Year 2, Day 265: Birthday Take 2

Phew! What a Sunday!  We had to carefully orchestra the day in order to fit everything in!  Since we had decided to wait and not go to church Saturday night, and instead, attend worship at the 9:15 am service together with Jared after he and Gary got home, the day started pretty early.  After my whole 30 diet thing, I've been feeling much more normal in the mornings, so getting out of the house is so much easier!  And I've cut out coffee in the morning (replaced it with tea) and that alone is doing the trick.  I miss coffee, especially the cream, but when I have it in the afternoon, it doesn't taste as good because I know there will be a stomach ache coming.  TMI perhaps, but this is a BIG deal for me!  Anyway, side note, but it's helping overall.

Moving on: 6 Johnsons go to church in one van.  4 Johnsons stay at church until 1, while the other 2 Johnsons, Melinda and birthday boy Justin, take a short trip to Aldi's for fresh pizza and milk and a "few" other things.  I actually should have grabbed more meat because we are out of it again, ugh.  Then the 2 Johnsons head home to cook the pizza and tidy up for birthday guests later.  Meanwhile the 4 Johnsons get into the other 2 older Johnsons vehicles after the 11 am service to go eat Sunday dinner together at a little Chinese place in between church and home called Lil Garden (?).  The 2 Johnsons meet up with the 3 other birthday guests and we drive down to the movie theater in Greenwood with our prepurchased tickets to see "Lego: Ninjago."  Meanwhile, the 4 Johnsons plus 2 older Johnsons go to 2 older Johnsons' house so that littlest Johnson could nap and girlie Johnson could hang out, letting Jared and Benaiah got to church early for Crave so Benaiah could do the tech for the worship and teaching time.  Birthday boy Justin and Mom bring the 3 birthday guests (Jordan, Benjamin and Kylie, all homeschoolers and they all do Bible Bowl together and 2 of them love Pokemon as much as Justing does) home for a bit after the movie for playtime, pizza, and cake.  The littlest 2 Johnsons join in as they are brought over by older 2 Johnsons before they head to small group.  Then, Momma of 4 Johnsons takes 6 kids to the church and their activities.  Justin and his band of merry friends head off to youth group, girlie K Johnson has her choir practice, which leaves Daddy Johnson and littlest Johnson to hang out in the office so Jared could catch up from his trip and make more thumbdrives and send out orders etc.  Meanwhile, Momma Johnson of 4 meets up with her homeschooling ladies in the green room to talk about homeschooling for our official September meeting.  The topic was more a Q&A because I just didn't have it in me to come up with a big plan fr the rest of this year's topics or anything.  But we did enjoy talking.  Then the Johnson 6 reconvene from all ends of the church campus in order to go home and go to bed because school and work comes around again the morning.  No rest for the weary. 

And the day did pretty much go off without a hitch!  I'm very impressed!  And at the same time, the schedule didn't leave any room for error.  I didn't clean up the dishes until we got home for example.  I didn't eat much lunch or dinner.  The cake and hanging out part didn't seem long enough.  I hadn't pulled out the candles or paper plates, and I couldn't find the #2 candle to go with the #1 candle.  But did Justin and his friends have fun.  Of course!  And the kids were so thankful and happy.  They all gave me hugs and thanked me a ton, which means a lot.  They been taught their manners extremely well.  I even tweeted about how awesome it is to hear 12 year olds just talk about silly things like Pokemon or Minecraft or the Star Wars Battlefront game.  These kids are purposefully and carefully sheltered from certain (not all) things and it shows.  It was very pleasant to host them.

And this is why we stayed home for 2 days beforehand and 1 day after.  I'd rather get it all done in one, then interrupt our school day for something.  We already do that enough with the library and gym mornings.  And the sermon was right on point for me.  It got my brain thinking and I was able to spell out some things I've been wrestling with.  Holy Spirit was definitely talking through Mr. Dan up there on stage in his plaid shirt (he has a thing for plaid shirts and Dr. Pepper).  I wasn't the biggest fan when it was announced that he was the new teaching minister, but he's come to grow on me.  The elders have chosen well.  And with the big 4-0 birthday for Indian Creek Christian Church coming up, it's a good time to reflect on all that has happened in their history and all the exciting things yet to come.  I was telling Justin how the church building is at the geographical center of Franklin township and how in a radius of 1 (or is it 10?) mile (s) there are 100,000 people in all these subdivisions that need a church home.  It was a God thing since the beginning.  And to think that Gary has been there for 27, almost 28 years of the church.  Wow!  From a few hundred to several thousand members!  Crazy!  Church numbers do count because we all count, right? 

Granted, they are 2 years apart, but still, they have Bible Bowl, church and a love of Pokemon to keep them going.  Daniel has definitely mellowed as he's grown older.

The gang from left to right: Jordan (related to Daniel), Kylie, Justin and Daniel.  That's the last time Justin gets to wear his "Ninjamoo" shrit becasue it's getting small.  He's always where Ninjago shirts and he's not embarrassed to go to a movie about it.  It's all part of the fun!

I love it when we can use our van for it's intended purpose: moving people not brown boxes!

"Bouya (bottle)" and "wa we (water)" like a boss!  This kid was super stir crazy by the end of the day because he had been at church for 2 services, then with Grandma and Grandpa, then extra friends wehre in his house, then youth group peeps.  And you wonder if homeschoolers have a social life?  Of course they do!

I can't remember if I posted this a couple of days ago, but this is Justin's Minecraft Cake that looks like the actual cake piece in Minecraft.  Pretty simple!

Socks got some extra loving from the crew. And yes, the walls are still pretty bare and although the house is picked up, visually, it's pretty overwhelming.

Pizza and "water" and "lava" from Minecraft, all Justin's idea!  It's actually Fanta drink.

Kylie's mom is super tiny like me, so it's no wonder Kylie is tiny and can fit in the toddler chair, lol.

It's a good thing we had two sets of Lego candles.  They burn quickly, and with 12 of them, yup, there was wax on the cake.  Justin needed a bit of help getting them lit, but he handled all the wax clean up, taking the candles off, and service and the cake by himself.  What a great host!

12 years old!

Blow, boy, blow!  BTW, I've hosted almost 35 birthday parties.  Usually we have decorations and special plates, but not always.  The older boys like "experience" birthdays now, so we take a few friends out and have some fun!

Cake, dye-filled fruit drink, and sissy's water "bayou."

Little and big working together.

Monday should be a bit quieter, although the big/full bathroom project starts.  Last major inside project!  I hope it's not too complicated!  We will see!