A Birthday Surprise

The evening of September 15, Shawn's parents came into town from Florida. We met them for ice cream at Frizz & Freeze in Leola (isn't that the one that has the backward name?) that evening, which was one of the last nights it was open for the season. Joshua was surprised to see them. He said upon arriving "Hey, we've been here before with Mamaw & Papaw - HEY! Isn't that their truck?!?!" Sure enough, it was.

Sunday morning we visited LEFC again. This was our third time trying it, maybe, and it seems like a decent church. We're still trying to see where we're called to be during this season of our lives. Please pray for wisdom for us! Joshua's class watched a little video, he said, about the Old Testament and every time the one character would say "Septuigant" the other character would say "God bless you!" (as in mistaking it for a sneeze). Joshua thought this was HYSTERICAL and he acted it out with Caleb over and over again.

Later that afternoon, Joshua's soccer game was against the YELLOW team at the Classics field at 2 pm. Once again, the black team got pummeled (by sounds). I let Shawn go watch the game with Caleb, and I stayed behind with Ryan who needed a nap.

Shawn said that one of the girls on the yellow team is mentally handicapped, and she picked up the ball with her hands and threw it in the goal. Joshua said "Hey! No fair!" and the crowd roared. Silly Bean!

 Shawn's parents also went to see Joshua play, which he was glad to see. They took these pictures.

 At 6 pm that night, I took the older two boys to Kings Kids Choir at Calvary. This is their first year singing in the choir, but both of them had a great night. Joshua saw some of his friends from preschool days, and Caleb was in a room with my sister's neighbor who I've gotten to know through our sons being in preschool and kindergarten together. They had a great time, and I was able to get some work done while waiting for them. This time, Daddy stayed home with Ryan.

On Monday night while I was at class, Mamaw & Papaw stopped over after they had dinner with other relatives to see the kids and give Joshua his birthday gifts a day early. I was surprised they didn't ask to see him on his actual day. Again, these pictures were from Papaw's camera.

 They brought gifts of Pez for the older two boys. Caleb LOVES Pez. He's a candy addict!

 I loved this picture of him eating the candy! Don't you love that grin?

 Ryan had a little animal cracker snack with his brothers.

 Don't you love this messy baby?

 Then Joshua opened his birthday gifts - he received a pair of 6 slim jeans (which we really needed!), a dress shirt that he asked to wear to school on Wednesday, and a new left-handed baseball glove that he was THRILLED to get! Thanks!!!

He also got this truck/helicopter set that the boys played with. I didn't see him open his things, but I saw the presents when I got home from work that night.

 And here's Joshua with his Pez dispenser.

Papaw took him out a little Wednesday after school before pictures to try his glove out. He was excited to spend time with Papaw and his glove!

Joshua's 6th Birthday Party

We had Joshua's 6th birthday party at Universal Athletic Club on Saturday, September 15, from 2-3:30 in the afternoon. We invited his cousins, some family friends and a few friends from school to join us.

I was surprised (and honestly more than a little annoyed) when we arrived at 10 'til 2 and we were told the room wasn't ready. Grrr... here's a picture of Joshua waiting in the lobby, which is where we met several of our guests who showed up five minutes early. We got into the room right at 2 pm.

I ordered his cake from Oregon Dairy, and I thought it turned out SO cute! He loves Mario right now, and they did a great job finding a good picture and decorating his cake. While the cake wasn't "cheap" it turned out far better than anything I could have done. And he loved it!

More guests arrived in the party room, where Joshua's balloons were on his chair. They had a table set up for gifts and a table for the cake. Here's Nathan and Brayden P from his kindergarten class, posing for a picture. Unfortunately a few of his other friends from Kindergarten couldn't come because they were away on vacation. But, he still had fun!

Here's a couple pictures of the "party room" in action.

The coordinator for our party was great. I didn't even think about candles for the cake (what kind of mom am I?!?!) and she had some there ready to light. She asked Joshua how old he was turning and starting preparing the cake for us to sing happy birthday.

