Getting “crafty” to keep up with all the celebrating!
It seems like 50% of the people I know have birthdays in the month of October. On my husband’s side of the family we have 3 October birthdays and 1 early November birthday. At church I can think of at least 4 students I know with October birthdays and on my side of the family, I have 1 October birthday. That means lots of celebrating in the span of a month! Good thing I like cake and general birthday festivities!
Friday started off what we’ve deemed as “Birthday Month”. Jeremy and I headed down to Portland to celebrate with my sister-in-law, Beckie. We went to see The Dark Knight Rises at OSMI. It was certainly an experience. We didn’t have time to get dinner before the movie so we purchased a large popcorn for each couple. Jeremy and I’s popcorn was gone before the movie started. Who knew we could polish it off in a half hour of waiting. Oh well! The movie was good. Jeremy and I hadn’t seen it, so that exciting to see a new movie on the OMNIMAX screen, which is 5 stories tall! After the movie, we went to a burger place called Brothers and gave Beckie her birthday present. It was a fun time to hang out with family in Portland and of course, celebrate another awesome year of Beckie!
Memories of meeting Mason for the first time!
Saturday kept the birthday party theme going! My dad and I drove up to Puyallup to celebrate my second cousin’s third birthday. This meant that I had to miss a bridal shower at the church. I was sad to miss the shower, but at the same time I knew I needed to prioritize family. Since I couldn’t make it to Mason’s 1st or 2nd birthday, I felt like I really needed to try to be there for the 3rd. Mason was great to watch open presents. Each gift he LOVED and was so distracted by that he completely forgot about the other presents. He was a little slow to open the gifts, so his cousin, Lincoln, who is not quite 2 years old, jumped in and helped with the opening. It’s sweet how at that age how they don’t care who opens the gifts. We had the traditional cake and watched the little boys run around the house doing laps. It’s so weird sometimes to think that the next generation is here. I am going to parties for my cousin’s kids! Since I didn’t get to see my family a lot over the summer, I feel like I’m making up for lost time and I’m trying to hit as many events as possible! It was nice say that I would see them all next weekend at my cousin’s wedding reception.
Sunday was lunch and games with my sister and brother-in-law. April and Andrew’s work schedule makes hanging out with them sort of hit and miss. I hang out with April quite a bit (it seems in spurts), but all four of us just hanging out doesn’t happen all that often. It was a nice treat to have them over after church for some laid back hang out time. We threw together a meal of pasta and homemade french bread (made by my hubby) and we ended the meal with some lovely cake truffles (pretty much cake pops without the stick). Once the meal was finished, we dove into game time. It was really fun, despite the fact that I didn’t win any of them! I know that April and Andrew are family, so it’s kind of different, but I’m really trying to learn laid back hospitality. I didn’t super clean my house before they came over. In fact I wasn’t even sure what I was going to feed them until less than an hour before they came over. It was more about just opening my house in whatever condition and my refrigerator whatever the contents and saying “You’re welcome anytime.” I might not be anything compared to Shauna Niequist, but it was a baby step for me in the right direction!
These October weekends have been great for family time and the upcoming weekend looks like it’s going to follow the same trend! We’ll celebrate my cousin’s marriage on Saturday and then all the Oct/Nov Scott birthdays on Sunday. In fact, we’ll have all the Scotts under one roof, which hasn’t happened since before Brinley, my adorable niece, was born. It will be great to be all together and keep the birthday month party going!
Amy Scott's Thoughts 
Ah birthday month. We were counting and with 3 Scott birthdays as well as my sisters in October and my mom’s a week after Deb’s, we seem to be in the same boat :) I pray that new grandchildren are born any month but October!! But I guess with having birthdays clumped together, you’re pretty much guaranteed a celebration. Eric and I were thinking back and we’re pretty sure that I’ve never celebrated my birthday with the Scotts in the 12 years I’ve known them. So here’s to birthday month!
You should have been born in October! ;) My birthday is pretty much only celebrated with Bill and Debbie because its already getting busy at work for Nathan. I think because mine is in January everyone is done with family time post Christmas! :)