Happy Birthday Rhett!

Rhett Thomas Grosz was born on September 5, 2001. 1 Year Picture
2- year Wiggle Party

Today is Rhett's third birthday! I have blogged about my sweet son before. My kids birthdays are a little emotional for me. Every year I think back to the day they were born and all subsequent birthdays. Every year I am amazed by the little people they are becoming. I just can not believe that Rhett is three!

We have post-poned Rhett's "Thomas the Tank Engine" party until next Sunday due to Labor Day. Today Rob's Mom is here from Denison and we will have a little family party at lunch...or dinner as my Mom calls it. This year Rhett is very into Thomas! I had never known much about "Thomas the Train" until last June when we had dinner at Scott and Mereidith Kimbrough's. Their son Cooper introduced Rhett to Thomas, and that is all we have heard about since. Rhett has even been known to call himself "Rhett Thomas the Tank Grosz".

We are all in BIRTHDAY MODE! Birthday parties are quite a production around here. Call it my over zealous attempt to celebrate the birth of my children, or a vent for the inner frustrated event coordinator I always wanted to be, or just a sickness...I'm not sure. There is nothing I enjoy more than putting a kid's birthday party together. Give me a theme and I go nuts! Kolby has had some real doozies! One year a seven foot Elmo greeted our guest at the front door. One year we turned the garage into an Ocean. My Halloween parties have been pretty fun too.

Rhett (the second child) seems to get the short end of the stick in many ways...Birthday parties are no exception. It seems that by the time September rolls around I am running low on energy and $$. But I want his parties to be as fun and special as his sisters. I will most likely spend most of "my spare time" and lots of my " I should be doing other things" time this week getting ready for next Sunday's birthday party. Most of the following week will be cleaning up and recovering. I would be lieing if I said that I don't enjoy every minute of it! Some laugh and say I'm crazy. They are right. I am crazy about my kids and crazy about this short time in their life when I can wow'em with a pull-string pinata, an " I can't believe you made that" cool birthday cake, a bounce house, and little bags of themed party favors. The pictures and memories alone are priceless.

In dark moments, a little voice tells me God wouldn't want me to put so much energy into such things and that I am wrong and frivolous to take on about birthdays the way I do. Rightly or wrongly so, I attribute "that little voice" to part of my OLD church of Christ upbringing that seemed to discourage any type of celebration. I don't think it was meant the way it came across but I remember thinking God was a stick in the mud when I was a small child. Jesus loved me, but he didn't want me to celebrate Christmas, or Easter,(I still don't understand the reasoning for ether of those) or clap my hands in church or even speak. (The way one of my great-Aunts quoted "Children should be seen not heard" I swore it came from the Bible.) I even had a Sunday School teacher in third grade that said laughter would lead us down the "path of destruction" and therefore we should not laugh very often. SHE REALLY SAID THAT! I think she quoted a scripture too, but I have blocked that out.

Of course now my answer to that little voice usually says something like "Really? How do know that God did not create me to plan birthday parties?" I am so glad that my children are growing up knowing a God of love and JOY! Heaven knows we all have much to celebrate. Maybe these parties and my over the top approach to many things in life are a rebellion against that "Joy is bad" type of thinking. Then again... it could just be a sickness! But what ever it is, if you are any where near Waco next Sunday around 3:30pm, come on by! We are having a PARTY!