Happy Birthday Dear Alden!

Wow, am I behind on blogging. We have had one thing after another of minor catastrophes...but that is for the August post...SO

Alden had quite the birthday celebration. The weekend of his birthday, Wally decided to cash in on our Groupon to Wheels Fun Park, and they all had a blast riding go-carts, climbing, and roller skating.

Feelin' so cool.

Does anyone find this video hilarious? I remember loving roller skating and wonder if I thought I was speeding around when I was really just doing this:  

I had to put all 3 (feel free to skip, it was just too funny to me):

Happy birthday to our 6 year old! We are singing to him first thing in the morning.

So happy.

Matchbox cars/motorcycle and a track to run them on. He's been asking for this for a year.

Super pleased.

Blowing out 6 candles! I cannot believe it :( :)

Then it was time for a Star Wars/Clone Wars party. No, he has not seen any movies or cartoons, but he reads the easy readers from the library (blah...I hate them, but let him read the boring poorly written things occasionally just b/c he loves them so very much). His friend Micah gave him this totally awesome helmet.

Hand to hand combat with Uncle Christopher.

Creating their own light sabers. THE easiest craft I have ever organized. They used red and green masking tape and various sharpies to create a personalized light saber.

Of course we used them! On each other and those bad storm trooper balloon guys who kept popping up--sadly it was very difficult to annihilate them. If you want balloons to pop get them from Walmart not Party City ;0) However, the young Padawans did not seem to mind learning the skill of perseverance and team work.

Then it was warp speed on the slip and slide---Han Solo aka Wally used a rope and his own brawn to catapult them into deep space:

Yes, he was sore the next day...and the next.

Chewbacca aka Grandaddy helped keep everything running smoothly.

We again did a treasure hunt this year. It worked nicely with the Bible verses from I Corinthians 13 b/c so much of Star Wars/Clone Wars is about the choice between power and love and has plenty of actions like prophetic powers, understanding all knowledge, power to move mountains etc. It segued nicely.

 Getting a clue.

Then the kids had fun with their blasters (water guns). It  mostly was just a squirt fest.

Ze cake. He had a clone wars rice paper picture. I tried a fat free cake, and I got comments about it tasting kind of like apple muffins, burnt, or yucky. Point taken, point taken...sigh. :) It mostly got devoured anyway.

We were so happy to have Grandmama and Grandaddy stay with us and go to church with us the next day!

I am so thankful for my first boy Alden. He has a servant's heart and is almost always willing to help especially if he views the task as unique or special or truly important. He loves daddy so very much, and there is almost nothing better than spending time working on a project or participating in an activity with him. He is very creative with Legos and K'nex but can also follow detailed instructions for construction. He has become much more musical this year, can carry a tune pretty well, and is making progress in piano. Reading is coming along. I think he thinks he cannot read very well, but, when he is motivated, he can read anything he puts his mind to. He told me this year he would like to learn to carve and to build things with a hammer and nails and wood. For his birthday he asked for a Bible study book similar to what I have been doing with Rhianwen. I pray that he will continue to desire learning God's ways of wisdom as he has this summer. 

 The treasure map we made with God's words of wisdom leading the way. Alden LOVED this visual depiction and idea.