Party!!

Today we celebrated in high Barnes fashion with a farm themed party (again) for Asher's 5th Birthday.  It was a beautiful day.  Our friends came at 9:30 in the morning to enjoy a Cowboy Breakfast complete with Pancakes, bacon, and farm fresh eggs.  I wish I could say there was fresh squeezed orange juice...instead Organic Milk and OJ from the carton sufficed.

 Jesse made 50 pancakes into the wee hours of the morning while I slept.  I started yesterday feeling a bit off and soon it turned into a headache, chills, and then throwing up.  It was awful.  I would pull myself from the couch and get out the butter and margarine, then pep talk myself into just getting the cake started and then I would throw up.  Thank goodness I have a Mama who loves me and her grandson.  I had great plans to make the cow cake Asher requested but Grandma gets all the credit this year.  Check out this art work!

My husband, and Mom and Suzanne made today work!  It was maddening to get sick on the eve of my little guy's special party.  But, it worked out and today with shaky and weak hands I still enjoyed the party, enjoyed Asher's laughter and found myself staring at him many times thinking......"You are turning 5, it's a big deal."

He melts my heart, he made me a Mama, he still stops me in my tracks with his kind eyes, he is worth all the work of party details from getting real animals, to elaborate crafts. 

Kids dressed in their "cowboy best" and brought stick horses and guns and cowboy hats.  We ran a race that included climbing up hail bails and jumping the fence, we paraded down the street throwing candy and the moms walked behind picking it up and the kids never new.....they really thought they were in a real parade!  We lost a goat on the way, and as the kids finished the parade 5 adults worked to capture the goat and it really was work!

*Note the stick horse and gun....he ran his races with great form!

*She will never be outdone by older children!  She is amazing.

Laughter caught the attention of the adults as Uncle Will began doing silly things like tripping on a chair, flipping his cowboy hat off and onto the ground......15 young children were the perfect audience for the impromptu clown act by William.  And the laughter.....I wish I could bottle it up to save for a sad day.  It was contagious and wonderful!

Grandma Suzanne provides a craft every year for my sweet kids' birthday.  She is so gifted and both Asher and Cora love to spend time crafting with her. This year she really went overboard.  Each child painted a barn, filled it with hay and even added their own animals to keep.  It was awesome.  Today Asher and his neighbor friend played with their barns in the backyard for hours!

Our family is blessed with an amazing community of friends who have awesome children.  I loved watching Asher have a wonderful time at his birthday party, but I also loved watching his friends, who are some of my dearest friends' children enjoy the party too.  There were no tears today, no one felt left out, no one had hurt feelings.....it was amazing to watch.  I love all of these little people.

*Every rancher needs his own feed bucket!

It was a wonderful day.....and tomorrow we will celebrate his "real" birthday with donuts for his Sunday school class and a BBQ with family.  It's hard to believe my little farmer, is 5 years old!