Happy 13th Birthday!!

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY, NOLAN! 

Oh!  Where does the time go?  It seems that I blinked and you just suddenly grew up overnight.  You are a very smart young man who is wise well beyond your years and you definitely keep us laughing.  But you are also very kind and you care so well for others.  I love watching you grow up and become more and more responsible as you also grow in your love for Jesus and for your family.  I cannot wait to see what the future holds for you.  Dream big and always chase after Jesus.  I love you!!

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Since Noel and I were in Michigan on Saturday and wouldn't get home until 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning on Nolan's birthday, I had asked Morgan and Melayna to help me by decorating the house before they went to bed so that Nolan could wake up to the traditional balloons and decorations on Sunday morning.  Morgan said that everything was going alright until Nolan surprised them both by getting out of bed and coming back upstairs.  He just smiled and asked them what they were doing and then he turned around and went back to bed.

When we woke up on Sunday morning, the house was decorated and Nolan was already 13!!

As soon as Melayna came back home from church, we ate Nolan's requested dinner of chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese and then he would open his presents early in the day so that Morgan could head back to her college campus before it got too late.   (Her classes started on Monday morning and she wanted to have a chance to get settled back in).

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Nolan  joked that now that he's an "angsty teen", he had a few birthday requests. 

1.  No singing the Happy Birthday song because it's boring and repetitive

2.  No candles dripping wax on his cake - although we could put them other places around the kitchen

3.  No pictures taken of him during the day.  We already know what he looks like.  :-)

I really tried to abide by his wishes and just be present in the moment, so that means that I don't have any pictures of him opening his gifts or of him eating his ice cream cake.  We did eat Oreo ice cream cake together and then for his gifts, he received some money and gift cards from his grandparents, and then several books, some more supplies for his 3D printer, and this LED wolf light that he wanted.  

I did sneak this picture later on in the evening when he was playing Mario Kart with Melayna and he was busy trying to teach her how to drift better so that she could score higher points when they play together.

Since the day was busy with church and Morgan heading back to school in the afternoon, I told Nolan that we would just spend his actual birthday as a family but he can invite a couple of his friends over to hang out next weekend.  I think he was more than happy to enjoy one last quiet day at home before school starts back up on Tuesday.

Happy Birthday Nolan!  We hope that you had a great day!!

Noel's 48th Birthday

 Noel turned 48 on Friday!!  

With it being Good Friday on the same day as his birthday, I had originally gotten really excited because I knew that the two older girls didn't have class on Good Friday and would be home for a long weekend.  Maybe we could all go somewhere on Friday and celebrate Noel as a whole family?  I started looking at different places that I thought Noel would enjoy, and I even came really, really close to making (and paying for) reservations for one thing in particular.  Thankfully I didn't go through with it though, because at the last minute, I remembered that the two younger kids still had school on Good Friday and Noel would also have to work a regular day and then go in for track practice in the afternoon.  

Oh well.  Maybe one of these years...

The two older girls and I still decorated the house for him after he left for work on Friday morning and then we showed up at the job site and brought him lunch singing "Happy Birthday" to him in front of his co-worker.  (He loved that, I'm sure!)  

Noel wouldn't get home from practice until almost 6:30 but he had a fun story to tell.  The girls that he coaches had all gone together and made a poster for him to celebrate his birthday and they had a lot of sweet encouraging messages to share with him.  They also went in on a gift card to the Igloo, which he loved!

The best part was when they snuck up on him and sprayed him with silly string and shot confetti at him.  He had no idea that they were planning anything and his reaction was so fun!  

Click here to watch the video of that surprise!!

When he finally came home from practice, he was able to add his poster to the table with cards from the girls and cheese balls from Nolan.

While Noel was at practice, the two older girls left to drive up to the Good Friday service at Living Gospel Church.  It went from 6:00 - 7:00 and then they came back home in time for us to light up the monkey bread and sing to our birthday boy right here at the house.  

Since Noel would have to go back to a track meet all day on Saturday, we decided that we would make his birthday meal on Sunday afternoon right after church.  (During track season, the birthdays get more and more spread out, that's for sure!)

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Morgan posted her birthday wishes on her IG page:

And Marissa did the same:

We sure are all thankful for Noel and all that he does for each and everyone of us.

'Here's to many, many, many more birthdays!

A Mysterious Birthday Party

A week or two before school let out for break, Nolan asked me if he could invite friends to a party on his birthday.  Since his birthday would fall over Christmas break, I tried to discourage him from it because I wasn't sure how many friends would be able to come with many families traveling over break.  (We had tried it one previous year and only one boy had shown up and he had really been disappointed).  All that week, he continued to ask about his party.  He had ideas for invitations that he would make by himself and he told me that he wanted it to be a mystery party where everyone had to be detectives and find a medallion that we would hide somewhere in the house.  The guests would have to complete tasks together or figure out codes in order to find out where the coin was.  He was envisioning them working as teams and people being eliminated like a game show.  I admit, it sounded fun, but also overwhelming for me to plan.  And what if no one came?   Despite my best arguments that he maybe wait a week after school started back up to host the party so more could come, he wasn't to be deterred and on the last day of school for the semester, he proudly carried in the seven or eight invitations to pass out to his friends and we all hoped for the best.  (At least his family would be there that day and we would still make it as fun as possible)

I wish that I had taken a picture of his invitation because he really did do a great job designing it and printing it all out himself.

