There’s no denying that very strange reality of time as you age. For the youth, a day seems like forever. Their lives are full of novelty and adventure. As an adult it seems like days turn into weeks, months, and years before you even know it. Is it really already three years since this young, amazing boy was born? I mean, surely he has brought novelty to our lives – every day is filled with surprises! But yet the time has gone by so quickly and what was once a babe so dependent on us for every single thing is now a young boy who is so eager (and sometimes fiercely so) to discover and explore the world at his own speed.
Regardless – a birthday is just that, a birthday! And every birthday should be a celebration. We are so fortunate to have been able to spend a great amount of time during Rowan’s birthweek doing just that!
We knew we were going to have some missing family for Rowan’s scheduled birthday celebration – but we were so surprised and happy to see Uncle Justin, Aunt Kayla, Jacob, Lilly, and Reese on Sunday for some good quality time together (and of course, prezzies!). And then right after Uncle Cody and Uncle Alec came to visit, too! We spent the night with our sweet new Chase truck and blowing bubbles from our lawnmower bubble machine. Sweet!
And then Rowan, Mama, and John got to spend Rowan’s birthday day together exploring the amazing animals and activities at the Atlanta Zoo! We went last year, as well – and it’s interesting to compare year over year. I don’t think Rowan was particularly interested in the animals either year, but he was super excited about the train this year! And he also absolutely loved running through the park and seeing all the people. He’s such a big ole extravert! Mama figured out right at the end that giving Rowan a snack to hold while he walks around keeps him at a regular human’s pace. Whew!
Next we hit up an old haunt for Mama and Daddy in Midtown Atlanta – Fellini’s Pizza. It’s so fun to get back to some places close to where we used to live in Atlanta. And, ironically, while we were there we remembered that we went to the same place for lunch after the Zoo last year! Hah!
Birthday day finished up with an absolutely huge surprise! We knew that we were going to hang out with Grandma because she couldn’t make it to the birthday bash on Saturday. But little did we know that Cousin Laura drove all the way from Greensboro, NC to have birthday dinner and festivities with us! WOW! It was such a great surprise and so much fun to see Laura and have her be a part of our little family party. Rowan and Kenzie were probably the most excited (New people, oh em geeee!).
Ahh, Birthday Day finally done. What a huge success! It was so much fun to be able to have some great adventures together and then to top it off with such an awesome surprise and great company with Laura and Grandma, we couldn’t have planned a better birthday day!
But little did the Young Lord know that in just a couple more days time we would be getting together for the “official” birthday celebration! We were so glad to see so many family members and friends come out to celebrate our little guy. It was a joy to see all the little folks having so much fun together and just to have a great spirit of energy and love poured out for Rowan’s sake. He’s such a light in our lives and we love to see him light up with surprise and excitement – and there seems to be nothing that does that better than being around lots of people!
We had so much fun together – and even more importantly, Rowan had so much fun with everyone! We had gone from worrying that not enough people would be able to make it to having such a great time together. Mama lent her skills and aesthetics with some beautiful decorations, despite the Hurricane Ian-adjacent winds (it was super gusty on Saturday!). But mostly, it was great to get together with such amazing family and friends in celebration of little Rowan’s third year of thriving! We can’t wait to see what wonder, amazement, and chaos he brings to this next year! We love you, Rowan!
