A Grand Welcome

Somethings in life are deserving of a grand party, and I couldn't think of a more fitting reason to celebrate than a birth.

Some people have baby showers, where you put on your pretty little sundress and gather all of your best girls together to ooh and awh over your belly and hold up little outfits for the whole room to see. This time around, that particular scenario didn't seem to fit. Ben needed a proper welcome, and one with not just women.

So we held, in Ben's honor, a welcome party. Although the forecast that day seemed threatening, with talk of dark gray clouds and winds that would whip our nicely done hair all about. Yet someone seemed to be on our side, because the skies were a beautiful shade of Carolina blue and the sun warmed the air to a toasty 80 degrees.

Our friends and family started to arrive, and the grill was fired up and ready to go. We ate until we were stuffed, hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, bean salad, dips and chips and this and that, and dessert, dessert, dessert.

We enjoyed the company and the conversation. And mother nature even gave us a slight cloud cover to mask to hot rays that were scorching us earlier. We passed our little easy going bundle of Ben around, and we toasted to the life of endless opportunities that lies in front of him, as he curled up and dozed off in yet another pair of arms.

It's times like these, when the people you love all gather together, that I treasure. And it touches my heart even more that they took time out of their day to come celebrate my Ben.

The weekend carried on, floating on the high left over from the party, and when our weekend spilled over into Monday, we just rolled with it. We packed up our boys and went to "choo choo park" as Wyatt now calls it. A Huge local park with shops and train and carousel rides, and plenty of space to play. Ben wrapped snug against my chest, we walked, Wyatt's hands holding each of ours, swinging his legs in the air every few steps after he called out "two three!!" Until we reached the gravel play area where he took off towards the slide, full speed ahead.

We stayed and played until the skin on Wyatt's cheeks started to turn a slight rosy pink from the sun. Then we capped off the day with an ice cream cone that melted and dripped slowly down his chin as we walked to the car.




Summer is grand, just as grand as Ben's welcome and events so grand will stay forever in my mind.