Dylan's first ever birthday party!

     Hard to imagine isn't it, that at 7 years old this Tuesday, Dylan never has had a birthday party in his honor!  When you think about the gift that children are, and you keep them for such a short time, some of the unpleasantness of any child not being loved or in a loving home, never crosses our minds.  How truly blessed we are in our lives not only to have this life, but to have been given the gift of healthy, happy children!
     So we decided to make his party day a "day trip" instead of spending the night and disrupting the daily lives of Carin, Rusty and Dylan ... that won't happen again, we'll disrupt them :)  We arrived at Chuck E Cheese in plenty of time for the event.  Looking around I was glad to see the security measures in place to ensure the safety of the children, back when Carin and Melisa were growing up, that wasn't such a concern, but not so now.
     Everyone began to arrive, and the activity began .... moving quickly from one ride, or game to the other, full of such energy.  Carin had forgotten her camera, so it was up to me to follow Dylan and capture as many moments as I could and that was a challenge!  Then the time came for the kids to eat pizza and the festivities with Chuck E Cheese, and I'm thinking Dylan's not real sure of this tall gray mouse, he did accept his birthday crown but was not eager to have his picture taken up close with Chuck E.  Presents opened, cake and ice cream eaten and then on to more games with more tickets as Chuck E and the hostesses for each table threw handfulls of tickets into the air.  And yes, Grandma was down on her hands and knees scooping up as many tickets for Dylan and friends that I could .... hmmm, not as easy getting back up!
     So the time came to head back to the Hill Country, Carin and Rusty did a wonderful job with this first of many, many birthday parties for this lucky and blessed young man!  Our love continues to grow daily for Dylan, his life has not been easy and there are many days ahead that will challenge Carin, Rusty and Dylan, remembering the good times, and the blessings to come will help this family grow in love and strength.  We are all blessed to have Dylan in our lives .... until next time ....