Things were pretty crazy over break and then with my taking a meal down to IWU on Thursday, just two days before his party, I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with the idea of putting this party together.  I went out Friday morning to pick up the Oreo cake that he had asked for and a few party favors to put into bags for his guests.  We knew that at least two friends were coming by this point, and I bought a couple of extras, just in case.  As of Friday morning however, I still didn't have any clues made up and I wasn't even sure what it would all look like or how it would come together.  I kept telling Noel and Morgan that I wasn't sure how it was all going to go, but Nolan had complete confidence that I would make it be "the best mystery party ever!!" so I was certainly going to try my best.  I did spend much of Friday looking up ideas on the internet and then putting a scavenger hunt of clues, codes, and riddles together.  After Nolan went to bed that night, Morgan and I decorated the house and blew up all of the traditional balloons and streamers and then I put together the final touches and prayed for the best.  

At 1:00, Joshua and Harper both showed up and were excited for the party to get started, but thankfully, I had also received a last minute RSVP from a girl named Julissa.  Her Mom said that she was coming but she was running late.   I had decided to keep that one secret so that no matter how the party went, Nolan would be excited to see her but since she was late arriving, I had to try to stall to give her time to get there.  Nolan was showing his friends around the house and playing with some of his toys when the third car came up the drive and he started jumping up and down when he saw her get out of the car.   After she got there and got settled, I went downstairs and handed out their "top secret assignment".  They were all very excited to get started on their mission.

They immediately got to work completing their "detective training" which was simply completing a word search.  They were allowed to work together and then as soon as they all completed the search, they received their detective badges and were given the first clue that kicked off the scavenger hunt.  

The four of them would spend the next 30 minutes running around the house, pulling boxes of food from my pantry and digging through piles of laundry, and popping over 30 balloons - always looking for the next clue. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun they seemed to be having as they worked together to put together all of the clues.  

I actually tricked them up for a short while with a couple of math riddles but eventually, they figured it out and then they were off once again.

Finally, after the last clue was given and they unscrambled all of the letters, which spelled out coat pocket, they took off to go through the pockets of almost every coat in our house.  (With help from Melayna, Harper was the lucky one to finally pull the medallion from the pocket of Marissa's letter jacket).  Since he found the medallion, he would get to take it home with him.

Nolan had designed the medallion by himself and then printed it out on his 3D printer, which his friends thought was pretty cool.  

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With the mystery scavenger hunt now complete, we took a few minutes to pass out their goody bags and then Nolan sat down to open up the gifts that his friends had bought for him.  

First he opened a gift from Julissa, who bought him a t-shirt and some pokemon game cards.

Harper bought him a gift card for Roblox.  He told Nolan that he knew he wasn't allowed to use real money for Roblox games and that he had bought the card himself.  Such a sweet gesture.

And then Joshua gave him a large squishmello and he received a gift card to Walmart from his grandparents.

Thank you to all for those sweet gifts!

Anyone ready for some cake?!

Up to this point in the party, Noel and the girls had stayed busy and out of the area, but I called them in when it was time for Nolan to blow out his candles.  We all sung to him (very loudly and off key) and then we enjoyed his perfect Oreo ice cream cake.

(I love the two older sisters celebrating and singing from behind him)

After everyone ate cake, it was just about time for the kids to leave so we let them spend the last couple of minutes playing Mario on the Nintendo Switch.  Julissa's mom came almost right away, but the other two boys stayed an extra half hour and it was fun watching them all play together.

The last of the boys went home around 4:00 and I was finally able to exhale.  The party was somehow an amazing success and Nolan had a really great time.  He kept telling me about how much fun they had and how he was so happy that his friends were able to come.  

(Thank you Jesus!  I am so glad that Jesus even cares about birthday parties).

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Unfortunately Marissa had already gone back to school the week before Nolan's party but she made sure to leave a fun post for him to see on her IG account and then she face-timed him later that afternoon to wish him a Happy birthday and to see how the party turned out.

Morgan was still home for Christmas break but she still left a fun post on her IG account and made sure that she was available for his party.  

Melayna doesn't have social media yet, so she couldn't put any fun pictures up but she still stuck around as long as she could before work and celebrated her brother with him.  

I'm always so encouraged to see my kids loving each other and celebrating each other so well.  'Really warms my heart!

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After Melayna came back home from work later that night, we ate dinner together (Nolan requested Kraft mac and cheese) and then he opened his gifts from us, which included a Graphic Novel that he had really wanted and a new squish mellow.

He was so excited that he started jumping up and down -- unfortunately, it made his pictures turn out blurry!  LOL

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And then we topped off his special day with a special surprise as we all took turns racing him through all 48 Super Mario tracks.  It took about 2.5 hours for us to finish them all, but that is something that Nolan has been wanting to do for a long while and so he can finally mark that off his bucket list.

HAPPY 12TH BIRTHDAY BUDDY!  

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND CANNOT WAIT TO SEE WHAT THE NEXT YEARS WILL BRING!!