The Reprieve of Thomas...and Other Celebratory Moments

"What day is it?" Josiah asked shortly before bedtime this evening.

"Monday," I replied.

"No, that's not what I meant.  What's the DATE?" he questioned further.

When I told him that it was April 25, he exclaimed, "It is??  It's already been a week and a day since David's birthday!"

And so it has.  I'd say it's about time to finish up this record of David's celebration and get it posted!  

As an aside, I would have done it sooner, but Blogger wasn't letting me upload videos, and I couldn't figure out why.  So I waited...and posted other things...and hoped that the video capability would somehow be back on the next day...but it wasn't...and so the cycle continued, until I finally wised up to the fact that I could switch my settings back to the old post editor and upload videos that way, then switch it back to the updated editor and continue with the post.  Too bad I didn't figure that out sooner!  

When I did finally get the videos to upload, I discovered that they were showing up at the bottom of the post, which was not where I wanted them (because of the chronology of the celebration).  But by that point, I was just grateful to have them at all, so I didn't go to the trouble of trying to move the videos up or move the pictures down.  It will just have to be the opposite of how things really occurred.  

These pictures were taken on Sunday the 17th, David's actual birthday. Of course, every time one of my sons has a birthday, I have to think back and remember how things transpired on the day of his birth, and April 17th was no exception.  It always brings a smile to my face to recall the wonderful birth story of my precious David.

Our larger celebration had occurred this year on the evening before David's birthday (videos of that in a moment), but on Sunday, we made our lunch a little extra special for David, using the Celebrate plate, singing to him, and--what he had been looking forward to so much--giving him gifts.  The trampoline was his big gift, but we found a few other little things to bring delight to his soul:

~ wooden magnets that he could paint

~ a JumpStart 1st grade workbook

~ two JumpStart computer programs

~ a Toy Story look & find book

~ this Peel & Stick Mosaic set (which he has really enjoyed, and I've loved how non-messy it is)  :)

~ two Lego sets that Josiah bought with his own money for David

~ and a Star Wars musical birthday card (because no birthday could be complete without a card that plays music!).

Have I forgotten any of the gifts?  My brain feels half-asleep already tonight, so I might not be remembering everything.  Oh well...  :)

Now, going back in time a day, we were fortunate enough to have dinner on the night before David's birthday with a group of four other families.  We meet together once a month for dinner and fellowship, and we'd like to come up with a name for our little group, but we haven't found one yet.  The first letters of our last names are S, L, B, D, and F--not very conducive to a great acronym!  But at any rate, David absolutely loves to get together with these families, and the kids have a blast together while the parents are having a blast, too.  Except our "blast" is quieter than the kids'.  ;-)

We were planning to get together this month here at our house, and we thought we'd tie good ol' Thomas up in a tree and give the kids a baseball bat to swing at him until he burst open and the candy spilled and the mad dash to grab it began.  However, the weather didn't cooperate; and with the high chance of rain that day, we were VERY grateful for the offer from one of the other families to have the festivities at their house.  Piñata-in-the-rain doesn't exactly spell merriment in my book.  ;-)

Because we were doing the piñata in our friends' garage, we decided to forego the usual baseball bat whacking of poor Thomas, and instead we used the ribbons that came attached to the bottom of the piñata.  If you're not familiar with how that works (I wasn't, since we always use a bat!), there are a number of ribbons that hang down, but only one opens the trapdoor to release the sweets, and no one knows which one is the right one to open it.  I wasn't sure how exciting it would be to do things that way, but it was actually a lot of fun--I'll show you in this series of very short videos.  (And by the way, can you even believe how clean this family's garage is???  Isn't it wonderful?!)

There was no way to plan whose ribbon pulled open the door; but even if we could have planned it, we couldn't have arranged it better than it worked out:  David pulled the first one, then each child present who wanted to participate got to pull one, but the candy still didn't spill.  Then finally, it was David's turn again to pull another one; and sure enough, that was the right one.  What an extra-special blessing for it to work out that way for him!  :)

It was also an extra-special blessing for us that we ended up using the ribbons, because we were able to save dear Thomas, and we'll duct tape the hole in the bottom and then use him when it's Josiah's birthday.  And even though this time Thomas was granted a reprieve, I don't think he'll escape unbashed after the next birthday party!!  :)

After the piñata, we congregated in the house again to sing happy birthday to David and eat sailboat hedgehog fish cupcakes.  ;-)

And that is how David turned six!