Paul Turns Eight

This past Thursday our Paul turned eight.  How crazy is that?  And yes, I'm aware that this happened nearly a week ago.  It's been a busy one, folks.  I'll catch up!

 Baby Paul on the couch at about four months.

8 Year Old Paul after swim lessons on his birthday - I love the big smile that is all gums - I used to do this!

Paul's birthday began with the building of his birthday train, a Bangsund Family tradition.

After the birthday train there were two small gifts from Mom and Dad.

 A little bit of LEGO...

 ...with a side of ham.

A cool craft kit that allows him to make these neato dragon things.

After breakfast and some LEGO building, it was time to go meet Grandma and Grandpa for second breakfast at IHOP, per the birthday boy's request.  Paul ate all five of his silver dollar pancakes, and then opened his gifts.

 It's a Minecraft sheep.  And Paul is utterly delighted.

 It's the Ender Dragon from Minecraft - in LEGO.  Really it's the coolest thing ever for most 8 year olds in the Western Hemisphere.

Checking out the back and showing it to the others at the table.  The adults were clueless but polite.  The older brother was probably a little jealous, but handled himself beautifully.

We went back to the house for a few hours before swim lessons, during which Paul built LEGO and Luke watched Paul build LEGO.  It really does work well, for the most part.  We headed for swim lessons at 12:15.  The boys are doing private lessons this year.  They just haven't ever learned much with thirty seven other kids in the pool.  It's not the best learning environment for folks who can get distracted by their own arm hair.  For. Real.  I was blessed to be whining about this predicament to a friend of mine who shared her solution to a similar problem in their family.  Private lessons with a college student who teaches the boys at the nearby high school pool during the adult swim hour.  It's empty, people.  Except for two or three elderly folks swimming laps, my dudes are the only peeps in the pool.  And they go one at a time so they can't even distract each other.  Good idea?  Yes.  Yes, it is.

I don't have pictures of Paul in the pool on his birthday, but here are a few from two days earlier, when he had his first lesson.  Teacher Nikki did a fabulous job getting him to put his face in the water by the end of his first day.

After swim lessons, Paul got to pick lunch.  Jack in the Box.  $1 for a grilled cheeseburger.  Yes, I know it's not a healthy choice, but folks, birthdays only come once a year.  And you can't beat $1!

We ran over to Fred Meyer to grab the birthday cake, and then headed home.  Regarding the lack of baking on my part - here's the deal - I had it in my plan and on my calendar to bake Paul's cake.  When the day came, Tuesday, I had delivered Paul to Canby to spend the night at my mom's place.  Luke was on his first overnight bike trip with Grandpa.  I got home at 3pm.  And I did not want to bake a cake with my free time.  So, I got online and noticed I could buy a cake for less than $20 at Fred Meyer. Terrible?  Nope.  Do I feel guilty?  Nope.  I played piano and sang for nearly two hours.  And when my husband arrived home I wasn't grumpy or crabby or stressed or overheated from having baked a cake.  I was relaxed and happy to see him and ready for our date.  I am so smart.

Anyway...we grabbed Paul's cake and headed home where I put the finishing touches on the basement for Paul's Minecraft party that evening.  Okay.  I want to be SUPER clear.  I hired my friend Vanessa to help me put all this together.  She has an amazing Etsy shop called Timber + Lace where she sells adorable and awesome party decorations.  I approached her about a month ago and asked if I could hire her to help me throw a Minecraft party for Paul.  I had spent about three minutes on Pinterest, and it only made me sweat and weep.  Crafting does that to me.  Vanessa said yes, and I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.  Sidenote:  If you aren't familiar with Minecraft, none of these pictures will make sense.  ;-)

 It's a creeper face made from square paper plates.

 Paul's birthday banner with Minecraft themed paper.

 Paul's finished Ender Dragon acted as our tables centerpiece.  There is a creeper head in the background, flanked by Paul's new sheep and ocelot.

 Both boys pose with the Ender Man that they helped me create!  Yes, we did this together.  Vanessa was super inspiring and encouraging.  She also left me enough black plates and black streamer to make this happen.

With the basement ready to go, the guests began to arrive!  We did an evening birthday party on the day of the birthday so that our Daddy-Man could be there.  The Saturday after the birthday was not available.  In the future, we will find a way to have the party mid-morning.  Evening just isn't our best time of day, but we made it work this time!

The kids started by eating pizza.  Then we played a game.  Pin the tail on the Minecraft pig.  Pictures.

Pizza eaters with the pig in the background

 More pizza eaters

Each player wore the creeper head and pinned their tail.  This is the birthday boy.

This is the birthday boy's brother.  We are keeping this thing forever.

This is the birthday boy's five-year-old friend's dad.  Aforementioned five year old was NOT going to wear the creeper head.  So his dad said he would do it for him.  Awesome.

The Fred Meyer cake with the cool cake toppers Vanessa made.  Happy Birthday, Paul!

