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A Birthday Bash to End All Birthday Bashes

Weekly Happenings: This past week was one of celebration. Both Joseph and I had our birthdays. As it always seems to happen, we made a bit of a bigger deal out of Joseph’s than mine (which I’m totally fine with, by the way). Monday was pretty much a normal day. We did go out and get the supplies needed for my present, new shelves for the pantry (which I asked for). Paul put up the smaller shelf Monday night. Tuesday (my birthday), Joseph and I met up with friends at the zoo (it happened to also be one of his friend’s birthday also, so that’s why we went), we ate out for lunch, and then after Paul got home, we went out for dinner. Oh, and one of my visiting teachers took me out to meet up with friends for shakes after the kids were all in bed. 🙂 While I was out, Paul put up the other pantry shelf. Like Monday, Wednesday was a pretty average day. Thursday (Joseph’s birthday), we had friends come over to watch a movie and have snacks. I didn’t mention presents (just that it was his birthday), but his friends all showed up with them regardless, so he was extra excited. After his friends went home, an AC guy had to come out because we could tell that our AC was not working right. It turns out that it was low on refrigerant again, which means that there is probably a slow leak somewhere. The guy added more refrigerant and we’re going to follow up with Airtron to see if they can fix it since it wasn’t fixed when they first looked at it back in April of 2014. We’re hoping that since the original problem occurred while it was under warranty that they will either fix it or replace it with little-to-no cost, but we’ll see. After Paul got home Thursday evening, we went out for dinner again. 🙂 Friday, Paul had the day off, so he finished working on the shields for Joseph’s actual party (you can read more about the process here [1]) as well as a scabbard for Joseph’s foam sword. I mainly worked on visiting teaching stuff since we’ve had so many people move into the ward and a lot of people need routes and what not. Yesterday was the day that we actually had Joseph’s party. He had a few friends come over and they just played with swords and shields, played video games, had some lunch (his birthday was a Legend of Zelda/Mario theme, so I made Triforce PB&J sandwiches that were cut in triangles, there were “rare rupees” that were really grapes, and “colossal” chips) and then did cake and presents. After that the boys played a bit more before heading home. Joseph was pretty sad last night and I asked him why. He said that he just wanted his birthday to stay. I explained to him that it was a special thing that happened once a year and if it happened all of the time, it would stop feeling special. I don’t know if he understood that concept, but it looked like he was trying. I did promise him that I would be better about setting up play dates so that he could hang out with his friends more often. 🙂

The Weekly Weather: It’s been relatively mild for the end of August/beginning of September. Temperatures have still been in the 90s, but it hasn’t been triple digits. I’m hoping it stays that way and that we get an actual “fall”, but we’ll see. 😉

What Paul’s Been Up To: Paul’s been pretty busy with work as well as the projects that he was doing for Joseph’s party. He’ll be getting slightly busier in a week or so when his first semester as a BYU-I online student starts. He’s taking two courses: Intro to Programming and Networking.

What Sarah’s Been Up To: Since we keep Joseph’s parties pretty low-key, I didn’t have much out of the ordinary to do (which is good, since the ordinary stuff keeps me pretty busy). It was really fun to go out to dinner with Paul and Joseph and then out again with my friends on the evening of my birthday. 🙂

What Joseph’s Been Up To: Other than the fact that this past week was extremely fun for him (getting to meet up with friends, getting to have friends over, his party, etc.), he’s had a pretty average week. There was one thing that he told me yesterday that touched my heart. We were talking about the video game that Paul was playing and I said, “Oops! Daddy died!” meaning that Paul’s character in the game died. Joseph then said to me, “When I die, it’s okay because Jesus will make me not die!” I. was. floored. I took the moment to talk about how yes, he would die someday, but because Jesus came to Earth and died on the cross, we could all be resurrected, and since Momma and Daddy got married in the temple, we could all live together after we were resurrected. I need to remember to tell his Primary teachers that he really is listening in Primary. 🙂 I then made sure he understood that Daddy’s game was just that: a game. 🙂

This Week in Pictures:

 

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I forgot to mention that Joseph tripped and broke his fall right on the edge of my music storage bench, resulting in quite the bonked noggin. Luckily he let me ice it right away and willingly took some Ibuprofen (especially since I told him it would make it hurt less). Some chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven also seemed to help. 😉
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This is a funny picture that Paul found on the Internet. He posted it on my Facebook page (or was it Google+?) on my birthday. I still laugh out loud every time I see it.
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Obligatory photo of kid on lion sculptures at zoo. Actually, Joseph ran over to them and said, “I will climb up and you take my picture!”
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He also wanted his picture taken in front of the jaguar, so that’s what happened: he’s literally standing in front of right where the jaguar is laying on a rock ledge. I think you MIGHT be able to see a bit of its tail.
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My visiting teacher gave me this great frame as a birthday present, so I printed up a copy of our Christmas card photo from last year to put in it. I figure I’ll update it every year with the photo that we take for Christmas cards.
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Another friend gave me this awesome wristlet key chain. These things are so handy when I want to just grab my wallet, phone, and keys. I can just wear them around my wrist. 🙂
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New pantry shelf #1: low enough to put snacks in Joseph’s reach. 🙂
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New pantry shelf #2: perfect place for all my canned goods!
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His reaction when I told him that it was his birthday and that friends were coming over to watch a movie.
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His friend Luke got him a superheroes book and a Big Hero 6 activity book.
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His friend Emmalynn made him this great picture with coins that he got to put in his bear bank.
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His friends Bransen and Laura got him some cars and a cool car puzzle.
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He chose Freddy’s as the restaurant to go eat at for his birthday dinner.
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Jason and Saira got him a master sword (from the video game Legend of Zelda). It only came in one size (huge), but he loves it (as you can tell). He can do some serious damage with it if he swings it around (even though it’s foam), so we’re probably going to mount it up high in his room, lol.
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He wanted a Mario and Link cake. Luckily I was able oblige, making his cake look like a scene out of Super Smash Brothers (thanks to some toys Paul found on Amazon that we could use as cake toppers) and cupcakes that had the Triforce and Mario mushrooms on them.
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Daddy lit the candle…
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He blew it out a couple times while we were getting ready to sing to him, so this is him looking at me to see if it was okay to blow it out yet.
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And out it goes! I wonder what he wished for?
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Some modeling clay and molds from his friend Hayden.
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A tablet from Momma and Daddy.
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In reality, this is kind of a present for all of us. Paul’s Nook, which is what we have been using as a tablet, is getting kind of old and consequently isn’t able to do as much as Joseph wants it to (making road trips kind of difficult when it stops working), so a new one that will be a bit more reliable will be a good thing. Plus, now Paul can have his Nook back for a bit before we need to replace it.
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Mario Kinex toy (Kinex are sort of like erector sets for younger kids) from his friend Riley. Not pictured are a Cooties game from his friend Rogan (who was sick and couldn’t make it to the party) and some Ninja Turtle toys from his friend Andrew (who couldn’t make it to the movie morning due to a scheduling conflict).
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Watch out, bad guys!
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These good guys are super tough!
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Joseph’s shield and scabbard.
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Playing with new toys.