Happy birthday to the boy!

Outside the Capitol Building downtown before the Monster Truck Jam... Playing with the color wand sprayer and its stencils at home....
Getting ready to go into the Monster Truck Jam (hehe, doesn't he look cold?!)

Happy fifth birthday, honey!

He insists on going by Joee, not Joey. That's his new thing ("I don't use Y's," he claims.). We don't know why, but we hope it ends soon. Whatever.

His fifth birthday was Friday, the 25th, and man, was he excited! The day started gray and cold, but two new monster trucks and a cool new Sorry! game (Thanks Grandma Becky!) were enough to get him going. The husband and I have never really gotten into this whole truck thing (and I've already gone on and on about gaming), but for some reason, the boy has. He loves it and knows all the truck names, some of the drivers (!), and which races are which. The trucks give him hours of fun since he's able to race them down the driveway, down the slide and into the "mud pit" in the back yard, and share them with other boys in the neighborhood. Remarkably, the trucks last through some pretty tough treatment. He was very excited to open two new trucks for his birthday.

We got him a giant frosted chocolate chip cookie to take to school for snack, and he chose to take one of his old, beaten up trucks (Iron Outlaw, I believe) to show and tell. He's so cute about that part of school. He gets all excited to share his item (Last time it was his soccer ball), but then when it is his turn to talk about his "thing," he gets all quiet and talks in a goofy voice. He told me once that he doesn't like everyone looking at him, so he doesn't want to talk. We'd think it was the opposite because he's so loud, energetic, and well, AHHHH! He said he had a great time at school, and the students sang "Happy Birthday" to him. His best pal, Jack, came over to play after school, and Joey said that he wanted Jack to play with his best monster truck (*sniff* We've been working on this SO much--the idea that we give others our best, not our leftovers.). So that was good, and I felt so proud of Mr. Joey. Later, he got to open the rest of his gifts--a cool monster truck model kit and a color wand sprayer thing from Auntie Michelle (my beloved friend with whom Joey shares a birthday!)

For all the birthdays in our family, we get to choose what we want for dinner. Eat in, eat out, or whatever, it's the birthday person's choice. Joey wanted to eat out, and after a bit of last minute manipulating, we ate at the Spicy Pickle (hehe, funny name). It's a soup-and-sandwich type joint, and the food is a little expensive but good. The boy loves the potato soup, so that's where we went. After that, we went to the mall so he could climb the rock wall (This didn't go so well, since he only tried to climb for, like, 30 seconds. I think he went because he thought WE wanted him to, not because HE wanted to.). So the kids then went to run around in the play area, and Joey found an older boy he could run down. LOL There's a back-story to that.

Every time we go to the play area, Joey always finds a boy around his age or older to play tag or hide and seek, but Joey wears the poor kid out. Not only is he (Joey) usually faster, but his endurance is better. The other boy either comes over to us and asks that we make Joey stop for awhile, or the kid will sit down with his parents and tell Joey to go away. *snicker* Joey often reminds me (in a good way) of my friend Wendy's dog, Hope. They think she's an Australian Shepherd mix, and she's a very high-energy dog. Once she (Wendy) told me that they needed to channel the dog's energy, so she didn't do naughty things; we also have to find stuff to wear out Joey, and we thought chasing in the area would help. So far, it has just helped wear out the OTHER kid.

On Saturday, he and Daddy went to a Monster Truck Jam (which is where all these trucks gather in a huge stadium, go over jumps, and then race to see which truck/ driver is the fastest). Joey loves watching it on tv, but he's never seen anything like it in person. Apparently, the boy was either staring around absorbing it all, or grinning from ear to ear the entire time. They took earplugs, which helped tremendously. Joey really loved seeing the trucks, watching them race, eating junk for dinner, and staying up late like a grown-up.

He's turning into the greatest boy. He cares about others, wants to do a good job at things, thinks deeply about what's going on around him, and is just so full of love and energy.