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At the beginning of this month, Tristyn turned 7 years old!  I had been thinking about what to do for a party, when an e-mail for a summer enrichment horse riding program made its way to my inbox. It just so happened that it was scheduled on T's birthday. I called and spoke to the Director and it was all too easy to set up. I decided to go ahead and make it a 2-for-1. This was a big deal this year as it was his first "real" party with HIS friends. He sent out 7 invites and all but two showed. We extended invites to some younger siblings who were also age eligible to ride. We have regular riding lessons at this facility, so it was a familiar place for our kiddos. Some of the others though had never ridden a horse before. Some of them have Special Needs, so we were just hoping that it would go well and everyone would have a positive experience. Happy to report that they all did! Keep in mind that this birthday party started at 7 a.m. due to the heat. It warmed my heart that so many parents were willing to get themselves up along with their kids so early in the morning to come and celebrate our boy. It was going to be a very long, but exciting day . . .

Okay, so the riding program was from 7:00-10:00 a.m. The kids were broken up into two riding groups. They guzzled water in between stations, made an art project, and had a birthday breakfast. I prepped for some games and brought some activities from home (Play-doh, My Little Pony Monopoly, Memory game) because we were afraid that we were going to get rained out. Luckily, the rain came the night before and in the early morning hours. It didn't hinder our plans one bit. We played the Memory game while the kids ate and T opened his gifts. They had to match the correct character with its movie or show. They got a kick out of matching Skylander characters, Angry Birds, and Thomas the Train engines! We cleaned up and T passed out some horse-themed goody bags. On the way home, we picked up his cake.

The boys enjoyed the new toys together while mom and dad relaxed for a bit. We had lunch and T blew out the candle on his cake. For whatever reason though, he didn't like the look of it or the shape and didn't eat any. This is a kid who has weekly feeding therapy, so it's always hit and miss. We all changed clothes and headed to the bowling alley at 12:30 p.m. We signed both up for this 8-week bowling session (which just ended yesterday). We were there for 2 hours and the plan was to go home and check the mail. We had redeemed some grocery store points a few weeks prior for tickets to see a D-backs baseball game. If the voucher was in the mail, we would head down there. If not, we'd stay and relax for a few hours before making our way downtown anyway for a Phoenix Mercury game. Yeah, we had free tickets to that too! So, we check the mailbox and sure enough, the baseball voucher was there! We looked at each other and we headed downtown! It was bobble-head night, so the boys thought that was neat. There was some talk online about how scary these bobble-heads can be to children. The boys know their parents watch The Walking Dead. Anyway, because so many things were gratis that day, we are probably sending our kids the wrong message.

We were at the baseball game until 8 p.m. We left right after the 7th inning, so we missed the drama between the team players that night. We re-parked our car in another garage and made our way to the Phoenix Mercury game. These were tickets given to us by a non-profit, so we really needed to show if only for a little while. We got seated, bought the boys dinner, and made it in time to see the entire 4th quarter! It was an exciting game and I forgot how alive it is with the dancers and the lights! T happily sat eating an overpriced mini Streets of New York pizza, but again, the tickets were free, so we splurged at concessions. It was nearly 10 p.m. when we arrived home! I have never done so much in one day like that in my life! I normally would never plan that kind of craziness, but it all sort of happened that way and it was FUN and hopefully memorable for everyone. I think he had a great birthday. He smiled when we tucked him in that night and slept in the next morning. I think we did good.

August is just about over and so many things are making life busy. D started his online program earlier this month. You know about his teacher's first name. Yikes! T will start his next week. He's excited to get going and he's been listening in on older brother's lessons. We have a new ST in our lives and it's with a guy this time. I think it's a good fit. We've had two sessions with him and T seems really comfortable. He is current on all things trending too, so they have a lot to talk about. Therapeutic riding starts up again mid-month and T will ride twice/week. He doesn't have any side-walker helpers anymore, so it's pretty neat to see him be more independent on the horse. We have a new social group starting up in another week. It's for kiddos ages 2 1/2-7, so I hope they plan on breaking the kids up into groups. Right now, I'm looking into parkour classes for the boys and trying to find more supporting data for the benefits to submit as an approved therapy with T's scholarship. Gymnastics and karate are already approved, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Things are busy, but things are good. I got a little unexpected surprise this past week. I had sort of forgotten about it as it's been over a year now. My Molly Bear arrived this week! I think it was actually sitting in the jumbo mailbox on Thursday, but I didn't check till Friday morning. He is super cute and of course made with so much love. Felt so good to give this little bear that initial hug. Almost don't want to put him down. Showed him to the boys and made them wash their hands a few times over to be sure before allowing them to hold it. Plan on doing a cute pic with them soon. With my timeline already in full swing, this bear came at just the right moment. I never thought a stuffed animal at my age would make me smile so big.

Hard to believe he was ever this small riding his Bounce and Spin Zebra.

Early morning pic on his b-day. The balloon has lasted more than 4 weeks:)

T's party at Horses Help in Cave Creek, AZ.

Older bro checking out the goods:) Seriously, about the same height now!

Thinking about his birthday wish . . .

They both made it through 7 innings! We were impressed.