happy birthday {a dozen for Daniel}

Daniel's day began with a birthday greeting, being handed his lightsaber, and receiving the message that there was a disturbance in the force in our front yard he needed to take care of before school started...

He took his Jedi responsibilities seriously and challenged Vader to a duel.  Loser would submit to the champion.  Clearly the Dark Lord had no idea the training our padiwan has received...

The lightsaber battle lasted just a few short minutes. 

In the end, Daniel was promoted to Jedi status and the force was restored to the light side in the 'hood.  

On the way back in he noticed a birthday greeting left on the door by a good friend's mom while she was on her morning walk.  Knowing his buddy took time to make a sign added extra special vibes to the morning!

Logging in to school brought another birthday wish, this time from his fantastic teachers.  They all seem energetic and excited for the year and definitely bought points with Daniel that they had taken the time to put together a bitmoji greeting to celebrate him.

Much of the day was a regular Monday, but a birthday means cake will be baked.

And if it's your birthday it comes with privileges...

Dinner was a much anticipated take out order from Cowfish.  I'd have to go back through archived pictures of past August 31sts, but I'm pretty sure this is at least the third year running he's had sushi and fries from his favorite restaurant for his special meal.  With exception of our Friday night pizza and picking Chick-fil-A up in the drive-thru twice, this was our first meal from a restaurant since Kylie's birthday on March 10.  So you could say it was a treat for us all...

After eight orders of California Roll, a Tempura shrimp roll, two large burgers, a kids bento box of burgers and SO. MANY fries were consumed, we cleared the table for him to finally open his gifts.  The two smaller ones gave themselves away as he picked them up.  Legos are still a surefire way to bring a smile!

RC cars were the other "big ask" this year (see what we did up there with the Cars wrapping paper?).  Daniel now has a  "Hyper Charged" Dodge Charger Hellcat and a 2017 Ford GT in his fleet of vehicles.  

And then after presents is the sweet treat of a birthday.  For the fourth year running his cake choice was a  "fruit pizza."  Not surprising for my fruit loving kiddo...I'm pretty sure he consumes more fruit than his siblings combined over a week.

Fits of giggles over the fact that his candles made him either 12 or 21 depending on which way the cake was turned.  

My 12 year old boy, the perfect mix of sweet and silly.  One minute baring his soul, the next laughing about  "cutting muffins."  

Once the candles were blown out ~ photographed as 12, viewed by him as 21, hence more giggles ~ we devoured his favorite dessert with much of the fruit being picked off slices and passed to the birthday boy by his siblings.  At that point his smaller Lego set was "burning a hole in his pocket," so he constructed his Ant Man Quantum Realm Explorer Pod and eagerly showed us all the features.  But the birthday surprises didn't end there.  Last special thing of the night was getting to watch his birthday video.  We sent an invitation to friends, family & his elementary school teachers (because they are some of his favorite people in the world) to record a short birthday greeting and compiled it into a video. He was truly in awe with each person's birthday wish and called it the best part of his birthday.

My little peanut,

Each day with you is a gift.  Your top character strengths according to the quiz you took for school truly do align with the things that make you such a special part of our family!  It is no surprise that love is your top character strength as you love the people around you well.  You remind me of Christ in that way...loving freely and without discrimination.  Zest and joy are followed by love of learning and as your big sister said, you love school enough for all your siblings.  Your willingness to forgive others and offer a second chance (and often MANY more past that) even when it seems they don't deserve it inspires me to do better. Your innate sense of being grateful to others for things big and small makes it a joy to bake your favorite dessert or give you special gifts.  Your twelveth ride around the sun is going to be a wonderful year and I'm just glad to be on the journey with you.

All my love,

Mama

Cougars materials pick up {new school enthusiasm or middle school blues?}

 Today I went by the middle school for first quarter material pick up.

Twice.

Once with a 'the newbie' and once with the 'BTDT twins.'

It was like A Tale of Two Cities.  One trip with a kiddo eager to see the campus and hopefully get a glimpse of his teachers and one trip with two who pretty much came only because of the donut I bribed them with.

