This weekend...we celebrated Chase.

This weekend, I decided to unplug a little.  It wasn't really a conscience decision...but something that came more out of the sheer desire to be totally plugged into the kids, my family, the birthday boy, and our home.  It has been a while since I let go of the self induced pressure to create, capture, and record every single special moment in our lives and let myself just be a part of it.

On Friday...the day the boy turned 9...I took cupcakes up to the school for him to share with his class.  I also took him Wendy's for lunch...complete with a frosty and everything.  I sat with him at lunch and listened to him rattle on about his day through small bites of plain hamburger with mustard and sips of frosty.

I felt...satisfied. 


I...a self proclaimed perfectionist often struggle with...just...being.  I don't know any other way of putting it.  I am constantly trying to create the perfect memory, capture the perfect picture, pre-write the perfect blog of celebration, and make every one's dreams come true.  I usually don't let myself settle in to just enjoying the moment.  I'm too busy trying to create it.  But on this day...I didn't.  and it felt good.

On this day...I just celebrated the perfect kid.

Chase opened his first present at breakfast, before school.  We had purchased an Empire State Building Lego kit in New York.  He has been wanting to build the Empire State Building out of Legos ever since we watched the movie ELF.  And quite frankly...so have I.

So...now we can.

I had a picture of him in New York blown up big for his room.  He opened that after school.

I also made him a scrap book of pictures and things like ticket stubs, subway tickets and play bills from our New York trip.  He loved that.

Friday night, he wanted to go to BJ's to eat.  My parents were headed back from Florida...so it was just us.  It is very unlike me to be OK with low-key...but I reminded myself that if you looked up low-key in the dictionary...you would find Chase's picture as the definition.  And so, a low-key dinner without all the hoopla became more than OK.  It became desired.

We did have a birthday pizookie.  Annslee double fisted that thing.

Saturday was the family party.  We told Chase from the beginning that we would not do a big birthday party for friends like we normally do since we took him to New York, and he was fine with that.  When I asked him what he wanted for food...he confidently said, "Breakfast!"

So, my parents and UK came over and we had waffles and fruit smoothies for dinner.  The weather had cooled off and crisped up a little in honor of the boy and as the sun began to make it's exit...we lit the fire pit outside.  We sat around, roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, and told ghost stories with a flashlight.

We also got a little football in.  Clemson was playing and Texas was playing Iowa State...causing a friendly, little rivalry in our home.

Chase blew out a candle in a s'more as we sang happy birthday to him again...

an unconventional way to celebrate a 9th birthday.

But very Chase, indeed.

I didn't drive everyone bonkers this weekend...poking the camera in their faces at every turn, or spinning my tired wheels making sure the background decorations matched the absurdly themed details.  The house was a mess.  The babe didn't even have shorts on with her Clemson shirt.  And I didn't even freak out when the clothes had to be changed half way through the party due to an incident with wet sand.

I just celebrated with my family.

We celebrated our Chase.

We loved each other.