Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome back to We are the Hansons.
Speaker 1: I'm Maya Hanson, and today I want to tell you
Speaker 1: about one of those days that reminds me exactly why
Speaker 1: I love having a big family, A day that started
Speaker 1: with a birthday and ended up becoming one of those
Speaker 1: memories we'll probably talk about for years. You know, when
Speaker 1: people here we have a large family, they usually have
Speaker 1: one of two reactions. The first reaction is, wow, that
Speaker 1: must be wonderful. The second reaction is wow, that must
Speaker 1: be exhausting, and honestly, they're both right. Having a large
Speaker 1: family means there's almost never complete silence in our house.
Speaker 1: It means there's always somebody looking for a shoe, somebody
Speaker 1: looking for a charger, somebody looking for a snack, and
Speaker 1: somehow somebody asking what's for dinner less than ten minutes
Speaker 1: after lunch. It's loud, it's busy, it's chaotic, but it's
Speaker 1: all so beautiful because every once in a while, everything
Speaker 1: slows down just enough for you to realize how lucky
Speaker 1: you are. And Mattie's birthday was one of those days.
Speaker 1: Birthdays have always been a big deal in our family,
Speaker 1: not because of expensive gifts, not because of giant parties,
Speaker 1: but because birthdays are little checkpoints in life, they're reminders
Speaker 1: that time keeps moving, whether we're paying attention or not.
Speaker 1: One minute you're rocking a baby to sleep, the next minute,
Speaker 1: you're watching that baby become a young woman with her
Speaker 1: own interests, her own dreams, her own personality. And every
Speaker 1: year I ask myself the same question, how did this
Speaker 1: happen so fast? Serious, I don't understand it. I remember
Speaker 1: holding Maddie when she was just a little, tiny baby.
Speaker 1: I remember her first first words, first days of school,
Speaker 1: and I remember all of it, and somehow now she's
Speaker 1: grown up right in front of us. It's amazing, And
Speaker 1: if I'm being completely honest, it's a little emotional too.
Speaker 1: Parents understand exactly what I mean. The countdown started weeks
Speaker 1: before her birthday. Every morning we'd hear an update. Only
Speaker 1: eighteen days left, only fourteen days left, only seven days left.
Speaker 1: And then it became daily. Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be another year older tomorrow. I wonder what
Speaker 1: everybody got me. The anticipation was almost as much fun
Speaker 1: as the birthday itself. There's something magical about how excited
Speaker 1: kids get for birthdays. Adults don't really do that anymore.
Speaker 1: We should, but we don't. When you're a kid, a
Speaker 1: birthday feels like Christmas, a vacation, and winning the lottery,
Speaker 1: all rolled up in won. When you're an adult, a
Speaker 1: birthday feels like your back hurts more than it did
Speaker 1: last year. It's a different experience. The morning of Maddie's
Speaker 1: birthday started early, very early, much earlier than I would
Speaker 1: have preferred. I woke up before the alarm because I
Speaker 1: could hear movement. Not normal movement, excited movement, birthday movement,
Speaker 1: the kind where someone is trying to be quiet but
Speaker 1: they're way too excited to actually be quiet. A few
Speaker 1: minutes later, Maddie appeared wide awake, huge smile, happy, excited,
Speaker 1: ready for the day, And honestly, seeing that smile made
Speaker 1: getting up early worth it. There are certain moments as
Speaker 1: a parent that remind you what really matters. That's one
Speaker 1: of them. The house started coming alive. People were cleaning,
Speaker 1: people were decorating, people were carrying things from room to room.
Speaker 1: People were asking questions, and somehow everyone was in everyone
Speaker 1: else's way, which is pretty normal around here. At one point,
Speaker 1: I think three different people asked me where something was
Speaker 1: within the same sixty seconds, and every parent knows the answer.
Speaker 1: If I knew where everything was all the time, I'd
Speaker 1: probably be a billionaire. By late morning, family started arriving.
Speaker 1: And when I say family started arriving, I mean our
Speaker 1: peaceful little house transformed into a grand central station. Mattie's
Speaker 1: cousins came, her siblings were everywhere. Keenan's girlfriend joined us,
Speaker 1: Gavin's girlfriend came, Logan's girlfriend arrived. Friends started showing up.
Speaker 1: Before long, every room in the house had people in it.
Speaker 1: The kitchen was busy, the living room was busy, the
Speaker 1: backyard was busy. Every chair was occupied, and somehow people
Speaker 1: still kept arriving. I remember looking around and smiling, because
Speaker 1: this is what family looks like. Not perfect, not quiet,
Speaker 1: not organized, just full of people who love each other.