After the cake it was time to play an hour of Minecraft.  No pictures available because I was upstairs with the moms enjoying mom time!  Overall, the party was a HUGE success.  And I was SO happy when it was done.  One down, one to go!!

More Birthday Than I Ever Expected

Ever been surprised?  In a good way?  ;-)  As a stay at home mom, too often the things that surprise me aren't all that pleasant.  You put what into the dryer?!?  (a red crayon - not good)  You did what to the carpet?  (drew a map in marker on it)  You ate how many of the saltines in one sitting?  (Two packs) See what I'm getting at here?  Surprises can be a mixed bag around here.

Last Friday my husband surprised me in the BEST WAY EVER.  Let me explain.  I knew that we were going to be having a small, intimate dinner at my in-laws place in celebration of my birthday.  It was going to be us and two other couples from church, our pastors and their wives.  These are folks that we appreciate and with whom we rarely get to socialize.  In fact, the six of us had NEVER done anything without kids that wasn't ministry related.  So, my in-laws made us a beautiful dinner to celebrate my 40th.  So fun!  Wanna see the menu?

So nice

It was fancy, people.  Speaking of people, you should see them, too.  Here are the people pictures.

 The Vices with their salads

 The Monroes also with salads

The Bangsunds

Dinner was so lovely.  That is perhaps the hugest understatement of this post.  It was elegant and refined.  Our children were not present.  Oh, the pure bliss of uninterrupted dinner conversation.  It was good.

We finished our main course and prepared to retire to the veranda for dessert, as stated on the menu.  Lovely.  We walked down the hallway of the condo, and there on the veranda were stunning, shiny pink decorations, a table full of pink desserts and twelve of our closest friends in this life, blowing on party noise makers, wearing pins with pictures of me from childhood, and shouting, "Surprise!"  It was the coolest thing anyone has ever done for me.  And let me be clear, I walked right up to my husband and kissed him on the lips and told him, "Good job."  I know full well the sacrifice and effort this took on his part.  Yes, he had help.  Kirsten and Vanessa from Roots did all the decorating and dessert arranging.  But my husband went WAY outside his comfort zone and planned this amazing, beautiful surprise for me.  I was stunned and thrilled and so excited.  And I cried a little.  I love surprises...the good kind...and I had never been thrown a surprise party before.  It felt so special to know that people were thinking and planning to do something this wonderful for me.  I'm not sure which love language surprises fit under, but it's mine.  I don't think I knew that until Friday night.  Anyway...here are some pictures...I wish there were more, but the photo booth photographer is pregnant with her third and I am NOT going to bug her for the pics from that business.  If/when she gets them to me, you might see even MORE birthday business from my 40th.  It was that epic, people.

Okay, here's what I do have.

This is the moment!

 SO surprised and a little weepy.

I wore this tiara all evening.  It lights up and says, "Party Girl."  These people know me so well.

A selfie with my Holly

He's dancing.  I'm so happy I took this picture.

I am so blessed to know these folks.

On Turning Forty

Let me be clear.  I love my birthday, and this year was no exception.  Turning forty has not freaked me out, bummed me out, or in any way bothered me.  I'm fairly certain it is because I have close friends on both sides of forty, some a decade ahead of me on the journey, some a decade behind.  All of them inspire me to do this well.

By "this" I mean aging, a word that many folks want to avoid and/or ignore.  I don't.  Age is not a state of mind.  It's simply a measure of how long your body has been on earth.  Right?  And aging is different for different people.  Some folks reach forty no wiser than they were at twenty.  Really.  I've met a few.  I can't claim to be all that wise, but I'm definitely wiser now than two decades ago.

Let me illustrate using a simple, real life example from the past six months.  I decided some time in January or February that I wanted my fortieth birthday to be a little more special than previous birthdays.  I am married to a man who loves me as Christ loves the church.  For real.  He chooses the highest good for me so consistently, a definition for love that I learned in Junior High and never forgot.  Love is choosing the highest good for the other person.  Erik does that.  And at the same time he is ADD.

What does that mean for birthdays usually?  Has Erik ever forgotten my birthday?  NO!  I would never let him do that. He would feel terrible.  I would feel terrible.  It would BE terrible.  I love him, people.  So, I help him remember the things that are important to me.  And when I want something to be special, I TELL HIM.  Toward that end, as I realized that I wanted my birthday to be more epic than normal, I started sending him ideas from Pinterest in February.  Not in a nagging, annoying way.  More like a "Maybe this" way.  People, I didn't start a board and pin all the ideas I wanted him to consider and then spend six months looking through it all.  I found one idea that I really liked and sent it to him.  About seven months in advance.  And then I forgot about it.  Honestly.  The forgetting part was pretty easy.  My memory is not that great anyway!

