The Legend of Thousand Hills Farm

Will's 18!

Well, I don't know how it happened, but last week I became the mother of an adult!  I'm pretty sure I'm too young to have an 18 year old.  However, there is paperwork to prove it, so it must be true!

Will had wanted a party, but we're in the midst of football season and it's crazy around here. Last week's schedule looked something like this:

• Monday ~ Middle school football game
• Tuesday ~ Will had to go to Spokane for a physical for his postal job, Girl's volleyball game
• Wednesday ~ Middle school football game
• Thursday ~ Girl's volleyball game (at home), and Will's birthday
• Friday ~ High school football game at Clark Fork
• Saturday ~ My 20 yr! class reunion, and dinner for the boys at a friend's house
• Sunday ~ Christmas contata practice started, monthly Singspiration hosted by our church (and did I mention I was exhausted and had a migraine?)

And all that doesn't include school, practices, and work! So, it looked like a party wasn't going to happen. He came home one evening and said that Mullan didn't have a JV Volleyball team, and so the game would be over by about 7:30, and could we have a small party here after the game? I told him that would be fine, however they would have to get the basement straightened up so that they could play pool or foosball or games. Well, they obviously weren't going to be home enough to get that project done. He was disappointed, but I told him that when things calm down a bit we could have a get-together down here, and although it wouldn't be a "birthday party", it would be fun. He was okay with that.

Unbeknownst to Will, I had called our wonderful Pastor, and asked if we could invade their house on Thursday after the Volleyball game and throw Will a surprise birthday party. They said yes! It would be perfect ~ if we could pull it off. Will always walks their daughter home after home games, so if we could get everyone snuck in, there would be nothing out of the ordinary (as far as he knew!). Levi was charged with getting everyone invited. Here are some pictures from the party.

Visiting while waiting for the guest of honor.

More visiting, and looking out the window to see if they're(Will and the girls) about to show up.

Debby and I getting the food ready. And no, that's not a bun on my head, that's someone standing behind me!

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! We began to sing as Will walked through the door.

Everyone enjoying Will's reaction to his surprise!

Here's Will with his birthday cake (football, of course!). We had him *totally* surprised! He was clueless. Amazing considering one of the guests thought it was a surprise party for Levi, and did his best not to let him know!

I wanted to end this with a post I sent to my ladies (email loop I'm on) about Will. Mike and I are so proud of him ~ he is an outstanding young man.

Today our oldest turns 18. I am officially a mother of an adult. Oh, we have treated him as a man for a while now. Allowing him to make his own decisions, with our guidance and counsel, but today the rest of the world recognizes him as a man.

While I am terribly proud of the man he is, I long for the days when he was a little boy, quick to run to my arms for a hug and a kiss. When we sat for hours upon hours reading books ~ some so many times that he could recite them, and so I gave up reading them to him and let him "read" them to me. My home is not devoid of little boys! But I miss the days of Will's "little boydom". :-) I look back with regret that I pushed him to each new stage, instead of letting him take his time getting there. Why did I not enjoy each stage as it came? Time and experience. Each new stage for him was a new stage for me as a Mama.

Untitled Comment

1:58 PM, Oct. 4, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Hi aunt Tracy please tell Will that I said Happy Birthday. It is hard to belive that we are getting so old. It seems like just yesterday we were up there playing cops and robbers in grammie & pak's pasture. love yal. Kathleen