Speaker 1: One thing I noticed was how naturally everybody connected. Teenagers talking,
Speaker 1: adults laughing, cousins reconnecting, stories being shared, jokes being repeated,
Speaker 1: somebody telling a story they've told at least fifty times
Speaker 1: before you know that family member. Every family has one.
Speaker 1: They start telling a story and everyone else could practically
Speaker 1: finish it for them because they've heard it so many times.
Speaker 1: But somehow, it's still funny. Somehow everybody still listens. That's family.
Speaker 1: For a while, everyone just enjoyed being together, talking, laughing,
Speaker 1: eating snacks, catching up. Then somebody made a mistake, a
Speaker 1: wonderful mistake. Jeremy and Logan bought water balloons. Now, if
Speaker 1: you've ever seen a group of teenagers and young adults
Speaker 1: around water balloons, you already know what happened. Chaos here, chaos.
Speaker 1: One balloon became five, five became twenty, became what felt
Speaker 1: like a military stockpile, and suddenly the backyard turned into
Speaker 1: a battlefield. People were running everywhere, People were hiding, people
Speaker 1: were plotting. People were pretending to be innocent, which was
Speaker 1: hilarious because nobody was innocent, not a single person. The
Speaker 1: funniest part was watching someone stand there acting completely innocent,
Speaker 1: then two seconds later watch a water balloon across the yard.
Speaker 1: Jeremy ended up getting hit. Now that's important because Jeremy
Speaker 1: getting hit changed everything. Before that, it was just playful fun.
Speaker 1: After that, it became strategy. Jeremy doesn't get angry, he
Speaker 1: gets creative. I watched him quietly assess the situation, and
Speaker 1: I knew someone was about to regret their life choices.
Speaker 1: Sure Enough, a few minutes later, revenge was served, cold
Speaker 1: and wet. The laughter that followed could probably be heard
Speaker 1: three neighborhoods away. The water balloon fight continued for what
Speaker 1: felt like forever. Time it looked like things were calming down.
Speaker 1: Somebody found another balloon, then another attack started, then another
Speaker 1: counter attack. At one point people were using trees as
Speaker 1: cover trees, like they were re enacting some kind of
Speaker 1: action movie. I remember laughing so hard my stomach hurt,
Speaker 1: and that's one of those moments I hope I never forget,
Speaker 1: because everybody looked genuinely happy. No phones, no social media,
Speaker 1: no stress, just people being present, just family enjoying each other,
Speaker 1: and honestly, that's becoming rare. Eventually, the square guns appeared,
Speaker 1: which somehow made things even crazier. Teams formed, alliances formed.
Speaker 1: Those alliances lasted about ten minutes. Then betrayals happened. Friends
Speaker 1: became enemies, enemies became allies. Nobody knew who to trust.
Speaker 1: It was like a spy movie directed by children. Water
Speaker 1: was flying everywhere, people were soaked, were laughing so hard
Speaker 1: they couldn't run anymore. And the best part, nobody cared.
Speaker 1: Nobody cared about being wet, nobody cared about looking silly.
Speaker 1: Everybody was having fun, the kind of fun adults forget
Speaker 1: they're allowed to have. Hours passed, and eventually, the one
Speaker 1: thing that can stop any backyard war happened. People started
Speaker 1: getting angry. That's when grilled duty began. And feeding a
Speaker 1: large family isn't cooking, it's an operation. It's logistics, it's planning,
Speaker 1: it's crowd management. Jeremy fired up the grill. Soon the
Speaker 1: smell of burgers and chicken filled our backyard, and something
Speaker 1: magical happened. Everybody suddenly appeared. People who hadn't been seen
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes materialized beside the grill. It's like a superpower.
Speaker 1: The smell of grilled food travels farther than Wi Fi.
Speaker 1: The burgers were sizzling, the chicken smelled incredible. People started gathering.
Speaker 1: Conversations continued, stories continued. The energy shifted from running and
Speaker 1: playing to sitting and enjoying. And honestly, that's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite parts of family gatherings, the meal, because food
Speaker 1: slows people down, food brings people together, Food creates conversations,
Speaker 1: food creates memories. Then came watermelon, and if there is
Speaker 1: a food that perfectly represents summer. It's watermelon, cold, sweet, refreshing,
Speaker 1: kids sitting around with sticky hands, adults laughing, everybody enjoying themselves.
