The Boys of Summer

I had a lot of fun this year getting the boys’ Easter outfits.  I imagined both of them sporting matching newsboy caps and lo and behold, I was able to find 2 that matched in their sizes at Children’s Place!  The icing on the cake was that they were on sale for $5.00!  I couldn’t get out my wallet fast enough.  :-)

We started ooohing and aahhhing the moment we tried them on the boys that night (still feels weird to write and say “boys” :-)  They were absolutely adorable!  But with Trent being a tender 17 months old, I was worried he wouldn’t oblige us and wear the hat on Easter.  So, we put the hat on him on Saturday to desensitize him to it before the big day. 

I had one of the girls take him outside to play so he would be distracted and hopefully forget about the hat, and it worked!  A little while later, I looked out the kitchen window and spotted him standing on our front path holding an old baseball.  The effect of the hat and the baseball immediately brought to mind the baseball players of the 1920s.  His pants were even pulled up a little, making it look like he had knickers on!  My hands were soapy wet and I was in the middle of meal prep, so I told Courtney to grab the camera and get whatever shots she could of him.  It was in the early evening and a little overcast, so the light was in our favor (always a bonus!).  Courtney ended up having some good ideas for shots, and we ended up having quite a few very sweet pictures of our little guy.

and my favorite …

The Punch Bowl Fiasco

Despite the fact that her birthday is on April Fool’s Day, Rachel’s birthdays have been typical birthday celebrations around here.  We can usually count on my Dad for a practical joke or two, but other than that, it’s the usual birthday merriment.  OK, there was that one year that I had to make her birthday cake three times before I got it right, but it did turn out perfectly … eventually.  This year was different.  Well, for the most part, it was a typical, lovely birthday celebration.  The food was good, the cake was tasty (Texas Sheet Cake – hard to mess that one up), the weather was gorgeous.

Then there were the gifts. 

My parents take gift-giving very seriously. It is very important to them that they pick out gifts that will be the most meaningful to their grandchildren.  I mean, they really labor over this – going the extra mile (often literally) to find just that perfect gift.  For birthdays, they usually bring several gifts for the birthday child, and there is always one extra special gift, and it’s usually the biggest one.  This year was no different (although they did get a very nice gift in a tiny box – a beautiful necklace).  The biggest gift this year was also a very heavy gift.  Courtney happened to be passing out the gifts, and she could barely lift this one off the entertainment center and hand it to Rachel. 

It ended up being a beautiful antique punch bowl and punch cups. A strange gift for a 16-year-old? Not in this family.  :-)  Most of the gifts are age-appropriate, intended to be used, played with, enjoyed while their grandchildren are still children, which grandparents especially know is a fleeting time.  But there is often a keepsake gift; one that is intended to be a treasure, an heirloom, that will be enjoyed in future years, being passed down for future generations.  That’s what my parents had in mind when they spotted this punch bowl at an antique store. Not only is it a beautiful punch bowl, but is nearly identical (if not identical) to a punch bowl that my parents have and use on special occasions, complete with a removable pedestal, and 12 matching punch glasses. 

So, they bought this punch bowl two years ago, with the intention of giving it to Rachel on her 16th birthday. And they’re explaining all this to Rachel as she opens the gift and carefully takes out a couple of individually-wrapped punch glass to admire.  Again, the box is heavy, it’s contents are fragile, so Rachel decides to leave the rest of the items in the box. Not wanting Courtney to have to hoist the box back up onto the entertainment center, but knowing that’s the safest place for the box, I jumped up to help.

That’s when this happened:

Shock.  Horror.  It seemed to happen in slow motion, yet too fast for me to do anything about. I was absolutely certain -- I just knew -- the whole box would be nothing but bits of shattered glass.  I’ll never forget that sound.  The sound of all that antique glass. And my saintly mother saying, almost immediately, “Honey, it can be replaced. I’ve got extras of that same glass” (even when her kids are all grown up, she’s there trying to soften the blows :-) And then, when the impossible happened … out of all that, we lost only one punch glass?!!  It was a combination of absolute disbelief, relief, elation, and … hilarity at the whole thing.  To go from happy birthday celebrating, to the oohs and ahhhs over a very special gift, complete with a story of how they found it, to watching the whole thing come crashing down in a matter of about one minute.  I just lost it.  I think I laughed for about 3 minutes straight, with my rock solid husband taping and laughing the whole time (the video was edited to shorten that.  :-)  So, to recap, we went from this:

to this:

And believe it or not, Rachel said it was the absolute highlight of her birthday and she wanted as many people as possible to see her graceful mother in action.  So, here it is!  Happy Birthday, Rachel!  May future generations enjoy many delicious glasses of punch from this punch bowl, while they laugh at the crazy story of how it became yours!

 

P.S.  See the punch bowl on the entertainment center in the background?  It’s still there, 5 days later.  I think everyone is scared to move it.  I’m not touching it.

Happy Sweet Sixteen to Rachel!

