Joseph's 8th birthday

Joseph turned 8 years old . . . last year.  But it was very exciting and wonderful!

He opened his sibling presents on Sunday night before his birthday. His sisters gave him some great art supplies to fuel his creative and artistic talent.

Joseph also received his very own set of scriptures from us.

And other cool stuff, including his stuff for Cub Scouts.

That Joseph - it's too bad he doesn't have much of a personality . . . 

Monday was his actual birthday. He awakened to his requested breakfast in bed, cinnamon streusel muffins, powdered donuts, bacon, strawberries, and pine-orange-banana juice.

He opened a few more presents, including a Michael Jordan basketball poster for his room, MarioKart for the Wii, a Lego set, and a 3DS (which was stolen at the church about a month later, a few days before we were leaving on a long plane ride. Long and very sad story!)

For his birthday lunch I picked him up from school and took him to his choice of locations - Burger King and Jamba Juice.

That night we ate at Sweet Tomatoes, his favorite restaurant.

Laura McDonnell was staying with us while her parents were out of town.

After dinner we stopped by Build A Bear so he could build a special bear, his gift from Grandma and Grandpa Springer. 

He chose to do a fuzzy black bear with a Blazers outfit.

The next weekend we hosted a rockin' birthday party for a bunch of 8 year olds at Lakeshore Athletic Club, where we are members.  It was a very cheap party. I think it cost us $16 plus the cost of the cake and pizza we picked up. And the boys had a fantastic time swimming, playing basketball, and playing glow-in-the-dark wall ball in the racquetball courts. Bailey and two of her friends came to help, and they were really helpful!  Aubrey was at play practice during the party.

 The glow-in-the dark wallball quickly evolved into a dance party, too.

 Tired and happy boys and tired and happy parents.

 But wait . . . that's not all!  

Then it was back to our house for another hour or so of video game and nerf gun fun. 

 Dan set up a fun nerf gun target with a tower of cups.   

Wow - what craziness and pure fun. Joseph received lots of Lego sets and he spend the next week assiduously working on every single set until they were completed. 

Whew - I declare a pause in birthday season until June. (Brandon's birthday was a few weeks later, but we had already sent a package to him in Ukraine.)

I would say that Joseph had an all-around awesome 8th birthday!