Speaker 1: It felt like summer in the best possible way. And
Speaker 1: because it disappeared so quickly, I have to share one
Speaker 1: of our favorite birthday treats. You will need eight ounces
Speaker 1: cream cheese, one cup whipped topping, two tablespoons lemonade concentrate,
Speaker 1: one cup dice, strawberries, crushed vanilla wafers. Mix everything except
Speaker 1: the wafers together and tell smooth layer vanilla wafers in
Speaker 1: dessert cups. Add the strawberry mixture, top with extra strawberries,
Speaker 1: chill for an hour. That's it, simple, cold, perfect for summer,
Speaker 1: and they will disappear faster than anything else on the table.
Speaker 1: Then came one of the biggest surprises of the day.
Speaker 1: A neighbor arrived and asked if he could take Maddie
Speaker 1: to get a gift. Not a gift bag, not wrapping paper,
Speaker 1: not a box, a hamster, an actual hamster. The second
Speaker 1: thatt hamster appeared, every child in the house completely lost focus.
Speaker 1: The birthday party immediately became a hamster convention. Everybody wanted
Speaker 1: to hold it, everybody wanted to pet it, everybody had
Speaker 1: a name suggestion. Everybody suddenly became a hamster expert. I
Speaker 1: learned more about hamster care in twenty minutes, and I
Speaker 1: ever expected to know. The hamster probably received more attention
Speaker 1: than the birthday cake. And that's always one of my
Speaker 1: favorite parts the presence, not because of the gifts, because
Speaker 1: of the reactions. Watching somebody feel loved, watching somebody realize
Speaker 1: people thought about them, watching them smile, that's the real gift.
Speaker 1: Maddie opened each present carefully. She laughed, she smiled, She
Speaker 1: got excited, and the entire room shared that excitement. As
Speaker 1: I watched her opening gifts, memories started flooding back. Her
Speaker 1: first birthday, her second birthday, birthday parties from years ago,
Speaker 1: the decorations, the cakes, the photos, the laughter, all those
Speaker 1: little moments that seemed ordinary at the time but now
Speaker 1: feel priceless. And that's when it hit me. Life isn't
Speaker 1: really made up of huge moments. It's made up of
Speaker 1: thousands of little moments. Get back cared birthday, a water
Speaker 1: balloom fight, a hamburger on the grill, a family conversation,
Speaker 1: a surprise, Hamster. Those little moments become the memories we
Speaker 1: treasure most. As evening arrived, the energy changed, people slowed down,
Speaker 1: the sun started dropping lower in the sky. The conversations
Speaker 1: became quieter, more reflective, the kind of conversations that happen
Speaker 1: when people are comfortable, when they're happy, when they don't
Speaker 1: want the day to end. I looked around and saw
Speaker 1: cousins laughing. I saw siblings teasing each other. I saw
Speaker 1: family members making memories they didn't even realize they were making.
Speaker 1: And I found myself feeling incredibly grateful, Grateful for Maddie,
Speaker 1: grateful for Jeremy, grateful for our children, grateful for our
Speaker 1: extended family, Grateful for every loud, chaotic, beautiful moment. Because
Speaker 1: someday things will be different. The kids will be older,
Speaker 1: the house will be quieter, Life will move forward. That's
Speaker 1: what life does. But days like this, days like this
Speaker 1: stay with you forever. As people started saying goodbye, the
Speaker 1: hugs began, the photos, the promises to get together again soon,
Speaker 1: the final laughs, the last stories, and eventually the house
Speaker 1: became quiet, not completely quiet, large family quiet, which is
Speaker 1: still fairly noisy, but quieter, and after everyone left I
Speaker 1: sat for a moment and reflected on the day, not
Speaker 1: the decorations, not the presence, not the food, the people,
Speaker 1: the laughter, the connections, the memory, because those are the
Speaker 1: things that matter, Those are the things we'll remember, Those
Speaker 1: are the things worth celebrating. And if there's one lesson
Speaker 1: I took away from Maddie's birthday, it's this life moves
Speaker 1: incredibly fast, faster than any of us realize. So celebrate often,
Speaker 1: laugh loudly, take the pictures, play with the water balloons,
Speaker 1: eat the cake, make the memory because someday those ordinary
Speaker 1: days become the stories we tell, and trust me, those
Speaker 1: stories are worth everything. Thank you for spending some time
Speaker 1: with us today. From our family to yours, we hope
Speaker 1: you're making memories, sharing laughter, and enjoying every beautiful, messy,
Speaker 1: wonderful moment life gives you. We will see you next
Speaker 1: time on We are the Hansens.