It's hard to believe our "little" guy is hardly little anymore. Ten years ago, Darren and I welcomed, into our lives, our first child. We loved him so much and despite his love for challenging us, at times, we love him even more today! When I remove myself from a frustrating moment with him, at the end of the day, Ty truly has been an amazing kid. He's an incredible athlete, his teachers love him, he's smart and fun, he is a role model at his school (as Vice President), and he very knowledge and able to engage at church when learning the word of God. There's a ton of things I could say about him, but typically I find that that just appears as boasting and most readers get bored when reading about the finite details about other people's children, at least I do! Eeeek! Sorry, I am just being transparent. So he's 10. And being double digits is a big deal, so I wanted to make his entire day feel special and definitely be memorable! The morning of his BIRTH-day, I couldn't do anything fancy for him, like I did for the twins. Between small group (that Friday) Jody's 30th (that Saturday), Mother's Day, Church, and Ty's surprise 10th Birthday party (that Sunday), I was lucky to get out of bed and pack lunches. Haha. BUT... I did go to his school and have lunch with him. His request for lunch, surprisingly, was his favorite TACO BELL! I also brought him two cake pops! I did take A bite, but they BOTH were really for him. As you can see, I was sure to bring him something health, an apple. As they say, "An apple a day, keeps the doctor away!" Later, his snack bag consisted of a few birthday picks, just reminding him that although he was at school, it was still HIS special day! Believe it or NOT, I didn't have a MAIN gift for him even on the day of his birthday. We knew we would be blessing him with cash and a gift card to Game Stop, but I felt like a fun gift was still in need. I searched high and low for a Stephen Curry jersey, locally, but NO ONE had one. SO.... it was then that it dawned on me, "Ah, we don't have an inflatable water slide anymore." Last Summer, our single inflatable water slide kicked the bucket. Actually, we wound up giving it to our Church because it has a small hole aka leak. So, I rushed to Toys R Us, reading reviews in the store, and decided upon the Little Tikes Rocky Mountain River Race, DUAL Slide. It seemed to received good reviews. It was the absolute perfect day to have some outdoor water fun. I rushed home and frantically began setting up the slide all on my own. Darren came home for something and saw me, the maniac, trying to assemble this thing and he said, "I want nothing to do with that!" Haha. No problem, just please don't get in my way because I have less than 25 minutes to get this set up before the bus arrives home. I wanted the inflatable to have balloons hanging from it. We did have the #10 balloons left over from Ty's surprise party, along with some of the other baseball themed balloons. PERFECT! I started with the "#0" balloon. I tied it to the inflatable. Then I moved on to the #1. With much disappointment, I accidentally released the balloon into the air. CRUDE! NOW WHAT? I handled it well and just had to laugh it off, although I was so upset because those darn balloons were $10 each. I just decided that the Lord is #1 and he deserved that balloon more than we did! The inflatable was up and running, but the #0 balloon made no sense now! "I got it!" I made my OWN #1 balloon, by joining all of the other balloons together, in a staggered order, to make a colorful collection of balloons, forming a #1. All of this happened with approximately 7 minutes to spare. Similar to presenting the trampoline gift, to the twins, I left the sliding glass doors open and waited for the kids to find me, after the bus dropped them off. It didn't take them LONG, but it did take them a tad longer than the first time I have ever tried this. I don't think they were expecting another outdoor item to be sitting in our backyard. Down they came with a smile from ear to ear. It sure did make my day when I saw this boy smiling BIG! As soon as they could, they got their suites on and already invited a friend over to join them! If you are curious as to why the water looks bubbly, it's because we chose to squirt dawn soap all over the slides to make them slippery. We also like to call this our redneck bath. This fun lasted a good 2 hours, but then it was time for dinner and ballet! The craziest part is that on the way home from school, Jake asked Ty what he thought he was getting for his birthday and Ty said, "I really don't know!" Jake said, "I bet you will get a new waterside since you don't have one anymore!" There is NO way Jake could have known because I had JUST bought it one hour before school let out. Normally, we allow the kids to choose a dinner spot and we go out to eat on their birthdays, but Ty requested that I make lasagna and banana pudding (as his cake!). It blessed me immensely to hear him request some of those special and delicious meals that mommy makes. I barely decorated, but it was just enough to continually help him feel set apart and special. Fortunately, we did have enough time to enjoy a homemade dinner together, but dessert had to wait. Lilah not only had ballet, but she had recital practice. After ballet, we all came inside for dessert. But we heard the door bell ring?!?! Hmmmm! What's this? Looks like someone had a pizza delivered for Tyson, for his birthday! The boys answered the door and Jax said, "Mom there's a pizza at the door!" A pizza?!?! Or was it a pizza box? It was actually another gift for Ty. We gave him a $100 bill for his birthday, but couldn't just put it in a card. We had to be clever like always! I "called ahead" and asked Dominos if I could buy a pizza box. They offered me the box for free. I ran to the bank and got out a $100 bill. Then, collected some of our Melissa and Doug money. Placing the play money in the shape of a circle, to look like pizza, I then placed the $100 bill in the center! I added a sign that read: "The best part about pizza is the... dough!" Slapped a bow on it and walaa! I know now that Ty wasn't disappointed that there wasn't any pizza in the box. We opened the rest of his gifts and then had cake banana pudding! I wonder what he wished for? Haha. The morning of his birthday, Jax did asked Ty, "If you could have ONE wish on your birthday, what would it be?" Ty thought for a short moment and replied, "I would wish to marry Cami!" We love you buddy! I hope you felt that love on this day and of course always!