Guess Who's Back?

Although I haven't discussed the entire Jersey Finger injury just yet, I MUST start with the day that Ty was actually released by Dr. Apel. A few weeks prior to his possible release date, we had an appointment with Dr. Apel and Ty expressed his desires and recovery goals. Ty desired to be able to play AT LEAST half of the basketball season for his middle school team. Ty's injury happend on September 6th, the surgery took place on September 11th, and from that point forward we were told that a full recovery takes a MINIMUM of 12 weeks. Sigh... November 19th was 9 weeks and 6 days. At this visit, Dr. Apel looked at Ty and said, "Your mom and dad care about your well being for the next 10 years, but I care about your well being for a lifetime.  You have all the time in the world to play ball. We have got to get this finger right and putting you back on the court too soon could cause long term damaging effects!" He made NO promises to Tyson and truly gave us the impression that his goals and desires would not be met.  He did NOT want to give us any false hope.  AND I didn't want to give Ty any false hope either, but on the morning of his appointment, the appointment that we were banking on hearing those words, "Go play ball!", I had to set up the breakfast table with some preconceived notions that it was going to happen! I don't think there is anything wrong in staying in the positive, do you?

 I decorated the kitchen in Glenvar colors, a basketball tablescape, and displayed Ty's jersey number, #5.

I am not going to lie, I wasn't sure if I could handle the smiles from him seeing this setup and then the huge let down if Dr. Apel told him that he still needed more therapy/time.

Regardless, what I had hoped Ty really saw in this pre-celebratory breakfast was a mom who believed in him!

Breakfast was nothing fancy.  Half the time my kids can barely make it down before the bus arrives.  It never used to be that way, but now that they are getting older and now that they are so involved in extracirculars, their bedtime is later, so their wake time is more difficult. I served mini pancakes, representing basketballs, and turned his bacon into a #5.

I also served clementines, representing basketballs, and ORANGE juice.

I am so pleased with how it all turned out.

Off to occupational therapy we go! Our therapist, Amy, and NOW LipSense customer worked with Ty, on what we had hoped would be his last appointment. She measured him and told him, "I can't see why you wouldn't be released!" Eek! She knows her stuff, but she isn't the doctor, so we felt ONE STEP CLOSER, but still had to hear the words form the doc.

Before the appointment with Dr. Apel, Ty had a session in the fluidotherapy machine. Towards the end of his occupational therapy, he was using this machine at each visit.  

It was hard to capture Ty's hand inside of this machine because of the glare, but this machine was really interesting to learn about and witness do it's magic on Ty's injury. This fluidotherapy machine circulates warm, ground corn husks around the extremities at 114 degrees.   

With NO guarantee that Ty would be released, we still took a photo of Amy and Ty together.  I hate that I didn't look at the photo before leaving. I'm sorry, Amy, that I captured you with your eyes closed, but you are still looking gorgeous as ever with that full face of SeneGence products on.  :)

Then upstairs, to see Dr. Apel we went! He is a cool doctor. He's very matter of fact, intelligent, funny, personable, AND very serious about giving his patients the BEST care, instruction, and advise.  He refuses to release anyone until a full recovery is made.  Again, we were told from the VERY GET GO that Ty's recovery would be very intense, long, AND a minimum of 12 weeks. BUT, on week 9 and day 6, Ty was RELEASED TO PLAY BALL!

 Ty had to make that call to his dad and tell him the good news!

Dr. Apel asked Ty what he desired and his wish was granted AND NOT BECAUSE it was what Ty wanted, but because Ty had made a BIG ENOUGH recovery to be truly be released. Ty was also released from occupational therapy in addition to doing his exercises that he had been doing EVERY WAKING TWO HOURS, ON THE DOT. Doctor's orders were to just not "hang on the basketball net" because that's the other way that people typically get jersey finger. Fortunately, Ty is not tall enough to hang off the net yet.

Later that day, just as Ty had hoped and dreamed, Ty played in his FIRST basketball game and scored over 27 points! He was ON FIRE!!!!! And we were so proud and oh so excited to see our boy back on the court.

