Today we celebrated birthday #7 for my second-born son!  Holy cow, where has the time gone?  Can somebody make it stop please?

The day started off with a bang!  Not in auditory fashion, but in adrenaline (for me anyway). I slept in until about 7 am (which is about normal for sleep-in time) and then I got up to start the cake(s) for Jayden.  He told me weeks ago that he wanted a chocolate and vanilla swirl cake.  So I made a chocolate cake mix and a vanilla cake mix and swirled them together…I did the same with the frosting on top and it turned out cute. 

While the cakes were in the oven and I sat down to check my email and saw that I had an email sent at 5:45am from the women’s ministry leader at my church.  They were having a big women’s event at church today complete with workshops and booths. The lady who was supposed to be teaching the workshop on couponing was sick…so she was asking me if I could fill in and teach the class!  Hmm…the event was from 10-2 and Jayden’s birthday party was at 1.  I didn’t know if I could swing it. 

To top it all off, Josh was in Gresham picking me up a new upright freezer.  (YEAH!!!  Time to stockpile frozen foods, I think!)

I was able to fill in and teach the class.  Needless to say it was a busy morning!  But everything totally went off without a hitch.  It even seemed to me like the cake cooled extra fast so that I could frost it…I don’t know if that was really the case, but it seemed that way! 

So here’s how our morning went: Josh left early for a meeting at church. I woke up at 7- made coffee and mixed up the cake. Baked the cake, checked email, made some phone calls. Removed the cake, inserted the cupcakes. Made some more phone calls. Showered, dressed, makeup. Remove cupcakes. Grabbed coffee. Pulled out the girls’ clothes. Frosted the cake. Boys got girls out of their room and got them cereal. Girls eat, boys frost cupcakes. Help get girls dressed. Ellyanna kicks my still-full cup of coffee over. Clean up the coffee. Fix girls’ hair. Brush girls’ teeth. Boys pack for overnight at grandma’s. Clean out 5 sets of ears. (my kids have earwax issues). Josh comes home. Unloads the freezer to the driveway. Puts seats back into car. Load the car up with kids, camera, video camera, coupons, coupon worksheets I made up for my first class, and everything else we need for the party. Drive to church. Drop me off. Josh takes kids to BurgerKing- don’t judge. =) And runs to the store to get paper products for the party that I didn’t even consider needing until that morning. I run around at church for a while, say hi to people figure out what I’m doing, where I’m going, get copies of my worksheet and get set up for my class. 11:45 teach my class talking as fast as I possibly can to get through information that took me 2 hours the first time in 45 minutes. (I was successful). Finish up, talk to some people, run out the door and get in the car and head to the bowling ally for Jayden’s party.  =)  After the party, the boys are spending the night at grandma’s house, so Josh and I and the girls stopped at Albertsons where I purchased 10 cans of juice, 48 cups of yogurt, 5 cans of Pam non-stick spray, 9 cans of refried beans, 5 boxes of fruit snacks and 4 boxes of cocoa for $11.  =) (I would have done even better if they hadn’t been out of most of the kinds of yogurt I needed.) Then we came home, lugged our new freezer into the outbuilding, plugged it in, waited for it to get cold and then organized the freezer. Then I made dinner and we put the girls to bed.

I’m tired.

But anyway, the point of this post is to wish my youngest son a very, very happy birthday. Jayden, you bring so much joy to both me and your dad! You make us laugh at your silliness every day. You have a great sense of humor. You are charming, everybody who knows you loves you. You came out knowing how to be kind to people and how to put others above yourself. What a great gift to have! You are such a treasure to me and a blessing to our family. I love you so much! Happy Birthday!