Amy Scott's Thoughts

Happy October aka Birthday Month! Both my boys have October birthdays, so the entire month is spent celebrating. I tend to make a big deal of birthdays. I’m all for the birthday month concept and my kiddos don’t seem to mind the endless party vibes during our favorite season of the year. Fall + Birthdays = Best Month Ever! Now I realize that we are only a few days in October and no official birthdays have actually happened yet, but that didn’t stop us from partying this weekend.

We kicked off birthday month with a family dinner on Sunday. My parents and sister joined us for pizza and dessert. This year’s birthday theme is Wild Kratts. Our kids have been obsessed with the Kratt brothers for the last few months, so it seemed appropriate for their party theme. I keep telling Owen and Graham they could be the next Kratt brothers someday. Wild Kratts has definitely sparked a love of animals in our boys. It’s been fun to watch them learn so much. I picked up some party supplies on Amazon. To keep the creature theme going, I baked woodland animal frosted sugar cookies (for Graham) as well as a chocolate cake (for Owen). The cake was decorated with a Wild Kratts topper included in the party supplies and then I placed animal cookies around the side of the cake. Owen found some forest animal décor at Hobby Lobby and I added that as the centerpiece to tie in the Wild Kratts and the forest animals. The boys had a fantastic time and they felt very loved! We’re so blessed to have a family that supports and cheers on our kiddos.

What else have we been up to (other than birthday partying)? Last week, Jeremy and I went out of town for a few days to participate in a staff retreat with our church team. As a homeschool mom, I’m not around the table very often for staff discussions. Staff retreat is an opportunity to support Jeremy and my local church. I packed way too many books, played games and ate ice cream with my condo-mates, took lovely walks, and processed a lot of thoughts about ministry. While we were away, the boys had an adventurous time with Nana and Papa. I’m so thankful for my in-laws and how they love our family. The boys felt like our time away was an endless sleepover for them and it was nice for me to slip out mom-mode for a few days (however, I did talk about them a lot, so I guess mom-mode isn’t something you just click off).

We came home from staff retreat and jumped into all sorts of projects. We had an ortho evaluation for Owen. It was a process we started over a year ago, but didn’t pursue at the time. Now we’re making it happen. Owen will become a metal mouth in more than one way at the start of November. Thankfully, he’ll have time to eat all the birthday goodies, clear the popcorn out of the pantry, and nibble on Halloween candy before his food choices diminish. We hosted a play date with friends we haven’t seen since summer. Jeremy took down our backyard pool and packed it up. I went into party baking/decorating mode. I got a chance to have lunch with my forever friend, Maggie, on a sunny Saturday. BJ’s has become our “spot” – can’t beat pizza and a pizookie while chatting with a good friend.

That’s all for now, but prepare yourself for many more birthday shenanigans right around the corner! We can’t wait. Birthday month is the best!