Isaac's 8th Birthday

Isaac turned eight!! And we finally got our act together and gave him a birthday party that he thought was fun. Also, he got a Kindle Fire, which is kind of a big deal in our family. Also, it will be handy in our upcoming travels.

He invited a few friends for pizza and cake at our community center, followed by swimming and rock climbing.

He chose a dirt cake, his favorite. He decorated with the worms.

So glad to see him happy. He is a magnificent eight year old.

Joseph's birthday and ordination

Joseph turned 12 while he, Nephi, Caleb, Isaac, and Aaron were out wandering the desert. We celebrated the night that they returned. Nephi's parents drove over for the evening.

Joseph is happy a lot these days. It's the best.

In our church when a boy turns twelve, he has the opportunity to be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, which comes with a special responsibility to serve other people. Joseph was ordained that evening before we enjoyed his birthday cake. Our bishop and good friend Jared was there, as well as Joseph's Grandpa Thompson, Uncle Aaron, and Dad. It was a great experience.

Caleb's 10th Birthday!

In December, Caleb hit double digits! We had a nice day together, and a few days later we went with a few of Caleb's friends to see the last Hobbit movie to celebrate.

Caleb chose the meals for the day. Lots of limeade was imbibed. Also, sausage, deviled eggs, pizza, and spaghetti with meatballs.

One of his gifts was the fun board game Pandemic.

And we finished off with a dirt cake.

Happy birthday, wonderful Caleb!

Now We are Six

The end of March also brings the birthday of our wonderful, amazing Isaac, who turned six this year.

 

Isaac is truly an incredible kid. He is tenacious, competitive, and even smarter than he thinks he is. Chances are good that he'd beat you at a game of the card game Set, and he's a natural rock climber and very good pianist for his age. A few weeks ago he figured out 2^10 just because he wanted to understand how powers work. He has a fascination with nutrition labels and remembers how many grams of sodium or protein are in all kinds of food. And he is, for the most part, a nice kid that people like to be around.

 

His birthday always falls around Easter, with its yearly tradition of me buying Starburst jellybeans because they are so good and I cannot resist them even though every year I think their sticky deliciousness does a little more damage to my poor teeth. Also, they make a very colorful way to decorate a birthday cake.

 

Isaac's birthday fell on our church Easter egg hunt day, so we brought the cake with us and everyone sang happy birthday to Isaac there.

 

We love this guy!

 

Joseph hits double digits!

The end of March brought Joseph's birthday, and, incredibly, he turned ten. Watching Joseph settle into himself a bit over this last while has been wonderful. He just seems to be in a good place - more comfortable with who he is and what he likes and who he wants to become. We were happy to celebrate him.

 

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, all fourth graders in the valley get a free season pass to the local ski mountain, so we jumped on the chance to have a ski birthday celebration up there with his friends. They skied all day, and I brought up some pizzas and birthday cake for lunch. We slightly misgauged the spread in skiing ability and it was a little crazy for Nephi trying to keep everyone safe and accounted for, but it all worked out.

 

Joseph decorated his cake with bunny Peeps roasting marshmallows (other cut-up Peeps, sickos) over a birthday candle bonfire.

 

Joseph had a great day with friends, and we were so happy it worked out.

 

Happy birthday, my sweet, double-digit Joseph.

 

Benjamin's Second Birthday

Our wonderful Benjamin turned two at the end of January.

We celebrated when everyone was gathered together for Caleb's baptism.  

And then we celebrated again on his birthday, because who says you can only turn two once!

 

 

Ben is such a sweet, gentle boy, although he does sometimes draw on the walls and throws things when he is upset. He is sweet and gentle all the other times, though, and we so love to cuddle him. Some of his favorite things are throwing stones into streams or lakes, helicopters, balloons, cars, birds, his brothers, and dogs, and he is very good at kicking balls. He doesn't say many words yet, but he uses his words to maximum effect and likes to have full conversations about, say, "water" using every imaginable inflection of the word. We adore our sweet Ben and are so glad he has been with us these two years.

Caleb's 8th Birthday

Our Caleb turned the grand old age of eight in December. Some of the gifts he received were a watch so he can better indulge his love of keeping meticulous track of everything in his life, including the time; a Wii football game; a Wolf Cub Scout manual; and eight much-anticipated dollars.

 

 

Per Thompson custom, Caleb designed his birthday cake. Observe the Star Wars light/dark frosting symbolism in the midst of this battle with heavy casualties. 

 

A few friends from school helped us celebrate that evening.

 

 

They had a good time playing the Wii football game and running around with balloons.

 

The grand finale was a pinata, which kids always seems to enjoy more than I would expect.

 

The day finished off with a hockey game that Nephi took the older boys to. Caleb declared it a good day.

Isaac turns 5!

As luck would have it, Isaac's fifth birthday happened while we were camping, so we brought our celebration along with us. Isaac was very specific that he wanted an apple cake with blue icing. We had never had apple cake before, but I found a recipe and made one. And put blue icing on it. Isaac added the sprinkles. It traveled well, but not perfectly, but Isaac is the kind of wonderful child that doesn't mind.

 

 

He got some presents, including a Camelbak that made him a popular kid around camp.

 

 

 

Isaac is our stealth child. He doesn't draw much attention to himself, so amid the chaos it's easy to not notice the amazing things he continually does. Like, a few years ago he toilet trained himself in one day. Last month he woke Nephi up and asked him to make breakfast, mentioning that he had already made the waffle batter. On his own, from scratch. I think he was the first of our kids to fully dress himself. Once, a year or so ago, he saved a game on the computer and had named it "Isaac", and I had no idea he even knew how to spell his name. He beats the rest of us fair and square at really complicated strategy games like 7 Wonders or Dominion, having completely bypassed a Candyland phase (hallelujah!!). He plays and memorizes pretty impressive songs on the piano. Yesterday he went to a birthday party at an art studio, and the teacher was blown away by his artistic talent, saying one in fifty kids had his sense of color. He earnestly and sincerely prays each night before bed. He always saves a little of a treat that he buys with his own money to share with his brothers. I'm waiting for the day that I discover he's been quietly reading chapter books or composing symphonies or curing cancer up in his room.

 

Mostly, we love his easygoing, happy nature and wonderful laugh. We love you, Isaac!

Joseph's 9th birthday

Our wonderful Joseph, a true Thompson Original, turned nine in March. He is brave and tender, and his passion burns bright and fast. We are lucky to have him to love.

We like him so much we even gave him a few presents.

And he had a few friends over for pizza and a springy Peep-covered cake one night.

I love to see this boy happy.