The Year Josiah Told The Neighbors He Was Having a Party...

Caroline was our chef du jour earlier in the week.  She had picked a classic Caroline meal: spaghetti, meatballs, and broccoli.  She also wanted "buns" or bread (rolls or Texas toast).  She finally settled on Texas toast.  When I put a small pot on for spaghetti sauce she reacted, "That's not part of my dinner."  True.  But there are at least two menfolk who don't like dry pasta.  She was not keen on cooking on the night she picked, however, because a neighbor boy was over and all she wanted to do was play with him and her brothers.  She didn't get out of her cooking duties though and we all enjoyed the meal.

A few days later, Josiah had his turn in the kitchen.  His menu was: hot dogs, chili (from a can), chips, and sweet corn.  I told him that Todd would probably need a little more food than that, so he cooked some fries as well.  It was a carb heavy meal.  Classic Josiah.  Josiah wanted to pretend he was a real chef, so while he had his pots and pans going, he set out five small plates for each of us and when the food was ready, he tried to fix each individual plate.  Once we saw Josiah scoop up two handfuls of fries to distribute to the plates, the natives grew restless.  Henry, for one, does not like people touching his food.  He's really particular about that.  Josiah's man-handling of his fries was a no-go.  Caroline cried out, "He only gave me six fries!!"  We convinced him to let us use the dinner plates and to let each of us make our own hot dogs.  Now we're only two weeks into the new year and all the kids have used up their cooking nights.  I've still got 19 more meals to figure out...  We'll have to spread the love out for February.  (Although Todd did surprise me this evening by cooking for a second time this month. Woo hoo!)

Josiah had a good birthday week.  In WAM at church he found out that he got the track he wanted.  It is the Media track and they teach the kids how to operate the cameras and lights during the church service.  They also get to walk around and interview people with a camera and microphone.  Josiah's really excited about it.  Henry got the Lego track.  He's not a huge WAM fan, so chilling and playing with Legos was right up his alley.  Caroline didn't get a choice yet.  She's just in the first grade track.

Josiah's week got even better on Friday when we were able to go over to his best friend's house for the afternoon.  This friend got a new dog two weeks ago, so our kids have upped their "I want a dog" requests.  This dog is the most chill dog I have ever met in my entire life.  He would let you pet him and then he'd sleep for an hour.  Walk 3 feet from the couch to his bed.  Sleep an hour.  He's only three years old, too.

And then Josiah's birthday came.  Josiah is an incredibly excitable kid.  He woke up at 3:00 a.m. Christmas morning because his excitement wouldn't allow him to sleep.  His birthday was no different.  3:00 a.m. the kid woke up.  At 5:00 a.m. he came in and asked if I could get up earlier.  Sorry, buddy, I promised 6:00.  You get 6:00.  Of course Henry was up at 4:40 and Caroline was up some time in the 5 o'clock hour, so by 5:45 they were all in Josiah's room talking as loudly as could be.  They ran in our room the second it turned 6:00.  Josiah went straight to the Happy Birthday tree and proceeded to open amazing things from aunts and uncles, grandparents and siblings.  Legos and art supplies, books and Star Wars figures, laser games and logic games.  A week before his birthday, Josiah's new math curriculum came in, so we decided to wrap that up as well.  He was thrilled.




Todd continued his tradition of messing with his cereal.  Josiah continued his tradition of ripping it right off. 

He spent his morning putting together his new Lego kits.  He needs about 4 bookshelves in his room to house all his Lego kits.  It's astronomical how many Legos he has!  But he does still love them and he does still play with them.

For Josiah's birthday, we went out to eat lunch at Josiah's pick, Which Wich.  He enjoyed his sub sandwich and milkshake.  It had been an early lunch and we returned home right at noon.  As soon as we got out of the car, a neighbor boy and his dad were walking over with a gift.  His dad said, "Josiah said the party started at noon."  Did he now?  There was no party.  We had planned on his friend Bobby coming over, so we did have snacks and food and some activities.  We just had to add one more boy into the mix.  I had known that Josiah had invited other neighborhood kids over, but I had their parent's information to let them know there wasn't actually a party.  I now have this new neighbor kid's dad's phone number.  A total Josiah move.  God bless him.

One thing Josiah wanted to do when Bobby came over was to have a "Make Your Own Forky" craft.  Forky is still alive and kickin' around here.  So, the boys all made Forky's and Knifey's and Spoony's.  After that they ate and then went upstairs to play video games.  They played those for a good long while (Henry for an even longer period of time), then moved onto playing Legos and having lightsaber battles.  We sang happy birthday and had the Toy Story 4 cake he picked out.  Finally, five hours after neighbor boy came over for the "party," Josiah's friends went home.
Now Henry's got it in his head that he's having a birthday party, too.

The whole utensil crew.