Nathan's Birthday Bash--The Home Edition

With all the hoopla surrounding Nathan's day, it turned out better for us to stay home on his actual birthday and celebrate here. We made his favorite pasta for dinner (bow tie noodles). Rebekah calls them butterfly noodles. Sean made Nathan's plate extra special...

After dinner, we had cake for dessert. I had planned to purchase a cake at the store for Nathan, but that week my car had been in the shop not once but twice and the day in the middle where I was to run errands and order cake ended up being the day I stayed home as much as possible since the van was really acting up. So I baked him his cake instead.


I put a special 8 in the corner and Nathan got the GIANT piece of cake with the entire 8 on it.

After dinner, the opening of the presents ensued...

This is one of my favorite "Nathan" expressions. Look at the pure joy on his face. And one of the best parts of Nathan is that he is truly touched that anyone gets him any gift at all. You could wrap up rocks and he'd still be this excited and happy. He's so sensitive that way and really appreciates each gift he gets.

The grandmas spoiled him rotten with new board games and video games. There were lots of clothes, too. He's been wearing a new outfit almost every day. The clothes pictures turned out a little dark so I didn't post them. Just know that if you're a Poppa or Grandma--he loved his clothes!

Here's one that cracked me up. I was with my mom post-Christmas and we found this gift on big time clearance. It's so big that Nathan held it on his legs while opening it up.

It's his very own claw machine. And all three kids love it. If you're worried about them getting too much candy, you've gotta read my post about Candy Possibly Causing Criminal Behavior.

We've discovered the Claw Machine is the same idea. Since I keep candy openly accessible to my kids 24/7, they don't really care. They dug out all kinds of candy to fill the machine and the first night they worked hard to get 2-3 pieces each that they ate. After that, they began filling it with notes to each other and funny sayings. They spent hours writing notes, putting them in the machine, then trying to get the note the other one left for them. By day 3, they mostly get the candy out, slide the cover open at the top and drop it back in. They might get the same candy 8-10 times in a row. Who cares, it's the thrill of the claw.

Granddaddy sent Nathan some cold hard cash.

Tio & Tia ordered one of Tia's favorite books for Nathan. It's "The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo" by Judy Blume. It came out when I was way past kid books so I had never read the story. How perfect for my Nathan!!! It's a middle child (boy) who has a big brother and a baby sister. He has to share his room with his big brother and he gets all the hand-me-downs from brother. (Now in my defense, while the boys share a room and Nathan gets hand-me-downs, that kid is so skinny that he also gets gobs of his own clothes brand new because he can't wear Andrew's old ones.)

While this boy isn't feeling special, he ends up getting to be in a play. He plays a Green Kangaroo. The rest of the story is awesome---but you'll have to go read it for yourself. To go with the book, Tia had her friend make a stuffed green kangaroo for Nathan. He loves it! It's velvet so it meets his sensory input needs and she even made a little joey for the kangaroo's pouch. He sleeps with it every night.

Nathan really had a very happy birthday. Can't believe how big he is...it does seem like just yesterday that we were racing down the main drag in town trying to get to the hospital on time. (We made it 3 minutes before he did...but that's a story for another day.)

Now my 5# peanut is such a big boy. I'd heard the term but never really understood it until Nathan. He's my 'old soul' and very sensitive to others. I'm glad that he still likes to cuddle at 8. I enjoy every snuggle and cuddle because I know they can't last forever.

Hope you enjoyed the Birthday Bash, too.