Just a mere 4 days since we celebrated Rachel’s 16th birthday and I’m already composing her birthday post! This is the earliest I’ve ever been late! :-D I doubt I would be doing this if it was a typical Thursday, but this week is Spring Break, which means no schoolwork, no online classes, and no ballet lessons in the evening. So it’s been a little easier to carve out time for doing this.

Rachel’s Birth Story

For Rachel, I’m going to continue the tradition I started this year of writing out each birthday child’s birth story.  My due date with Rachel was April 14th, 1996.  When my brother-in-law found out my due date, he laughed and said “I hope the baby doesn’t come on April Fool’s Day!” My response was “I hope so!  That will mean she’s 2 weeks early!” Of course, I didn’t actually believe she’d come early. In my naïve mind, all first babies were overdue. Plus, according to Mom I was overdue by 6 days, so I figured my own babies would be, too.

So, fast forward to the wee hours of April 1st.  I woke up in the middle of the night with a contraction that didn’t go away when I walked around.  Around 6:00 am, I excitedly woke Mick up and we got everything ready to go. After an examination at the doctor’s office, I was told to go back home.  “The baby could come today, the baby could come in a week.”  The ride back home was much more subdued and my contractions quieted down and eventually stopped.  We had lunch, Mick updated his Final Four brackets, we took a nap.  When I woke up in the early afternoon, the contractions were back, stronger and closer.  Not wanting to be sent back home, we decided to wait until they were consistently 5 minutes apart.  When that happened around 3:00, we headed back down, and this time drove straight to the hospital. 

Things progressed quickly at that point. Once I was settled in and got comfortable, we decided to call Mom and Dad. That’s one of the moments we love to rehash on Rachel’s birthday each year.  It went something like this:

Dad:  “Hello.”

Me:  “Hi, Dad!  I’m at the hospital!”

Dad:  “What?!!  You ARE?!!”  (sounds of Mom gasping in the background)

Me:  “APRIL FOOLS!!”

Dad:  “Hey!!!  Awwwwwww!!!” (sounds of Mom deflating in the background)

Me:  “Just kidding!  I AM at the hospital!!”

Dad:  “You are?!!!”  (sounds of Mom fainting in the background)

So, they headed over to the hospital (breaking several speed limits, no doubt) and Kelly, Glenn and 8-week-old Luke came, as did Heather, Chuck and his friend from South Africa, Alvin. Jennifer and Steve were vacationing and Minda and Mario were living in Alabama at that time.

So, back in the labor and delivery room, there was lots of excitement.  A few random details I remember:

• From the heart rate, the nurses were all predicting a boy.
• Initially, Rachel tried to enter this world face up, but was successfully turned by my doctor.

Finally, at 8:14 pm, after 45 minutes of pushing, we had our first baby:  a girl!  Beautiful, delicate 6 lbs. 7 oz. with a little bit of very dark hair and very dark eyes that rarely blinked!

Rachel’s 16th birthday

The birthday meals around here are a big deal.  The kids all take great delight throughout the year in dreaming about and planning their birthday meals, oftentimes changing their minds several times before the actual day.  Rachel’s decision was an easy one:  Spaghetti.  Her favorite food is Italian.  So, we had spaghetti, homemade Italian bread, fruit slush, and chocolate milk – all her favorites!  Grandma and Grandpa came and were seated on either side of the birthday girl, as is also our custom.  The birthday cake was Texas Sheet Cake.  After opening gifts, we were able to take advantage of the summer-like weather we’ve enjoyed this Spring and take a walk down to see our neighbor’s horses.

The most memorable part of Rachel’s birthday this year happened during the gift-opening.  It was dramatic.  It was hilarious.  There was rollicking laughter and even tears.  And best of all, there was a camcorder (steadily held by Mick and rolling the whole time) which captured the entire sequence of events.  Afterwards, Rachel said it was the highlight of her 16th birthday … and I’m sure they’ll never let me forget it.  :-D

It really deserves it’s own blog post, so I’ll finish this one up with pictures, first from Rachel’s birthday this year:

And now, some pictures through the years (I really do need to start scanning in all the older pictures I have!):

Happy Sweet 16, Rachel!

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

April Fools!  You really didn’t think I’d have a birthday post ready on her actual birthday, right?  … A birthday post coming soon …

Happy Birthday, Erica!

Well, we are just 1 day away from hitting the 6-week mark since Erica’s 12th birthday.  Seems like a good time to put up a birthday post for her.  :-D  (and less than 2 weeks away from the next Worley birthday.  I can’t get lapped!)

One of the interesting things about each of our kids is the number patterns in their birthdays.  Erica Danielle Worley has the distinction of being born on the 12th day of February at 12 minutes until 12 midnight!  So this was an extra-special birthday, because she turned 12 on 2/12/2012 (at 12 minutes ‘til 12).