His season has since ended, but I received a phone call from the JV coach, two Fridays ago.  He invited ONE player to move up and play on the JV team.  Guess who they chose????? TY!!!!!! They were even out of jerseys and the coach special ordered one for him! God is so good!!!!!

After Ty's game, he returned home to a celebratory dinner.  Sadly, I wasn't home.  I was at the theater with Lilah. I made a homemade lasagna and cheesecake! 

 #SoFun #EveryLittleThingIsABIGDeal

Paintball Party Food And Decorations!

Ty's party was held at Wolf's Paintball in Riner, Va.  It's a very rural area, surrounded by beautiful mountains.  I actually took video footage during my drive up there, which I will share later.  I didn't want to invest TOO MUCH time into decorations because God's creation was truly enough visual candy to take in! I also couldn't guarantee the weather.  AND well... truth is... we are dealing with teenage boys.  LOL!

The paintball facility provided five picnic tables underneath a mental covering.  And then an additional 6 picnic tables outside of shelter.  There were thunderstorms in the horizon, so I only utilized the covered tables.  (2) tables were for the guests.  (1) table for the food.  (1) table was for the cake and gifts.  What did I serve to eat and drink?

I served a rainbow collection of soft drinks and mini water bottles.  

A rainbow veggie platter.  This photo was taken after the party, so ignore the fritos.  LOL!  This was actually a Mother' Day snack.

A nice selection of chips.

I loved the cheese balls reminded me of paintballs, so they were my favorite food item.  

I served a delicious selection of fruit.  I used my melon baller because I thought it would be so adorable to have the fruit replicate paintballs.  I am not sure anyone caught on.  LOL!

The main portion of the meal was dominos pizza! I ordered (10) pizzas: 5 cheese and 5 pepperoni.  

I scattered a rainbow collection of candy as centerpieces.  The boys devoured these centerpieces FAST.

Bubblegum!

Pixie Stix.

Skittles. 

I wanted the tablescape to be masculine, fun, and "fancy".  

I purchased Martha Stewart's party plates from her new collection of party supplies.  The plates were gold rimmed, black, and polka dotted.  I paired it with paint splat dinner napkins and 13th Birthday beverage napkins.  The paint splat napkins came from an art party collection.  It still worked.  I used gold plasticware.  I centered each boys' "paintball ammunition" bubble gum directly onto their plate.  It also held the napkins down.  

I ordered this PERFECT paintballer trophy as a centerpiece and then I planned to give them away to the guest with the biggest WELT and the FTW (for the win).

I still needed cups!

I had to pick my mouth up off of the floor when I spotted the below cups on ETSY. From the LITTLE information shared on Pinterest, I thought for sure Ty was one of the ONLY people in the world to have a paintball party.  

I immediately placed an order with Charming Touch Parties from ETSY.

This company really provided excellent customer service.  My order and shipment arrived very soon after I made my purchase.  

I bought (10) cups to say "Game On" and (10) cups to scream the number "13". These cups were truly the FINAL detail and I believe completed the party table's look.  Don't hesitate to contact them for all of your party needs.  

Charming Touch Party company is made up of TWO best friends doing what they love, TOGETHER.

I used my Heidi Swapp Light Boxes and Letter Boards to create a more personal touch.  

I debated on the above light box, but I figured "What the heck!" Why not provide a little PG-13 humor.  

And then of course, the one below, "You can't please everybody! You're NOT Fortnite!"

I am not sure what else I could have done to make this table more festive and keeping it within the masculine look requirement. I am so pleased.

The absolute hardest part was keeping these tables "organized".  As soon as the party bus arrived... the boys sat down immediately and started touching EVERYTHING and testing on the candy.  The candy was spilling everywhere.  Drinks were being spilled.  LOL!  So each time they would play a round of paintball, don't you KNOW I was freshening up the tables BIG TIME.  

At one point, before the boys arrived, it was TORRENTIAL down pour raining.  I was praying constantly and hard. I was thankful for the metal covering.  It didn't mess up any of these amazing details.   

Other than what you see... I just had balloons.  I bought (2) balloon bouquets and a #1 and #3 to create a #13. It was just enough to scream birthday and not too much went wasted.