Ode to Joshua

June 25th is a very important day in our house. After all, we've been talking about it practically all year long. Since Joshua can't have his birthday every day of the year (which is what he wishes he could do), he has to wait 365 for that special big day. Well, it's hard to believe it but my biggest boy is now 5 years old. (Though he's already talking about his birthday next year when he turns 6.)

We had a super fun time celebrating the big day! He wanted a "Little Einsteins" theme, so we went all out (thanks to Aunt Stac!). It was great having her here to help us celebrate and get ready for the big day. She made the coolest cake in the shape of Rocket. She used this stuff called fondant (which we had never heard of) to cover the cake and make the shapes on it. The little faces are actually stickers that she cut out and stuck to the fondant. Check this out:


We started off the day with a few presents and birthday donuts. I made them the night before, and being my first time to make donuts, they didn't turn out so good. I'm pretty sure it was mostly due (I think) to the fact that my yeast wasn't fresh. I'll have to try again another time. Thankfully, my audience wasn't picky at all and the boys loved them.


After breakfast we all got ready to head to the "fun place" where we met our friends, the T family. They have 3 children whose ages are within 6 weeks of each of our children. We all really enjoy spending time with them, so it was great to celebrate with them. Bumper cars were first on the agenda, and it was great fun with more friends there. The kids played in the fun place for about an hour, then they rode a few kiddie rides before we headed back to our apartment. This picture is Joshua doing the zipline in the fun place. He's so brave!


Back home, while we were getting lunch ready, the kids played pin-the-baseball-on-the-glove. They only mildly got into it. They were much more interested in running around together (since we did have two 3 year olds and two 5 year olds together). We had birthday pizza for lunch then had the yummy cake and ice cream. Then a little more running around with friends and a few more presents before the friends left and we all settled down for a much needed quiet afternoon.


After said quiet afternoon, we had another couple over for dinner whose husband shares Joshua's birthday. We had birthday Mexican food and enjoyed time with more friends. They gave Joshua this construction worker outfit, and the boys loved it. All in all, it was a very fun day!

I really am so proud of my big boy, Joshua. He absolutely amazes me sometimes with how smart he can be. He often talks like he's a little adult, using big words and enunciating perfectly (like his father taught him). He has an absolutely incredible memory and can quote chapters of the Bible as well as random facts he's learned about history, geography, etc. from his computer games. His pretending skills have greatly increased recently and he's always going on pretend missions with his friends the Little Einsteins, or sailing on a pirate ship with Larry the cucumber as a pirate, or going on a safari with his animals, or fixing things with Handy Manny or Bob the Builder. Going on adventures with Daddy outside is also very cool to him. He loves to line things up and put things in order and group things. His favorite color is still orange. Parades are like the coolest thing ever to him, so we have them up and down the hall often, and he's into instruments (especially in a parade). He's recently shown a little more interest in drawing animals, particularly elephants which is the favored animal of his choice. And he's getting better at writing letters and reading books. We're still working on these things, but he's slowly improving. He's totally stoked about beginning kindergarten (which really only means using real curriculum), but he just thinks he's so big and is proud of that. He's a good helper around the house and can do big boy things that his brothers can't do yet. His main job in the family is to clean off the table after every meal. Another thing that he's gotten more interested in lately is playing games like go fish or board games. We love our big Joshua boy; his sweet smile can melt your heart. I can't wait to see what God has in store for him!