Happy Birthday & Heart Dump

Well, we made it through "birthday season".  Our kids were born a year and two weeks apart which meant a whole two weeks of birthday on the brain.  Their parent visit for each of their birthday weeks was moved to their actual birthday so their mom got to see them.

I embarked on the adventure of baking cupcakes to send to their parent visit and to daycare the day of Brother's birthday.  Newsflash: I don't bake.  And I was apparently ill equipped for cupcake creation, such that my handy husband had to step in and DIY a hand mixer using his drill and a spatula.  It worked.

The cupcakes turned out wonky looking and sources reported to us that they caused tantrums to be thrown by Brother at both the visit with their mom and at daycare because he wanted all the cupcakes to himself.  Cupcakes for the...win?  Oh well.  

We had a combined birthday party for the kids since their birthdays are indeed so close together and they are too little yet to feel jipped that they didn't get their own party.   We had 31 people at our house, not counting ourselves.  We and the kids were showered with love (and gifts!) from the many people that have been our "village" along the way.  It was pretty amazing.   And I paid money for birthday cakes rather than try to bake them. I mean, let's be realistic here folks.  

And now, a heart dump, aka many random thoughts...

1. My family is going to the beach this weekend, every single one of us.  This has not happened (beach or elsewhere) since 2005, when we were the coolest kids ever to walk the earth:

2.  Dear Church Nursery Workers,

I love you.  Thank you for cheerfully peeling my screaming children off of me and embarking on the thankless task of convincing them that I am actually, in fact, not leaving them forever, while I slip out of the room and get to go sit still for an entire hour, which some weeks, let's be honest here, is my main motivation for putting on nice clothes and going to church.  

Love always, yours truly, with all sincerity and gratitude,

Anna

3. Texas is hot.

4.  So is my husband.  

5. Apparently this little blog of mine really reaches some of you folks out there and touches hearts, strikes nerves, you name it.  I've gotten several comments recently from people in real life about how much they enjoy reading these posts, hearing what's going on in our family, learning about our foster world.   Dear readers, thank you for this encouragement and thank you for reading.