Birthday Boy Justis

Justis is a blessed young man. He has had two days of birthday celebrations and he's still partying! We have had a bang-up time celebrating, despite the fact we know no one outside the family to celebrate with. Cheryl, Scott and Holly round out a fun family party.

Justis's party started yesterday (Sunday) after church. Justis requested his birthday meal to be McDonald's, so we went to McDonald's in Ponchatoula after church. We ate and the kids played on the huge play center there. They didn't eat much of their Happy Meals, but who cares. They had fun playing.

We left McDonald's and came home to open the first round of presents. He was thrilled to get lots of stuff having to do with dinosaurs (clothes, play sets, toy dinosaurs, etc.), and he got a train and a big truck as well. Nap time followed gift-opening.

Justis blew out his birthday cake candles after supper Sunday night and then the kids went back to playing trains and dinosaurs before bed. We all got a good night's sleep before Justis's REAL birthday.

A new "big boy" bike (with no training wheels) was waiting in Justis's room when he woke up this morning. I think Dawson found it first, but I'm not sure. I heard a crash and knew the bike had fallen over, meaning someone had found it! I alerted Travis and he got out of bed to share in the surprise with him. He immediately went out to practice riding the bike with Travis, of course.

Justis opened the remainder of his presents this morning and we followed up with a pinata. The only pinata we could find was the Hillbilliest pinata I'd ever seen. You were supposed to pull a string to get the candy out. We all know a pinata is no fun if you can't whack it with a stick to make the candy come out. So, we did a Hillbilly rig-up and used the dog's leash to make the pull cord for the pinata so the kids could take turns whacking it until the candy came out. I got a kick out of pulling the cord to make the pinata go up and down so they would swing at the air. I really love my children. That was just hilarious.

Justis met his first Louisiana alligator today when we went to the local alligator and turtle farm/hatchery this afternoon. This is a blog in itself, so I'll just say the alligators made quite an impression on the kids (and the big kids)! Then almost everybody took another LONG nap.

Justis is now with Travis, Scott and Dawson for a boys overnight camp-out at Percy Quinn State Park in Mississippi. We girls went shopping, but I did get a call from Travis at the mall. He said they made it there safely and were the only campers at the tent sights. They got to pitch their tent on the best site, right by Lake Tangipahoa. I bet they're fast asleep right now, and that's where I'm headed.

Happy birthday, Justis!