“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”
kiana: sleeps more than any other human i know. she is a teenager. but she’s been this way since she was an infant!
myla: collects russian matryoshka dolls and cool eyeglasses/sunglasses.
kj: practicing piano as fast as he can, so he can get back to riding his bike.
sela: likes to wear a red bow to match her backpack.
this sunday is mother’s day and in honor of mother’s this week, bridget from tales of me and the husband {a local Massachusetts blogger}, is sharing guest posts from some mothers she admires including a few words–wisdom or otherwise–and a picture of them and their brood (or, however many they could wrangle for a semi-decent picture!)
i was sweetly touched to be included and you can read what i had to say here. i recommend reading the entire “mother’s day” posts because i’ve found them to be inspiring and uplifting.
and, a very happy mother’s day to every beautiful soul who has ever loved a momma, held a child, had a dream, and hoped for happiness. xo.
{photos by me.}
“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”
kiana: rarely wears sweatshirts, but has picked up on the trend from the teen scene where we live.
myla: currently likes: archery in our backyard.
kj: enjoys doing his homework in husbands home office.
sela: always waiting to go somewhere, with someone… the baby of the family gets dragged everywhere.
“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”
kiana: has a closet full of incredible clothes, but still prefers to wear mine.
myla: extremely diligent with doing her homework.
kj: finished spring-cleaning his room this week. i had to stay in his room with him almost the entire time and remind him about every two minutes to stay focused. my easily distracted boy – there may have been some bribing involved too.
sela: stole brothers hat and the stripe obsession continues…
so…. regardless if my kids have a friend-birthday-party or a family birthday party, we always have a family birthday morning.
and, birthday mornings are a big deal at our house. from the minute our kiddos wake up, we celebrate…
peek behind the cake: see that blue blob? kj requested blue crepes and bacon for breakfast!
we called them smurf crepes.
sela woke up early and tip-toed in to our room. she whispered to me
mom, don’t feel bad. i’m not going to snuggle with you this morning because i’m going to wake up kj with birthday snuggles…
right then. my heart melted just a bit.
we spoiled our handsome ten year old with ten gifts.
the first eight were fun, small, practical things – and then the last two were the big surprises:
new baseball catcher’s gear and a new bike! he’s been begging for a bike with gears! look at the shock on his face, it was so fun!!!
today was good. so good i get all weepy when i look at these pictures. kj called the shots all day – we went to his sisters soccer game {and played catch while there}, had lunch at his restaurant of choice, played games with him throughout the afternoon, he went to the baseball park with husband in his new catcher’s gear for practice, at 8pm he requested ice cream at a local ice cream shop, so we obliged. and now he’s still on is computer playing games. it’s been all about him today.
i don’t have the words to describe how good my sons heart is. it may even drive his daddy a little crazy he’s so sensitive and sweet. but boy oh boy, it melts his momma’s heart. he kisses me, all the time. he tells me, you are so cute mom! you are looking fyne today mom! the sweetest words, all the time. he still leaves the dug-out in the middle of a baseball game to come over and kiss his little sister on the top of her head. he gets all choked up every time he talks to us about anything that affects him emotionally. he is a gentleman. he loves scouts. he loves sports. he likes all games, but especially chess. he’s an avid video-gamer. he will defend what he believes in. he’s ridiculously good with technology and fixes things around the house for me. he’s a very good friend. he adapts easily without complaint to almost every situation. the kid has been in three elementary schools and makes friends instantly. sorry for the ramble – my boy has a heart of gold. and i love every bit of it.
dude. in a nutshell, birthday mornings rock. and my son is ten.
{photos by me, Jane Rhodes}
my son kj requests birthday parties that are true to his interests. when he was two he asked for a choo-choo party, he turned three surrounded by family and his passion for baseball had began, his fourth birthday party was one of my best-planned-parties ever and this is the only picture i have to share! (he loved the movie “cars”, husband built a homemade race track, the guests all made race cars out of potatoes, with pit passes etc. we raced all afternoon – it was so cute – maybe i’ll scan photos in one day since it was pre-blogging), he loved transformers when he was five, in a galaxy far far away KJ turned six years old, when he was seven his obsession with the military began, at eight years old we indulged in his love for video games, last year we celebrated with a neon influence…
and this year, for his tenth birthday, he said he wanted a glow-in-the-dark sports party. he follows in his dad’s sports-loving-ways. i used a simple invite that was emailed out via evite. we celebrated with all of the fourth grade boys from his school and because the party was going to be held at an event/kids academy, there wasn’t much else i had to plan {bonus!}. so, i focused on making a couple of details extra special and enjoyed the simpleness of not having to be in charge of anything else!
for the party – the kids were each given a white glow sports tee, glow necklaces, and painted their faces with glow paint. for seventy-five minutes they played glow-in-the-dark dodgeball, football, had a fort-building competition, then had a battle from those forts in the dark, obstacle courses, and much more! to say they had fun would be an understatement. i couldn’t stop smiling, and i was just observing.
this boy of mine is such an original gem. he is so sweet, incredibly thoughtful, 100% boy, and becoming a young man/gentleman that i am so proud of. definitely a glowing light.
***
party details:
glow-in-the-dark-hat: i used the party hat template linked to here, and colored it with a glow-in-the-dark marker. it was so bright!
for the “10″ sign: used the same marker on felt fabric.
to download & print the “happy birthday” water bottle labels, click here. print on full page labels, and cut.
to download & print the “glowing thank you” labels, click here. print on full page labels, and cut. i used brown wax paper sandwich bags which can be found at whole foods market.
for the cake toppers, i used water balloons, filled them with tiny glow in the dark sticks and when the lights were off – each child had a glow-in-the-dark balloon on their chocolate texas cake!
***
this weekend we will have our traditional family breakfast party, and i’ll sulk in the fact that my kids are growing up.
{all photos and party plans by me, Jane Rhodes. labels designed by lovely lindsay for seejaneblog}
“a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013.”
kiana: enjoys cooking. she made two {low-carb} family dinners this week – chicken peanut-curry, and spicy chicken basil stir-fry! {they were both phenomenal!}
myla: takes Chinese at school and gives herself character-pen-tats
KJ: just a small patch of freckles on that nose.
sela: overheard me call kiana “bug” this week, and replied, “mom! you can’t call her bug, i’m your only bug… you can call her {paused… thinking… thinking.. thinking…} worm.”
plan a food truck party!
build mini sandcastles!
time to barbecue!
homemade fun!
© 2013 jane rhodes.
