Such Joy

Today has been a great day.  A great week really, or even a great couple of weeks.  I started a full time job at Shawnee Heights Elementary School as a Para and I am loving every single day.  I get to work with some really great coworkers and teachers every day.  I get to see my kids several times throughout the day.  I get to take my kids and bring them home each day.  Its an awesome job and I am so thankful to have it!  This past week was Jonathan's 12th birthday.  How in the world is he already this old!  This kid has the funniest sense of humor and his laugh is so contagious.  I love his heart for others and his heart for God.  He has more ambition at his age than I did and I am forever grateful he gets that from his dad.  He has dreams of the future and part of me can't wait to see where God takes him and how he uses him and part of me just wants to freeze time so we can enjoy days like today even more.  He already knows he wants to get a degree in Sports Management and for anyone who knows Jonathan, this is no surprise.  He lives, eats and breathes sports.  He wants to play in the NBA, or become a coach, or even a team chaplain for an NBA team.  I'm not sure if there is such a thing but very cool idea.  Of course his ultimate dream is to play and then coach at KU.  Today he had a friends party with several kids from school and some other good friends he has met along life's way.  I have to say it was probably one of the funnest parties we have ever had.  We kept it all super simple and part of me felt guilty for that at the beginning but by the time the party was over, all the things I thought I HAD to do, you know to be the "good mom", all didn't matter at all.  The kids had a great time. There was so much laughter for the entire two hours.  These kids had fun and so did Jonathan.  Here is a pic of the crew we had over here today.

After we had a locksmith come and unlock the doors to our house, yes somehow all the doors that we don't have keys too got locked.  However after the party and after that, we had a fun afternoon as a family.  We took the boys shopping so Jonathan and Caleb could use some of their birthday money.  (Caleb's birthday is on the 8th)  The boys behaved really well at the store, so well we went to a 2nd store!  :)  Just beautiful sunshine, lots of laughing and even a few of our favorite songs came on the radio when we were in the car.   I hope today is a memory the boys hold on too for a long time.  I hope they remember the fun and laughter they had today.  

And now, here is to hoping for a really good nights sleep so we can move on from celebrating Jonathan to celebrating Caleb because he has been counting down the days to his birthday since it was Jesus' birthday and he cannot wait!

Here are some pictures from the day. I got the party ideas from Pinterest.  Super simple and a lot of laughs.

here the kids had a string with a spoon tied/taped to it.  They had to pass the spoon onto the person next to them and the spoon had to pass through their shirt and shorts, above all undergarments, and then back up the line.  Tons of laughing in this game.  They all kept is appropriate and so much fun!

Jonnie before the party! Such a handsome boy...man if you ask him.

Here the teams had 12 ice cubes/chunks, they had to stack them as a tower.  Tallest tower won.  A little more frustrating for them but still fun.

More of the spoon game.  

Another group during the ice cube game.

This grouped cracked us all up during the spoon game they were all laughing so hard.  I should have video taped it.  

Streamer fun.  They had to wrap an entire roll around them as fast as they could.  Some did legs, some did arms, Keyon chose to do his entire body.  

And the Root Beer chugging contest.  They had partners and each had to chug.  The team that finished first won.  We also had teams and each team had 3 rolls of toilet paper and wrapped one person.  Another one with laughs.  And one with corn tortillas, we wrote their names on them with marker and used them as frisbees.  Note to self, next time have back up tortillas.  They do break when you throw them so best 2 out of 3 didn't work so well.  Many of them just had pieces for the 3rd row!  :)