First time was full of conversation between stops to meet the grade level principal, the grade level counselor, the teachers..."What do you thin my teachers will be like?  How will Virtual school work?  I hope that I have friends in some of my classes.  Oh, look, that mural says my team name!"

he was halfway out of the car when i asked if he wanted to have his picture taken at the mural

We had left campus with materials, enjoyed his donut and were driving back by when he asked if maybe we could drive back through to get a picture with the balloons at the front of the school. 

How could I turn that enthusiasm down?

Second go around was pretty quiet. I try to convince myself that's just a common 8th grader thing.  The only breaks to the silence came in the form of them asking where we were getting said promised donut and me pointing out that their younger brother had noticed the mural and asking if they wanted to do the same.  No verbal response but the eye roll was almost deafening...

a push from your brother isn't always a bad thing...

I don't know how much longer it will last, but Daniel and I have a "5K thing" going on.  It started in the fall of 2018 when he joined the school's run club and asked me if I wanted to participate in the Jingle Bell Run with him.  Since then we've run three more 5Ks together and plan to squeeze one in early this spring before the run club finishes with the Catching Fireflies race in mid-May.

Today I postponed my training run until after school to give him the opportunity to join me and Nicholas decided to come along.

He did great for the first three quarters and then began to lose steam.

Good thing he has a great bigger brother to give him a shove.

A push can be a good thing...

a log cabin galaxy not so far away

Give these boys Lincoln Logs and they'll make a village. 

A Star Wars village that is...

*note the phone...it's playing theme music to set the mood*

5k tradition

As long as he asks, I'll say yes! 

Our second 5k this school year.
I love this little "active date" tradition we're establishing!

snuggle bug

I've got a sleepy snuggle bug this morning. He came in before 7, just when I was getting ready to get out of bed.
There are more important things though than a morning run, getting started on five days of the kids' laundry and meal planning.
That stuff can wait. He may not...

#babiesdontkeep
#takethesnuggleswhileyoucan

spring break is for...

...sibling sleepovers.

#lovemylittles

choral celebration

First choral celebration concert tonight.

He was both tremendously excited and terribly nervous at the same time.

Thankfully everything is better with your best friend...

...and you can do anything for the promise of a donut afterward!

fourth grade field trip

A little live action learning about our local government.

#fieldtrip 

what is six months past August 31st anyway?

The date may be a bit unclear but the donuts made it official. We've got a 10 1/2 year old in the house!

Happy half birthday little peanut! Your zest for life adds so much to who we are as the M8! I  ❤️ you little shadow!

jingle bell run

Who gets pancakes, eggs and bacon at a place called Biscuitville? 

This cutie.
But when you beat your mom pretty soundly in a 5K, 

him headed back...he significantly beat me to the turn around point

and you don't rub it in but rather congratulate her for jogging the entire race, you get your request. 

We had beautiful weather for the Jingle Bell Run this morning!

My heart walks outside my chest...

Sometimes he drives them insane.
And the feeling is mutual right back at them.
But most of the time they're crazy about him.

We could have missed this.

love my littles

Sometimes he drives them insane.

And the feeling is mutual right back at them.
But most of the time they're crazy about him.

My 💙 walks outside my chest.
#theylovetheirlittlebrother
#wecouldhavemissedthis

touchdown!

Well...

He came up with the ball. 
And the bush technically is in the end zone.  
So...

Daniel reaches double digits!

And just like that...he caught the pass to enter double digits!

It's mind boggling actually.

Just a few days ago he was a cheeky toddler.

And now he's proudly flashing ten fingers at me when asked to give his birthday number.

Currently his things are football, legos, fruit and hugs for his family.

After school we took time for a few gifts before heading out to dinner.

His little siblings loaded him up with some pictures, Pokemon and lovies.

From us included a lego set, a Barnes and Noble card to spend as he wanted,

and a mega Nerf gun!

Following dinner it was time for cake.

Or in his case...fruit pizza.
Because fruit...

My love, may your birthdays always be as sweet as the fruit pizza you love!  Happy decade birthday...I love you to the moon and back!

Just a few little bits to remember about this day...

And of course, Cowfish!