Happy Birthday, Jefferson!

Today my son Jefferson turned 7 years old. All of his clothes have already gotten small for him since just this January. He is growing really fast not only physically, but in all other areas of his life. He loves school and is doing very well, one of the best in the class. He has a great many friends and knows how to treat them well. Jefferson loves his siblings and plays well with all of them. He especially loves working on his own, producing inventions and making experiments by the hour. He is a deep thinker, and has many well thought opinions, when he cares to share them. However, what I like the most about Jefferson is his purity. I have never seen Jefferson say or do a mean thing to anyone. He is very sensitive to others' feelings, and tries his best to be kind. He is very loving, forgiving and sweet. I feel blessed to be Jefferson's mother.

We started his birthday celebration with a little party with some of his friends from school and church. When I had asked him a month ago what theme he wanted to have for his birthday, he immediately drew plans for his party. Within a few minutes, he wrote the names of his friends he wanted to invite, games he wanted to play, food he wanted to eat, prizes he wanted to give, and presents he wanted to have. Jefferson is my kind of man, organized and ready to go.

The theme he had chosen was military. As every little boy out there, Jefferson loves playing with James using toy guns, army men, and military lingo. They also started to do push ups some time ago so they could be fit as the navy seals. I put on a simple costume that turned me into a sergeant, grabbed a whistle and assumed my role as a drill sergeant. We played games and earn prizes by doing the most push ups, target shooting (toy guns with soft bullets), and grenade throwing (water balloons). Jefferson had to learn to be gracious in his own party. He won hands down all of the games, but I had to tell him that we need to give prizes to our friends and not to ourselves. He didn't think that was fair, but he understood the reasons behind my advice.

I had made sure I had provided the table with all of the delicious food that Jefferson had requested (pizza, lemonade, chips, fruit and cupcakes).
After playing and eating, Jefferson was ready to open his presents. He is not very picky about what he gets as long as he gets a lot of presents. From all my children, Jefferson is the most to think of the birthday as a big deal. When I ask Gillian what she wants for her birthday, she quickly responds that books and any surprise would be sufficient. When I ask Jefferson what he wants, he comes back with a list. He was very happy to receive a lot of cool presents and couldn't wait to play with them all day.

After presents, it was time to strengthen our muscles by hitting the pinata. It took all of ten kids' effort and Elijah's hard blow for the pinata to crack open and reveal what it was hiding, delicious candy. This is my favorite part of the party, as I see the kids with their heads down and fingers working hard to grab as many pieces of candy as possible.

The party was a success and Jefferson didn't take long to play with all of his presents. Later on, we had him open the presents from his grandparents and great-grandparents in Georgia, as well as gifts from my mother, Gillian and James. Elijah and I got him a bigger bike than he has, and he seemed to like it very much. All of the kids were riding their bikes afterward on our private lane, and they sure looked as if they were having a lot of fun.

Later tonight, when I was getting them ready for bed, Jefferson requested to have his brothers sleep with him in his bed. I denied him that privilege, but I allowed them, all three, to stay in Jefferson's bed for a few minutes. Just seeing Charlton play a game boy laying side by side with his brothers, made me laugh and grab my camera:
This day was a lot of fun, and I know Jefferson had a good time. I'm so glad that Jefferson is in our life. His thoughtful observations and kind heart makes him one special kind of a guy. Happy Birthday, dearest Jefferson!