Another Year for Joshua

Ah, where to start with my firstborn...  There's no one quite like my Joshua.  The boy has a way with words that is quite unmatched.  :-)  Of course, his uniqueness doesn't stop there, but it certainly is a defining characteristic.  It's hard to believe that Joshua is already 9 years old and going into the 4th grade.  His 3rd grade curriculum was focused on studying countries and cultures of the world, so it was really fun for all of us.  He just soaks up information as he reads it, remembering things with a clarity that I only wish I possessed.  As a special "challenge" during his 3rd grade year, I asked him to not only learn where every country of the world is, but to also learn the capitals.  Um, wow.  He didn't exactly learn all of the countries and their capitals, but he did learn a ton of them, certainly more than his mother knows.  And his memory is such that you can quiz him and he still knows most of it.  Since encyclopedias, picture dictionaries, and informational books are among his favorites, the facts and figures going around in that boy's head is mind boggling and constantly impressive to me.  Thankfully, he doesn't really come across as a know-it-all, even when he does know so much on any given topic.  He just loves to discover everything he can about whatever he's into at that moment.  He's all in, totally immersed, very thorough, and extremely enthusiastic about whatever it is he's into, sharing with anyone who will listen every detail he can recall (which, as I've stated, is a lot).  As a home-schooled kid living in a second culture, he comfortably interacts with most adults and everyone sees him as a delight to talk to.  He's a good big brother, too, sometimes showing a maturity beyond his years.  His local language learning has improved greatly in the last year and he's able to communicate so much more with people, specifically with our house helper.  Because of Joshua's language abilities we've felt more confident to leave our helper at the house with the kids so that we can go out.  (Nice, huh?)  But she always tells me how Joshua is the one who takes care of everyone when we're gone.  He makes sure everyone follows the house rules and helps Mercy with the things that we usually help her with.  You can imagine how proud I am of him when our helper brags on him like that.  :-)  Joshua has just become more and more aware of what's going on around him and ways he can help others, I'm so grateful when I can count on him.  He's become more independent, and I can send him to the store that's close to us where he can purchase fruits and veggies for us.  He can also be a great help to me in the kitchen as he still enjoys baking.  For the 3rd grade country units, we made a meal from the country we were studying, and he always helped me make the meal.  He's also gotten to the point where I can say, "Joshua, please go make the muffins," and he can do it.  That's a huge help to me since we have muffins every Saturday morning.  :-)  But Joshua is not just good at reading and baking, he's actually a really fast runner and can get around both his dad and me with soccer ball.  I really think he could pick up a sport if someone could teach him.  Our coaching skills are pretty limited, but we're trying to at least expose him to different sports to see what he's interested in.  Another interest is playing the recorder.  It's still a mild interest, but someone taught him how, and he picked it up really fast.  He basically taught himself how to play chess after reading about it in a book.  We got him a Chess for Kids book and now he can be quite the challenge to actually beat.  He likes to draw pictures and play tons of role playing games.  Everyone in our family is a always a character in whatever the role playing or drawing is, whether we're all Ninjago or Star Wars characters or something else.  He can be very imaginative. How I love my brilliant, dramatic, affectionate, verbose, helpful, loving Joshua. 

Joshua is a people person.  He loves to have people over and wants to make sure that everyone gets invited.  This is always evidenced by his birthday party, where everyone he knows gets invited.  It's always a huge affair, the biggest in our family, and it's just what he wants.  His birthday this year was an Angry Birds Space theme and it was a lot of fun to plan.  In the end it was kind of a conglomeration of Angry Birds, Space, and Star Wars, but we made it all work together.

Took the kids to this fantastic fun place in honor of Joshua's birthday. 

One of his birthday gifts was this cool tent that just pops open.

Though all of the other kids opted for birthday doughnuts for their special breakfast, Joshua likes to be different and asked for apple cinnamon pancakes.  We topped it with this amazing apple cinnamon syrup that I made.  Yum!  Great choice, J!  Breakfast burritos for lunch and delicious homemade fried rice rounded out the birthday meal selections. 

Joshua is a part of the Master Builder Academy on Lego.com.  This is kits 2 and 3.

Luke, Micah, and Mercy decided to get light sabers for Joshua for his birthday gift.  There were 3 in all so that all 3 boys could play together.  His new pajamas are Star Wars Angry Birds.  He loves them!

In their Angry Birds gift bags (for each kid who attended the party) they got these cool tattoos.  The boys had fun putting them on and they seemed to last forever!

Joshua's cake was quite the invention that friends helped put together.  We bought this Star Wars Angry Birds AT-AT walker set where you could actually launch Angry Birds in the form of Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan, Han Solo, and Chewbacca.  The goal of the game is to knock down the piggie Darth Vader and storm troopers.  The game was definitely a favorite!

All-in-all Joshua's 9th birthday party was a lot of fun for everyone.  The Angry Birds themed games were a big hit among everyone who came to join in the fun.  Happy Birthday, my big guy!