great day to celebrate them and remember back to that special day. I see now why our parents always made our birthdays special. Not only were they trying to make us enjoy our special day, it’s also a celebration for parents to remember that awesome day when their child was born.

So instead of looking at my birthday this year as a day that I turn older, I am looking at it from a mother’s perspective this year. And so I celebrated.

I appreciate everyone making the birthday celebration special!  I look forward to many, many more birthdays!

Love,

The Scott Family