I find myself between a state of shock and one of utter disbelief that we celebrated Joshua's eighth...EIGHTH!...birthday on Saturday. I am not entirely sure how it all happened but it seems as though I have blinked and now all of a sudden my little boy, my bundle of blue fuzzy blankets, has turned into a big kid.
Over this past year he has grown tremendously physically- as evidenced by the multiple pants wardrobes we have cycled through- as well as in every other way. We can see his character developing, thanks so much to the incredible school environment that he is in that supports and supplements the instruction he gets at home. We see him turning into an even more conscientious and responsible student, and those traits are carrying into his role here at home too. We are just so proud of him and so honored that we were the ones blessed to be his parents.
Ever since we found out that this year's PSU vs Ohio State game was scheduled for his actual birthday, our little Nittany Lion fanatic had asked to go with us to this game. So, in lieu of our normal birthday bash at home with our families, we got to spend the entire day with our birthday boy soaking up the atmosphere of a Penn State white out night game.
We had quite a tailgate, both for Joshua's special day and to help show Jason's clients, who were also along, the kind of PSU hospitality that Happy Valley is known for. Although I literally spent all of Friday in the kitchen preparing food, everyone seemed pleased with our offerings for them. The Penn State birthday cake was a hit- even though we couldn't light any candles because they would have blown out with the wind. Either that or we would have burned down our tent, and neither one of those things seemed like a good idea.
Kickoff wasn't until 8:00, and this guy's bedtime is normally 8:30. Add to that the fact that he had been up since 6 am "too excited to sleep" and we had a tired boy on our hands by half time.
See?
He napped for a bit during the half time show, but was awake and cheering when it counted (pretty much the entire second half and both overtimes!). The game certainly could have ended on a happier note, although truly the horrendous officiating cost our team the victory that night. They had obviously chosen the winner of the game before our team even took the field. (As if we needed any more reasons to hate Ohio State!)
After double overtime, we arrived back to our parking spot around 12:30. To give you an idea of the traffic situation, we finally made it out of the parking lot by 1:30 am. And we returned to our home at approximately 3:00 am. In case there was any question, this exercise confirmed, hands down, that I am waaaaay too old to be out at those hours of the night. Returning at that hour meant putting the girls to bed (they had fallen asleep on the living room floor) and then finally getting ourselves into bed after 4 am, with the kids' usual wakeup time shortly after 6. Needless to say, we opted out of church on Sunday and considered it success just to have our eyes open the rest of the day.
I think Joshua had a very special day-- he loved getting to do something special with us, and loved the atmosphere of the game. And if those are the kinds of things you can do with an eight year old, maybe it's not such a bad thing after all!
