Noah's 10th birthday!

Sunday April 19th was Noah's 10th birthday. It was definitely, and still is, surreal to realize that he's that big. Seems like he should still be six. 

I'm very thankful for Noah. Even though he came at a time in my life when I did not think I was ready for him (married less than a year, still in nursing school, poor), his arrival did immense good to my life and even our marriage! Noah changed the way I saw the world.

Before Noah was born, we had rented a movie someone told us was good and proceeded to watch it the first night we brought him home. You know, to relax. You will think I'm an idiot because I didn't know that Hotel Rwanda was about genocide, but I didn't. No clue. So there sits innocent little hormone hopping, emotional mess, just gave birth two days ago 23 year old Eva watching this terribly sad movie. I just bawled. And please don't think I'm heartless when I say I don't think I would have reacted quite the same way had I seen that movie before Noah was born. Not because of the hormones and sleep deprivation and the huge adjustment period. That movie hit me more deeply than it would have otherwise because now I had a child. And having my own child changed everything. Those kids and people were somebodies baby! 

When I was pregnant for the first time with Noah, I was worried I would be a terrible mother and not know how to love him properly. Turns out it comes pretty naturally. That movie upset me so much because of how cruel and evil the world is, especially to the weak like children. And I just couldn't see it before I had kids. Noah changed the entire way I saw the world. 

this was the morning after the dreadful movie experience

Noah's birthday fell on a Sunday so we were already all bright eyed and ready to go for singing to him. I took one shot before we went in his room to sing Happy Birthday.

Noah was all ready to go and of course he loved being sung to.

He came upstairs and read his card, saw his helium balloon and we started in on breakfast - Daddy had bought some donuts the day before. 

Also the day before, Nathan and Ana had surprised him with a trip to let him pick out a goldfish, something he dearly wanted. They took him to Fish Here in the mall (and to Dairy Queen for ice cream) where he picked out this lovely bright goldfish that he named Spark. I love the name! Unfortunately, the folks there should not have sold them a goldfish in a bowl because, as I found out later from Petsmart, goldfish have been over bred and can no longer survive in a bowl! They need more room and air. 

So the next day, when Spark started spending all his time sucking air at the top of the bowl, I started doing some research and shopping. Goldfish need at least 10 gallons of water and an air pump/filter to survive! After a couple leads led no where we just settled in to wait for something to work out and I changed Spark's water daily or thereabouts. Last night (a week after we got Spark), Terry found the perfect tank on the facebook classifieds page. It was fully furnished and came with all the extra stuff we didn't have like a net and chlorine drops, etc. Plus, there was another fish! His (her?) name was Brick and I guess we'll leave it. 

Okay, back to the birthday. After church, we headed to McDonald's for lunch because it was close and we had to be back at the church by 2pm for Noah and Evie's piano recital. They had the perfect toys in their happy meals - Bumblebee Transformers and My Little Pony. Those are the exact things Samuel and Evie love the most right now.

I tried to make a healthy choice with the smoothie but probably drank half Terry's Coke anyway :P Ez enjoyed the fries and making faces at the folks behind us. Cute little mouse teeth.

They only started piano lessons last August so this was their first recital. The whole family came and it was quite fun. They both did great! I felt so proud, and that was a enjoyable feeling.

By the time the recital was done, we were more than ready to be home. But we had to stop and get some Papa Murphy's pizzas for dinner since we were having the family over. We sort of had to rush to get in a birthday party since Terry had to be back to the church by 6pm for a dress rehearsal for the Dinner Theater his Mexico/L.A. team was doing. 

So we got home, turned on the oven, put on party hats and began.

Snap loves my dad and Terry's dad. Since my dad was the only dad there, Snap sat with him. The kids put a party hat on Snap, which he did not like. I snapped this photo at the perfect moment and caught dad's silly expression as he was imitating Snap trying to get the hat off. So so funny! Totally my dad.

Snap looks quite ferocious. He wasn't. He just didn't like that hat. Ha! 

Ezzie likes his though. He kept it on for a long time. 

Even before pizza we got the singing out of the way. 10!!! 

He put a lot of nice spit on the cake... 

Noah made a short wish list, which I told him was wise, since it was more likely he'd get what he wanted. I was right. They're looking at Penguins of Madagascar DVD now. He also got a Minecraft Lego set. He was the most excited about his Boogie Board. It's almost like an ipad, but all you can do is write on it and erase it. Sort of like a modern Etch-a-Sketch. He's been writing a story on it everyday. I'd say that's a win!

Oh, and he got another Lego Bionicle to complete the set he had bought with his allowance. The kid is swimming in Legos. 

Rainbow cake with homemade chocolate frosting. Nummy. 

Once Terry left we all just hung out and visited while Noah put together all his Lego stuff. He said it was the best birthday ever and Evie agreed. It was a good day. And now we have a 10 year old! AH!