She set the cake in front of the Bean and we all sang away "Happy birthday to YOU! Happy birthday to YOU! Happy birthday, dear Joshua, happy birthday to YOU!"

My oldest little man loves being center of attention!

He took a deep breath and blew out three of the candles immediately. His cousins joked that he had three girlfriends. He didn't get what they were saying but quickly blew out the other three.

The coordinator started cutting pieces of cake as we delivered them to the kids. Joshua got one with Luigi's face (because Luigi's face was closest to where she was cutting, and she asked me what he would like a balloon or a piece of face, and knowing Joshua he'd rather see the face).

My boy didn't even eat a bite of cake. He's not big on sweets, and he was MUCH too excited to worry about something boring like eating. I had bought a marble cake with butter cream icing, and I thought it tasted delicious. I wish Universal would allow you to bring in ice cream for the cake, but they don't. So, cake it was!

After everyone was served and a majority had finished their cake, Joshua opened his presents. The coordinator wrote down what everyone got and put all the presents into a big bag and took them up for us to carry out. She was SO great!

Here's Joshua opening his favorite gift of the day - the Super Mario Galaxy II for the Wii that he had been begging for for months. Mamaw bought it for him, and he was thrilled!

He also loved his other gifts, including his dinosaur, his Mario car racer, his Angry Birds car shooter, his 'noisy' racecars, the Lego items, airplanes, books and many others - a big THANKS to everyone for making this day special for him!

We left there and went into the kidmazium - the "important" part of his birthday party. The kids had a BLAST playing in the ball pit, climbing on the monkey bars, sliding down the slides, going through the maze, and everything in between.

Here's the line of folks going across the monkey bars.

And Caleb had fun climbing the rock wall. My kids get to enjoy these activities on almost a daily basis as I work out, but the other kids were in awe as they climbed and exercised and had fun!

Here's Isabella in the ball pit!

And Joshua said he had a TON of fun with his older cousin Jordon.

Here's my buddy with the smile he wore most of the day.

And baby Ryan was all smiles too!

There are also train tables for the younger kids or even older ones who enjoy playing with them!

Kyler came to enjoy the party and so did little Sophi, who left early after having a little accident. But, big brother didn't miss a beat!

Caleb LOVES to play with the hoola hoops too!

And at this time of the day with no classes on the schedule, the kids club is relatively empty so there were only a few other "guests" at our party that we didn't invite. Caleb started playing store with the coordinator of the party.

Then he and Chris played our favorite "hat" game.

Baby Aiden wasn't able to run around yet, but by next year he should be joining right in the fun.

Ryan loves to put the mail in the mailbox.

In the meantime, parents just hung out together and watched for the most part. My friend Lisa was also taking pictures, so I missed capturing one of her. Here's my sister Jen and Nathan's dad Brent, their nextdoor neighbor.

Here's the Aunts (Gayle, Hilary and Alicia) with Nonie in the middle.

Uncle Brian was talking to Poppy and Daddy for awhile.

Caleb came up and demanded the camera from me.

He took a picture of me at the party:

And one of the two of us together:

It was almost time to go, so we gathered everyone for a group photo. The kids that came were Joshua, Caleb and Ryan (of course); Grace, Faith, Emma, Daniel and John (cousins); Jordon (cousin); Grant and Jenavieve (cousins); Isabella and Aiden (family friends); Kyler and Sophi (family friends); Nathan and Brayden (kindergarten friends). Most of the parents stayed as well, along with Nonie & Poppy, Aunt Hilary and Mamaw.

Here's the best one of the group, including Ryan:

Then we took one with "silly faces."

We handed out little 'thank you for coming' lollipops and told the kids that they couldn't eat them until they left the building. I know how difficult it is to get my boys to leave when we go there all the time. I feared some kiddos may want to stay, and our party had a specific end time. So, as I was thinking about thank you gifts, I thought something edible to be enjoyed outside the building might help get parents to get their kiddos to go willingly to their cars. Everyone left right on time, and we had had a blast! Thanks for helping us celebrate, family and friends!