January 6 – “THE birthday party”

I woke up around 6:30 to find Josh already at his computer.  Not that unusual an occurrence, but he was wearing a floor length, flowing blue robe, and was hunched over in his chair in front of the computer.  He looked quite regal, actually.  I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.  Let’s say he was praying.

Didn’t take long before Zak woke up and joined him on the small couch.  Josh had obviously completed his time of contemplation and had returned to his computer work.  Zak had the iPad and was intently working his way through levels of a video game.  Great picture of a modern-day father and son.  No more of this pitching hay or chopping wood together.  No sir-ee.

Finally Caleb woke up.  I say “finally” because Zak had been chomping at the bit to wish him a happy birthday.  He still had to wait a bit before presenting him with the present he had picked out for him.  Legos, of course.  Some kind of Ninjago thing.  We got caught up in the moment as well and gave him our present.  Also Legos.  Ours was Spiderman vs. Doc Oc.  I guess we made a good choice.  Zak was very excited.  He cried out to Caleb, “That’s just the one you wanted.”  The next few hours were spent putting Legos together and playing with Luke.  Grandparent Heaven.

In the spirit of Dads working with their sons, I had a chance to work with a Josh a little bit on preparing for his funeral.  Not his personally – the one he is leading on Monday.

Now about Caleb’s birthday party …

It was to be held at their church’s recreation building.  Yes, they have an entire three or four story building dedicated to recreation.  It’s kind of old and needs lots of “deferred maintenance,” but it’s certainly functional.  

One party activity we stumbled upon became an instant hit.  Christi had one of those helium tanks for the balloons she was using as the centerpiece.  Josh came across a few of those long, skinny balloons clowns use to make animals and swords and things.  On a whim, I filled one of them up with helium.  What a strange reaction.  I never expected it.  The balloon didn’t just float to the ceiling like a normal round one would have.  Instead it stayed within arms’ reach of the boys, but made some strange and wonderful dips and spins when tossed up.  We filled up all the clown balloons we had, and Caleb and Zak had a blast with them.  So that decision was made.  Josh and I made a trip to the local Party Store and got a whole bag of the things.  And they were an instant smash at the party.  They actually stood up on the ground with one end in the air like they were growing.  Josh made a field of them, and the kids ran through and tried to knock them all down.  For some reason they were especially sensitive to static electricity and the kids discovered that they could touch them to the wall and they would stay there.  We probably could have just let them play with those balloons the whole time and they would have been fine. 

The church owned several bounce houses, so one of them was set up for the kids to use as well.  Meanwhile,we finalized the made-up games for the party:

“High five Boba Fett” – This one became an instant classic.  Somewhere Josh acquired a life-sized cardboard cutout of the Star Wars figure.  Christi came up with the idea of pinning a Baylor basketball jersey on him.  The game was simple.  The kids would see how high onto Boba Fett they could jump and slap a piece of sticky pad paper.  Later Josh received a recommendation.  Next time rename the guy “Baylor Fett.”  Definitely region-appropriate.
“Chase the cows” – Josh found this one on line and adapted it.  Pretty simple.  The kids were in two lines.  Two at a time chased the two balls he rolled, grabbed them, returned and made a shot in the lowered basket.
“Moving basket” – This one came to my warped mind as I contemplated a laundry basket.  What if the basket could move?  For this one the kids were divided into pairs and each pair was given a laundry basket.  Josh then tossed a bunch of balloons in the air.  The object of the game was to catch as many balloons as you could in your laundry basket. 
I’m not one of the kids, so I don’t know how the games really went over, but they sure did a lot of laughing and giggling.  Sounded like fun to me.

We adjourned to another room for cake and ice cream.  Christi and Chris did a bang-up job decorating in there.  With Zak and Caleb’s help, of course.  Oh, and our friends Cary and KayLynn from Arlington helped, too.  They are surrogate grandparents for the boys and have been our great friends for years.

As the kids enjoyed eating, one little boy was explaining something to Zak with great intensity.  And when he realized I was listening, he graciously included me in the conversation.  His passion was centered around the greatest basketball player ever.  From what I heard, this player won five championships and never ever lost.  “That’s pretty impressive,” I offered.  “You must be talking about Michael Jordan.”  And was I ever stunned by his answer.  Ready for this one?  He looked at me blankly and said, “Who?”  Nope.  Never heard of Michael Jordan.  What are the youngsters of this world coming to?  I had to press a little bit to get him to tell me the name of this incredible superstar who made people forget Jordan ever existed.  Finally it came out.  “Jeremy Lin.”  Oh.  OK.  Not so much in the same ballpark as Jordan, but at least he plays for the Rockets.

We returned to the house after the party for some pizza and for the team effort that it took to put together Caleb’s life-sized castle.  Well, Caleb-sized, anyway.  Cool thing.  Once it’s put together, the kids colored it to make it their own personalized castle.  Well, the kids and Christi.  She couldn’t resist. 

Psalms 119:35 says, “Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.”

Father, thank you for letting me see so much delight in the eyes of the children.  Reminded me to seek delight every day, too.  Thanks for showing me where to find it.  Amen.