Last week my baby turned six. Six!! Jeff and I are always in disbelief when Bracken’s birthdays come around, wondering how our baby got so big. My mom came from Florida the day before and the morning of his birthday Bracken came down and opened presents like it was Christmas morning. It’s pretty fun to have Grandma visiting. So, first we got to have a family celebration for him, and then we celebrated with his friends too. We had a few days to get ready for his party and my mom helped more than I can say. It seemed our life had been such a whirlwind for quite a stretch and I felt like the times I’d been home were quick spurts to load up on snacks, maybe try to get caught up on laundry, and barely get our bearings before we headed back out again. (Not always like that, but it felt that way.) Whenever Bracken and I were away from home and Jeff was home (when we weren’t all going somewhere together), he was busy trying to get caught up in his workshop because his alone time is precious time to get work done for the business. He kept the kitchen clean, bless his heart, but I got a bit behind in everything else.

The lack of longer stretches of home time to get things done made it so instead of doing the deeper cleaning that was needed, lots of Bracken’s toys and art projects, not to mention my own messes (and Jeff’s), got shoved aside for a quick vacuuming. Things started piling up, as you can imagine, and it was a bit overwhelming. But my mom volunteered to help clean (she really does love to clean) and clean she did. Bless her! I had gotten behind, but with a bit of teamwork we were able to get things back in shape. My mom and Bracken focused on his toy area, and getting his piles of drawings (he draws a lot), and art supplies a bit more organized. I was able to focus on baking cupcakes, making frosting, and then getting the kitchen floor mopped. Jeff was busy patching the roof (the rain is here!), picking up, doing odd jobs around here, and trying to squeeze in some work time too.

I had been vacuuming and dusting all over the house and guess what? I’m allergic to dust. I feel kind of funny saying that, but now I know it’s true. I usually vacuum and dust a few rooms at a time, but I’ve learned that when I try to vacuum and dust the entire house in one fell swoop, it means trouble for me. My throat started itching, inside my ears started itching, my whole body started itching, my throat got hoarse and my nose started running like crazy. I sounded like I had a cold, but I was having a reaction when I’d met my dust threshold. I just need to limit how many rooms I dust at one time and I’m fine. But enough about dust and cleaning, this is probably starting to get a bit boring, right? Onto the fun stuff.

As it got closer to Bracken’s party, we saw storms in the forecast. They looked pretty major, friends were writing and wondering if we were going to reschedule the party, and we thought we might have to. We waited until the day before to look at the forecast again and things looked much better, so we decided to have the party after all. The storms weren’t nearly as bad as we were expecting, there wasn’t that much wind, and the electricity stayed on the whole time, which we were glad for. The morning of the party we were getting things ready when we got a call from our next door neighbor. He said there were two large alder trees (you can’t see the other one very well in the picture above) that had fallen down, blocking both of our driveways. We were thankful he called us to let us know and we went down to investigate. Our guests would be there in a few hours, so having our driveway blocked right then was pretty poor timing!

Jeff’s small chainsaw wouldn’t be able to do the job, plus it was dangerous with the way the trees were situated. We called another neighbor with a lot of experience, and he came to the rescue. He saved the birthday party! Jeff worked down there with him until they got the driveway clear. Then Jeff was working to rake the leaves out of the driveway and our neighbor brought his leaf blower and got the whole driveway clear in a fraction of the time. They finished just in time for our guests to arrive. Phew. So, despite the storms and the fallen trees blocking the driveway, we did indeed have a party after all.

Last year when we celebrated Bracken’s birthday at our home, the weather was sunny and we spent a lot of time outside. This year it was rainy and we stayed indoors most of the time, which was fun too, and there were even forts built. It was a sweet group with some of Bracken’s closest friends and he had a big smile on his face the whole day. We’ve started a tradition where all of his friends get to help blow out birthday candles, we love that. As always, I was so touched by the thoughtful and heartfelt gifts. Plants for his own garden (that attract butterflies!) from our friends with a nursery, rainboots for the coming winter (which he was in need of) from our friends who knew how useful they’d be, and a merman tail (my friend was going to knit him one, bless her heart, and I joked that she could finish it in time for his high school graduation) which he declared was one of his favorite gifts EVER. (I should also add that I love the bag that it came in so much that I want to keep it forever and had to take a picture.) New books to read, clothes to fit those long legs, the sweetest pictures his little friends created with leaves, and so many other thoughtful things I’d like to share more about soon.

Bracken, it’s been the greatest gift to watch you grow and unfold into the person you are. You’re so full of life.You’re so thoughtful, sensitive, determined, creative, inventive, curious, rambunctious, and funny. We love you so much! Here’s to six! May it bring you many delights!