Friday, December 5, 2014

Happy 8th Birthday, John!

On Thursday, our #1 turned eight years old!


New Legos

Cowboy boots from the grandparents!

We celebrated John's birthday in phases. He received our normal birthday morning treatment of his choice of breakfast (French toast) followed by opening of gifts. But he didn't get his birthday dinner and cake until Friday night when a couple of families could join us.

In the interim, Chris and I allowed John to watch "Star Wars" (Episode IV) now that he is a big and mature eight years old. John declared getting to watch this movie his best birthday gift ever. Then he stayed up late with Daddy learning about how the movie was made and asking question ad nauseum about the plot.

Unfortunately, I was laying the baby down to sleep when the 6-year-old ninja sneaked past me down the stairs, which I discovered when I heard her agonized scream rent the air: she discovered that her brother was being allowed to watch "Star Wars" and she wasn't. What followed was the most heart-wrenching crying for a half hour and this was clearly the worst thing that has ever happened to her--which means she's pretty darned blessed!

The children dressed up as cowboys for John's birthday.

Our dinner on Friday night was a lot of fun. Thirteen multi-aged children from babies to primary school bopped around, mostly played dress-up, inventing a time travel game, and even writing and putting on a play about St. George and the dragon for us adults.

Catholic nerd alert! You know you're Catholic when . . . the dinner concludes by everyone gathering for the Jesse Tree ornament and readings, singing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," and praying the Divine Mercy chaplet . . . and the kids think it is totally normal. (Praise God.)

The Jesse tree and Advent wreath

Note: You know you're a fifth-time-mom in the making when you are too tired to care that your darling girl has barely-brushed hair (no cute bows or so much as a hair band) and has changed out of her cute pink, sparkly shirt into a ratty boy's undershirt when guests are over. Whatever.
Mary played "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" while we sang. Note: 

And finally, the cake!

John dressed up as a Civil War soldier

3 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday to John!!! My oldest, John Paul, turned 8 a month ago. He dreams of watching a Star Wars movie. I'll have to see about the episode you mentioned. He doesn't know much about Star Wars except for knowing there are Lego sets for sale with this theme.

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  2. Happy birthday John! It seemed like a blessed event. I wholeheartedly recommend all six of the Star Wars episodes-well, except for Episode 1. Episode 3 is amazing, but it's very very intense, so you may want to hold off for a little while ;) God bless! -Emiliann W.

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  3. Funny you had that as the movie choice. McKenna turned 8 in June and she LOVES that movie. I was not too sure abut it in the beginning, but it is kind of a "daddy daughter thing" and they watch it together.

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