Let me fast forward to Wednesday morning this week.  I didn't actually sleep well on Tuesday because I was SO excited for my birthday.  It's true.  I knew I was going to be spending the bulk of the day with my dear friend, Holly, and we don't get to do that very often.  So, I woke up at 5:30 a.m., went out to the kitchen, started the coffee maker and headed to the living room for some quiet time. As I walked into the room, I noticed some candles on a side table that usually live on the mantel.  Not grumpy, but a little perplexed, I turned toward them to put them back where they belong.  That's when I noticed it.  Big.  Pink.  40.  It will be easier to show you.

Each sheet is from a different friend or family member and contains memories of time spent with me.  I was above and beyond surprised friends by this display.  And yes, I sent Erik something similar to this idea about seven months ago.  And then I forgot, so I was TOTALLY surprised!  Perfect.

Erik and I spent the morning reading through the pages and pages of memories as recorded by some of our closest friends.  Some of them were funny.  Some of them were poignant.  All of them were encouraging and edifying, reminding me of all the Lord Jesus Christ has done to save me and transform me over the past forty years.  You see, I have recently fallen into the trap of thinking untrue things about myself.  I'm not sure why, for whatever reason, it just hasn't been uncommon for me to be thinking thoughts like, "I'm not a great mom," or "I don't really have much to offer folks."  Those are lies, but if you've ever heard them, you know how easy it is to believe them.

Each one of these pages told me the truth about myself in Christ Jesus.  I have loved well in His name.  I have encouraged others in His strength.  I have shown His light in dark places through His power and not my own.  Oh, how I needed to read these things about myself.  What a great gift.  I was so blessed by my husband's efforts and the time my friends and family took to create this present.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  Sidenote:  it was also easy on the budget (pink construction paper from the playroom plus printer paper from the office).  Nice.

Next stop:  Holly's house!  Time for another picture.

Isn't this lovely?  Holly and I enjoyed a late breakfast of scrambled eggs with pesto accompanied by a cup of English Breakfast at this beautifully appointed table.  My children were somewhere in this house or its adjoining yard at that point.  I don't really know where.  Perfect.

After our leisurely brunch, during which Holly's ten year old daughter willingly waited on us despite having been freed to go and play, we loaded the kids in the van to take them to free lunch in the park.   I love this program.  The kids arrive, wash their hands, and are given a bag lunch.  My kids are finally old enough to actually eat the food.  Luke ate his turkey sandwich and Paul ate his hummus and pita bread with a side of string cheese.  Holly and I enjoyed more conversation and the shade.

Our lunch table in the shade.

After lunch, we dropped all the kids back at the house (with the fifteen and thirteen year old in charge), made some quick iced coffee with caramel, and headed for the bead shop about seven minutes away.

This was Holly's birthday surprise for me.  We made bracelets together in the craft room at the local bead shop.  It was SO much fun.  I'm not crafty at all, but I can put beads on a string.  And so we spent a couple hours picking beads, stringing beads, and chatting uninterrupted by kids.

 Ready to bead it up kid-free!

 Planning my pink bracelet. I like pink.

 Nearly finished...

Done and awesome.

We headed back to the house where Holly put together another stunning meal of chicken salad.  I think I took a picture of that goodness...

Yep.  Pretty amazing, huh?

I cannot thank my dear Holly enough for making my day so very lovely.  I am grateful for you, friend.

The boys and I headed home, where Erik made pancakes and bacon for dinner with my mom as a guest.  Cheap and complaint-free were what I wanted for dinner on my birthday.  This meal is both every time.  We enjoyed my mom's award winning apple pie for dessert.  Okay.  She's never won any awards for it, but that's only because she's never entered it in any contests.  If she did, it would win.

Then I jetted out the door for the first evening of our Roots Women Summer Bible Study.  I was asked to co-lead that adventure and said yes, knowing the first meeting would fall on my fortieth birthday.  Why would I do that?  Simple.  I love the Bible and I love being with women to study it.  We had a blast.  We studied Mary and Martha.  I gleaned sweet, awesome truth from women who shared what God taught them through the study.  I shared what God taught me.  People, this is exactly the kind of thing I LOVE doing and getting to do it on my birthday was epic. There was also cheesecake.  And they sang to me.  So, that happened, too.  (Yes, I ate two desserts on my birthday, but it's okay because I didn't have any pancakes...)

 Overall, turning forty has been sweet.  Being forty?  So far, so good.  And I have a plan to help the goodness continue.  I'm going to take the birthday money gifted to me so very generously by my fabulous in-laws, and I am going to take piano lessons!  EEK!  I'm so excited!  I took lessons between the ages of eight and fifteen-ish.  Since then, I have also learned to play in a worship band and accompany myself if given a chord chart or a piece of sheet music that I can fake my way through.  A short while ago, I found myself talking to a friend about wanting to study piano again in earnest.  She was SO encouraging and even loaned me some of her piano books from her youth.  For the record, she started at the top of the pile with her most difficult books, and I kept her flipping through until we hit the books for junior highers.  I've been working my way through one of them, and it's a perfect fit.  We all knew I was still in junior high mentally, right? ;-)