William's 5th birthday party

 William is to an age that he has many opinions. For a long time he thought he wanted his birthday party to be at Fast Lanes following a family party there for Reese the week of Neal's celebration of life ceremony. He then thought about Chuck E Cheese. The girls were pushing for the indoor water park at the Bentonville Community Center. We went to the water park over Thanksgiving break so he could experience it and decide if he wanted to consider that. He had a blast there but immediately declared it was to be at Fast Lanes.

He had an absolute blast at his birthday party. It was so much fun to watch him really enjoy his friends at his own party and understand they were there to celebrate him for the first time. He partied hard and had so much fun with the most fun little group. We had family and some of our most treasured family friends there also which made it that much more rich and so special. It really was such a fun party.

We got him a basketball goal for his main gift from us and close family. When we revealed it he was completely underwhelmed. I think we built it up too much and he couldn't imagine what would be outside and larger than he is. I think he came to the conclusion it must be a Batmobile. When he opened his eyes and it was not a Batmobile he was sorely disappointed and let us know. Since he has played on the goal several times and loves it.

On his actual birthday Reese had a volleyball tournament. He was a trooper and sat in the gym for several hours. Sadly they lost. He got to watch his 2 favorite players though, Reese and Sara Weaver. We did take a break between games to go have pancakes and we went to Defy when the tournament was over. We had Batman cake together after dinner and all in all it was a great day.

 

William's 5 year old questionnaire

 What is your favorite color? green

Who is your favorite friend? James & Coen

What is your favorite snack? cheese balls

What do you like to do with Reese? to jump on her and for her to fart but she bes mean

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? salami & pickles & water and some broccoli trees and some Cheetos 

What is your favorite drink? fruit beer 

What is your favorite thing to do outside? play volleyball with a lot of balls on the trampoline 

What is your favorite sport? Football

What do you want to be when you grow up? Knuckles from Sonic

What is your favorite animal? cows and lions but not tigers and kitty cats

What is your favorite book? space ship books

What do you like to do with Mommy? lay down in the bed and watch a show 

Then he said this unprompted 🖤And I like to do something with daddy, I like to hug him

What is your favorite song? jingle bells & I like it I love it

What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? Spaghetti 

What do you take with you when you go to bed? Pippy

What is your favorite holiday? Easter 

What makes you happy? poop on the potty (that makes me happy too if you'd ever do it)

What makes you sad? when I throw up but I just want to go to Bluey

What do you think about before bed? that I want to wake up and play with my toys

What is your favorite thing to do with Ella? To play with her but she always bes mean 

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? go to the beach

Such a great loss 🖤

I wrote this entry in early December but it looks like I failed to publish it until now. So the timing of it is a bit off but it needs to be out there and I don't have the energy to edit all of it to fit the timing.

It looks like the last time I updated the blog was following Reese's 11th birthday. My sister, Chelsea, had my blog printed for my 40th birthday and it is one of the best gifts I have ever received. It tells our family story from the time we found out we were pregnant until Reeses 11th birthday. 

This blog has been so special to me as a way to document special things for our family and I hope the kids cherish being able to look back one day, I already do. I haven't kept up with the blog well in way over a year for good reason. We lost Neal after a battle with melanoma on April 7th. It has been the saddest year of my life. Losing him has been excruciatingly painful and watching 3 children, who I love more than life, have to deal with the pain and confusion of losing the very best father is the worst.

I have documented most of the cancer journey and terrible loss on my social media accounts. I want to continue on with this blog as it brings so much joy and I want to have documentation of the kids favorites on their birthdays and major events and vacations. So, a lot has been missed here but we will continue on. I hope to post a new entry soon to document our trip to Disney back in October. Whew, this was a hard one to write but I've had hopes and plans of picking this back up for a while now. We continue on.🖤🖤🖤