Erica’s Birth Story

My labor with Erica was unique in that I did most of my laboring at Mom and Dad’s house!  It was a Saturday, I had had a few interesting contractions that morning, but by the time we were on the road around noon, they were barely noticeable (how strange that she would be born less than 12 hours later! – Hey, there’s that number again!)

In the afternoon, the contractions started picking up again, but I kept quiet about it and tried to appear like nothing was out of the ordinary.  Of course, when it’s true labor, that’s pretty much impossible, especially with a sister and mom in the same room, who caught on quickly and then started watching closely.  :-D

By 7:00 that evening, we decided to go to the hospital and “check things out.”  What happened after that was pretty much a blur (or at least it is by this point).  I do remember the following: 

• I was admitted.
• Mom and Dad ended up bringing Rachel and Courtney to the hospital to wait it out (10:00 maybe?) and they both fell asleep in the waiting room (Rachel and Courtney – not Mom and Dad!)
• I was given an epidural.
• Labor progressed quickly and steadily.
• When delivery began to look imminent, the on-call doctor (Dr. Sara Murphy) was paged.
• Said epidural begin wearing off.

When I convinced the staff with absolute certainty that I did need the epidural re-administered, the anesthesiologist was summoned.  However, Erica had her own time table.  Within a minute or so of the anesthesiologist leaving the room, while the staff was making the final preparations and Dr. Murphy was getting suited up across the room, Erica decided she didn’t need any assistance and handled things her own way.  Dr. Murphy made a gallant sprint across the room, just so she could claim that she delivered Erica, but we know the truth:  she delivered herself!  Dr. Murphy just kept her from falling.  The P.S. to the story is that the 2nd dose of epidural did kick in … about 2 minutes after she was born.  :-D

First, a couple of pictures from her birthday celebration this year:

Erica descending the stairs in all her birthday glory.  :-)

Now, a for a trip down memory lane…

This is one of the earliest pictures I have of Erica on my computer (pre-digital, of course).  She was about 2yo here!

 

“Please, sir, may I have some more?” Erica is dressed as “Oliver Twist” for our play a couple of years ago.

This one cracks me up.  She wanted me to get a picture of her making the same face as baby Grant.  :-D

With cousin Kate.

I’ve always loved this picture of Erica and Sarah taken at the park.

I mean, seriously, look at these cute faces!

I love the freckles in this picture!

I couldn’t decide which one of these I liked the best, so I made a collage.  :-D

Rachel took this lovely picture!

This remains one of my favorite Erica shots.  Taken in September of 2003 in Virginia Beach when Erica was just 3.  I was using a 35 mm film camera, which explains why it is a little grainy. 

She’s a reader, a singer (alto – yes!), an actress, a ballet dancer, a beloved sister, daughter, granddaughter and cousin, and most importantly, a child of God!  We love you, Erica!  Happy 12th Birthday (finally!)! 

Brooke’s Birthday

Since Erica’s birthday is one week from today, I thought I’d better grab a quick minute and finish Brooke’s birthday post, as promised.

Although it’s been 8 years, there are many details about Brooke’s birth that I remember very clearly.  I remember going into labor around 11:00 the night before.  I had fallen asleep on the couch and woken up to contractions.  I spent the next several hours laboring, alternating between walking around and rocking in the rocking chair.  It was a pretty typical labor for me, except that my water broke.  Out of all the kids, this only happened during my labor with Brooke, so that lent an extra bit of excitement to everything (as if labor and delivery isn’t exciting enough!).  Our neighbor came over very early in the morning to watch the kids and we got to the hospital around 7:00.  We called the family to let them know and Mom and Dad came to the hospital.  I remember Jennifer and Steve were out and about because Jennifer had an OB appointment that morning (she was pregnant with cousin Erin), so they headed over to the hospital. Things were progressing well, I was chatting with the family when I suddenly felt the unmistakable feeling of downward movement.  That completely changed the atmosphere in the room:  everybody rushed out (Steve had barely stepped inside the door in the first place ;-), the nurses came in for a check, and we got the green light for delivery!  At the last minute, my OB came sprinting in yelling “Wait, wait, wait!” and a short time later, Andrea Brooke was born … at 11:11 to be exact.  :-)

I’ll never forget my first look at our new little girl. So many similar features we’d seen before; same mouth, same eyes, very similar in size, but BLONDE hair! Erica had blonde hair as a toddler, but it was pretty dark at birth and lightened over time.

Being so close in age to Sarah (21 months), Brooke has been her little shadow, and they have always been very close.

And then there are the cousins.  Brooke was born in the middle of the great Griffin Baby Boom of 2003-2004.  First there were the twins in December, then Brooke, then Mason in February, then Erin in March! This picture was taken when they were all about 1 year old.

Brooke and Sophia and Isabella

Brooke and Mason

Brooke and Erin

If I could sum up Brooke’s personality in one word (which is difficult, she’s many things!), I would say “cheerful”.  She has a very sunny outlook and loves to laugh.  Happy Birthday, Brooke!