seven.

...so a few weeks ago, we celebrated landon's 7th. and by postponing the celebration here on this little blog...maybe that was my way of not accepting that the boy is really 7. seven. all of his bits and pieces including that great big heart of his are indeed seven. how is it that my smallest is this big? all that i can do is plead...has anyone gotten closer to figuring out how to make time slow down or better yet, stand still?




our celebrating started early in the morning when the sun was just making it's debut on this hot august day...tradition in this house dictates one gift before school...just one little treat to tide over the tingling anticipation of unravelling all things wrapped in pretty packages all snug in their bows...




he had no idea that his little treat...his before school goodie was the grand prize...the itouch he has begged and pleaded case for since first laying eyes on his brothers...mama did good...

we celebrated simply just as we did for mikey...and again, we did it well. simple does not mean missing out or forgetting about the little things...because those are the best bits of a celebration...the you can count ons and of course you'll wake up to a decked out house of streamers and cut out birthday numbers...

surprise balls full of trinkets

unwrap the crepe paper balls to find

trinkets hidden in layers
big hit with the littles

birthdays mean celebrating the years of life under your belt, the years of life to come and everything wading between...and just when i stop to realize how fast it is all swooshing by...i am seriously thinking that we need to start celebrating more often and even bigger...how about a half birthday celebration?...

...because when i was pregnant with my first all those years ago, and every other mama that i talked to about motherhood said the same thing, "...enjoy it, it goes by so fast." ...and i listened but never absorbed it in my chest where all good bits of advise and memories burn inside of me...and it has. it has gone by so fast. so now...i live and breathe in my motherhood more than i ever had...and birthdays are up there on the tippy top of the scale of when i feel that burn the most. when i witness how a little effort mixed with streamers and love can take my littles so far and make memory of such a day. and i know and breathe this because i remember these days when i was a little girl...and the little efforts from my mother still sit on the shelves of my memories...ready to pull out and replay whenever i need them.

and boy was it a day for making memoris.

do you see how small he is in that photo on the right, smack dab in the middle of brother and sis?

the children crowded around the table to eat pizza and nosh on candy and special treats...bites of chocolate and popcorn interrupted only by joke telling and laughing...

and when i ask my little guy who is now officially 7 for a few photos for the books...he lets all of his good sweet love wash over me...he doesn't grant it in meager doses...he opens up the gates and lets all of that seven year old love and affection out...there is no shame in loving on your mama when you're seven. this changes, i know. i have a 13 year old who has replaced hugs in public with the fist bump. fist bumps are good too...when you can still get a hug at home.

dear sweet landon...

keep those big blue eyes open and see it all...take it all in and know how you are loved...before grandpa roger left this big green earth...he told me that you were so curious in your world and that it would lead to something special. i am so eager to see what that is. you are inquisitive and wondrous and special and right now, you are laying on the floor below me singing secrets. it doesn't get any better than that. you are smart and funny and incredibly sensitive...a powerful combination for the world ahead of you. i love being your mama...i love our reading time at night and all of the questions that you throw out into the void daily. i hope you always feel how loved you are. thank you for always asking for just one more kiss goodnight, wishing me good days when i drop you at school in the morning and for telling me that i smell good.

love, mom

happy birthday, buggie.

our weekend was...

...extraordinarily ordinary...and that means it was pretty great. while the mr worked all weekend, the littles and i spent most of our time indoors...in our home...in our comfort. i am a homebody and my children follow suit. i have no shame to admit this here. it is as much of who we are as our eye color and fingerprints. when the temperatures are still reaching 107 degrees and the pavement holds the heat so close because she is afraid that if she let's it loose for a moment, it will be gone...then it is fairly easy to declare it a lets be home kind of weekend.

and that's fine by me. and by him.

my 3 reasons to find the extraordinary in every day...worn right there...around my little neck.

and when it was time to sneak out of our walls for just a bit...we headed to share time and coffee with sister and cousins. catching up and running wildly through starbucks were on the agenda and happily, we have checked both off the list. respectively.

and if this girl gets any prettier...there might be some trouble. i can declare that. i am her mother. and that means i am lucky. and maybe so is she. because nobody could love her like i do.

and then wouldn't you know it. saturday night, the passed down trains and tracks made another debut right in the entry and all 3 of my littles played together. i don't know the last time that they all had interest in the same thing at the same time. those days are fewer and fewer as they grow...so i did what i had to at that moment. i breathed it all in. deep down to the bottom of my belly. i sat and watched them build and construct. and then take it all apart until the bits and pieces were built into something new. not one fight during that hour. not one.

i love that my boys are sitting in the exact same way.

nothing amazing or extra special happened this weekend. it was routine. but there was beauty made from the routine. if i look at it in a way directing myself to find it...it's there. it's in the time i layed on the sofa with morgan. just looking at her and really seeing how big she has gotten is enough to stop me right in my tread so that i can memorize everything about the way she is today. her long hair that is as golden as sunlight. pale skin with the leavings of freckles on her nose that take me right back to afternoons spent in the sun this summer. this girl, i tell you what.

little moments like glittering stars with morgan today. and to have her quietly say to me, ''everything is prettier with glitter.''

so i sit typing tonight with landon snuggled in our billowy bed watching a movie while narrating every bit so that i won't fall behind in watching it. i just checked on morgan and she is stowed away in her very pink room, surrounded by paper and colors, sketching yet another owl picture for her book. mikey is hunkered down in the spare room with headphones and a computer behaving like today's teenager for the first time this weekend. i think he is battling what bad guys remain in his star wars game. routine and beauty.

and i haven't even mentioned the best part. we have a bonus day tomorrow. no school. no schedule. just open hours to turn into whatever we want.

3 cheers for labor day.

hip hip horray!