Lots and Lots of Celebrating

This could possibly be the post in which I include the most ever (for me) pictures. It's just that there's so much fun stuff going on around here these days!

Mid-June always brings a rash of excitement to our lives with one cause for celebration after another: Jeff's and my anniversary, my parents' anniversary, Josiah's birthday (which always extends into more than just one day, usually more like a week!), and Father's Day.

The fun of Josiah's birthday started last Wednesday when Jeff had the day off and was able to get the supplies to make a sandbox for Josiah (and his little brothers, of course). I had a sandbox growing up, and have happy memories of hours spent playing with my brother David in it...so ever since we moved here, I had the idea of a sandbox for our boys in the back of my head (the idea was in the back of my head, not the sandbox itself, fortunately!). :) Last summer we had looked on E-bay for one (a sandbox, not a head) :)...but the kind we liked was a little out of the price range we were considering. This year on E-bay, we didn't find anything we liked very much...so Jeff, being the amazingly talented guy that he is (as well as something of a...ahem...thrifty fellow) decided he would just build one himself. So he did--simple as that! It's already been thoroughly enjoyed by Josiah and by David and by our neighbor girls. Because of its location under our spreading maple tree and just outside our kitchen window, I can send the boys out to play without slathering them with sunscreen and without me having to be outside, too. It's so pleasant to work in the kitchen and hear their cheerful voices outside as they're busy at work in the sandbox!

~ the beginning of construction
~ adding the sand...it takes A LOT of sand to fill a sandbox!
~ David's serious face as he concentrates on his play
~ painting it red...an easy color choice since it's David's favorite color (and since we happened to have a can of red paint in the garage and didn't need to spend any money on it!) :)

Well, on to the actual day of Josiah's birthday! I don't want to forget that I had some alone time with Josiah that afternoon while David and Tobin were both still napping. Josiah came downstairs to the living room and asked if we could cuddle. Of course we could! Then I got out a special scrapbook that my friend Bobbielynn made for him when he was born...and the pregnancy journal that I filled out while pregnant with him...and a little photo album of his newborn pictures. It was so much fun to look at that stuff with him and share special memories about his birth!

Next on the agenda was our birthday dinner for Josiah on Friday evening, his real birthday. His request for the menu was waffles with blueberry sauce and orange sauce, preceded by the singing of "Happy Birthday" and the opening of gifts and followed by birthday cake, of course (which we actually waited to eat until after we got home from playing miniature golf).

~ Jeff reading the birthday card from Grandma Fisher to Josiah
~ Jeff showing Josiah one of his oft-requested gifts, a fishing pole...this one is extra special because instead of the traditional casting mechanism, this one is a Rocket Rod and the hook shoots out in a special protective case...it's supposed to be safer and easier than traditional casting...Josiah is thrilled by it because he thinks it's like a gun--such a boy! :)
~ Josiah cleaning every last bit of yummy blueberry sauce off the Celebrate plate (which has been getting a lot of use lately!)

After dinner, off to the mini golf course, where Josiah and David both got to play, Jeff carried Tobin and kept score, and I had the fun of taking pictures. It's actually fairly inexpensive to only have the boys play, and Jeff and I have the fun of watching them enjoy themselves. :)

~ my men...I'm so blessed~
~ checking out the slope of the course
~ doesn't Tiger Woods wear flip-flops when he plays golf? :)
~ Josiah and David watching another group playing

~ I never get tired of taking pictures of this little sweetheart
~ "whatcha doin', Tobin?"
~ "oh! trying to eat Daddy's arm. it's a good thing you don't have any teeth yet! I'm sure Daddy needed the extra moisturizer that your slobber provided. you're so helpful"

One last picture for this very long post: one of the gifts that we gave Josiah was Typing Instructor for Kids (recommended by Renee some weeks ago). He LOVES it! And wow, he's doing really well with it. It's nice to see him actually learning to type with the correct fingers on each key. Speaking of Josiah typing, I really need to end this post so that I can turn the computer over to him so he can practice some more. I told him he could do that after I finished posting about his birthday. He had the impression this was going to be a short post--not quite! Gotta go... :)

~ Josiah yesterday, learning to type the right way