Birthday Blessings

We were very blessed this past Saturday to have almost our whole, entire family at our home to celebrate Noah, Moses, and Hannah's January birthdays. This was the second annual Smith January Birthday Bash--and it was a blast! It was a special blessing to have my brother Seth home from Iraq as he wasn't able to be here last year. He is the "cool" uncle that my kids all love to wrestle and joke around with. I have been very happy that Noah does not seem timid around him, seeing as he didn't really know him for most of this last year. But other than my dad (who had to perform a funeral) and a few of Danny's step siblings, every one of our most immediate family members, including ALL the cousins, were there! And Danny's roommate from college who we affectionately refer to as "Uncle" Rob and his wife and two kids (Delana is about the same age as Hannah, so she was in girl heaven!) were also there! To some it would have seemed like noisy chaos. But to the Smith clan it was a little piece of heaven.
I had put a lot of thought into the party, so as the planner I felt very "successful." The food was good (and there was plenty of it) and the kids enjoyed making their own mini pizzas. The pinata was a hit--11 hits to be exact (actually there were more like 33 since each kid got about 3 tries). And on the 11th kid, Josiah exploded the already cracking pinata. CANDY!! Danny's dad offered to buy the kids' a birthday cake from Concannon's, so Moses got his birthday wish of a "Star War's" birthday cake--and it was yummy!! The kids all loved their fun presents and playing with their cousins (and friends). And the adults enjoyed fellowship and after the chaos calmed down a bit, some games.
One of the best things was that after everyone left I didn't have a huge sense of let down because my baby sister Grace lives with us so she didn't have to leave! We're a cool family and most days are like a party at the Smith house anyway! And my mom had brought us a new TV (they upgraded to an even better one--score for us!) and so we enjoyed watching Moses' new DVD of Stomp--incredible!-- and some Fellowship of the Ring, always great!
At the end of the day I was enveloped in the sense of being loved--and VERY blessed-- and knowing that my kids are loved by a lot of really cool people. May we be blessed to be a blessing!