Kinda Josh Week - Bonus Surprise Activities, Too

We were treated to a surprise visit from my mom - she was on the way up to Idaho, but since we live near the airport we picked her up and went to Josh's school to eat lunch together. Pretty exciting for us all!

Josh spent the entire ride home from school telling his friends about how he got to eat lunch with his grandma.

The last weeks of school meant lots of action with school, including Josh's class program. It was very adorable, of course, and I had tears in my eyes when they sang along with Raffi. It was the same CD we checked out from the Provo library when Joshy was a baby, and now he's done with first grade! They did a slide show, too, which was only upbeat, so I was able to smile and enjoy.

I thought this picture was funny because every kid turned to look at Josh while I was taking his picture.

The glorious kazoo part.

Lissy was a squirmy, crazy girl until the show started, then she was transfixed.

When it was time for the slide show, Lissy sat in Josh's lap. First grade graduate, AND a great brother.

Classic "they don't know where to look because there's too many cameras." Friends from Josh's class - Devon, Taycen, Ben, Josh

Josh with his sweet teacher, Miss Harms.

Josh turned the big 7 on Thursday, and obviously he was excited. So excited he woke up early, and took advantage of his birthday-free-reign to play computer games while I made him his requested blueberry breakfast cake. We had planned all of his birthday meals the week before, but he was elusive about what he wanted to bring for his class treats. He said he'd "tell me later." When I dropped him off at school he said, "Airheads," and jumped out of the car. Funny boy, did he think I'd say no? Between that and the fact he changed his mind about eating school lunch, (I am such a sucker! I can't force my child to eat pork and gravy on his birthday, when he asks me so sweetly if I can bring him a quesadilla. Which would have been fine except that I was running late and couldn't find the overdue library books and Andrew ate the first quesadilla I made . . .thank heavens for friends to save my hide.) yeah, so, anyway, I ended up at Josh's school twice.

Another fun surprise - we got to meet my family at Chuck E. Cheese for Josh's birthday. It was unplanned, but we all wanted to see each other, so dreams I had not planned to fulfill came true. The kids were in the level above heaven, and us adults had a great time, too. I arrived with a pounding headache, but with a little ibuprofen and a lot of great company, I was pumped up in no time.

These little boys killed me. Look at their feet. They were jumping around excitedly forever with this one. Throughout the night they were usually together, and usually with Andrew on the left and Beckett on the right.

Kristen is so awesome. She has her own cute baby, but she still loves giving babies loves. Lissy enjoyed it, for sure.

Cindy's favorite locale, the ticket muncher. You could find her there often during the evening.

Kristen and Dylan, having a great time.

They were obsessed with this gun thing for a long time. Once again, chose something with two, same formation.

Sophie and Noah were sooo excited.

I was amused by this picture taken as I was talking.

It's Lissy and her mom riding in a car. Lissy was crazy about this.

Josh spent a huge portion of his time doing this.

Same relative position, new game. So cute.

It was so cute to see Sophie helping Lissy.

I tried to take a picture of how good Braden is at helping Beckett, but they were a little out of position by the time it actually took.

Like son, like father. . .

Dylan was excited about Kristen's Skee-ball skills.

I have nearly the same picture of me with Noah at that age. Aww, my babies .

I love the look on Andrew's face here - it's pretty much the look he has when he's doing anything he's enjoying.

Josh wanted this cake, but also expected it to be decorated, as per tradition.  Here we have a Beyblade cake. A hit.

It's official, he's 7!

Tate's not too old to get a big, um, mouse hug from Chuck E.

When these kids  come over, one of the favorite things for the kids to do is have a Pandora dance party. I don't know how it happened, but I can't get these pictures separated. I love the look on Tate's face as he looks at Josh in the upper one, and we'll discuss this lower one later.

The kids were told they could get tickets by dancing with Chuck E., so dance they did.

The kids discovered the blue screen, and danced away. Lissy was shy to jump in, but she was transfixed.

Sophie brought Lissy into the action.

Lissy was very pleased to  finally be on the dance floor, and dance she did. I had a hard time getting her away.

Josh opened his presents too fast for me to  get a picture, but here he is reading a card from Gary's parents. He counted it on his list of presents.

I think I say every year that Josh has a great sense of humor - because he's not stopping, he's hilarious. You should see this boy laughing at jokes. He still loves sports, and can play and play all day. He's grown over an inch and a half in the last 5 months, and can really eat a ton now. Gary said when he was his primary teacher it was nice to see how kind he was to the other kids. That makes my heart happy.

Josh got a flag football set for his birthday, and also a tennis racket and some balls from grandmas, oh yes, and the new Beyblades, so he was pretty pumped to play with those things right away. How pumped, you ask? Well, due to the Chuck E. Cheese party, he went to bed at 11:15. I had plans to allow him to sleep in past the time school started. However, he woke up at 6:45 to play with his new stuff. I was playing one on one football in the front yard at 7:30 a.m. Woo-hoo. The kids all had a great time.

Later that morning (yeah, 9 a.m. was later) some kids came over that we switch baby-sitting with a lot. They always love to have dance parties, but his time Andrew's hat combined with his moves pushed me over the cuteness edge, and I filmed it. Too bad Lissy was sleeping, we didn't get any of her moves this time.

Josh's first grade mini-marathon was on Friday, too. He was really hoping to get somewhere between 1st and 6th place so he could get a ribbon, and had hope because he's been coming in 2nd in his class. He started out like a bullet, and ran in 3rd for quite a while, but at the end he got 8th. I still think 8th out of almost 70 is pretty great, and his not-enough-sleep-for-an-adult may have played a factor. He has a great attitude, and had a fun time. It was adorable watching the boys cheer for the girls and vice versa. PLUS my little kids got a fun walk to the track and a show.

Friends from Josh's class - Kaylee, Josh, Joshua, Brenley, and Kaige. Josh wrote in his journal that Kaylee loves him. I don't blame her.

There he is, the comin home. My friend has a picture on her blog of him starting out the first 100 meters in  3rd, but not me.

Josh and Ben finished really close to each  other, and I caught a good-bye through the fence on my way out. Those are running beads they earned, by the way.

Here is the picture of my boys at Fathers and Sons. Yeah, Gary said none of the men were taking pictures, so he didn't. It was raining, but the boys were soooo excited and Gary is a great sport. Apparently other people in the ward thought so, too, and they had a really great time. For some reason Andrew kept saying he wanted to go camping even when he was in the tent, and afterwards said he didn't go camping. Was he expecting a Bear Grylls experience? Lissy and I went to Cafe Rio together, then watched mindless T.V. Okay, the last part was just me. Hoo-rah for Fathers and Sons!

Here is the other picture of our friends coming over for a barbeque. Okay, I'm the one who forgot to take pictures this time. We hadn't seen the T-fam for months, so it was fantastic to see them. Nice to have a fire lit under us to clean up the house after how tired we were, and then so fun to end off the week by relaxing with friends. Gary was pretty excited to grill up some wings, and I have to admit it was awesome. At one point Andrew was asleep on the couch and wet his pants in front of everyone, but apparently that's a great way to treat leather? Only the finest around here.

And here at the bottom, but no less awesome, was Mother's Day at our house! The week before we'd had family events, so Gary asked if it would be okay to do stuff the next week instead. Um, yes, please! What a man. I woke up to breakfast, and this on the table.

What I woke up to on Mother's Day!

They like a plump mama. Love it.