Yesterday was a big day at the Gelina house. It was the day our son became a teenager. He has been looking forward to this day for quite some time. In fact, he's been telling us that he is 13 now for the past six months. But yesterday was actually the big day. And we made the most of it.
David invited quite a few friends. We were pleased that his friends included children from our church who are quite a bit younger than David but who he really enjoys as well as kids (girls, to be exact) from his school who are in some of his classes. David also invited his wonderful friends Peg and Dave Hunt and Peg's mother Mrs. Walker. David looks at Peg, Dave, and Mrs. Walker as extra relatives. They have always shown him lots of love and he really was happy that they were able to come to his party. I think David looks at Peg and Dave as grandparents. And that's a wonderful thing since he doesn't get to see his real grandparents very often.
The party's theme was NASA, especially the space shuttle and Kim did a great job of decorating for the party. She ordered t-shirts and hats for Kim, David and me directly from NASA. She ordered space shuttle sipper cups that the kids were able to take home with them after the party. She ordered blowup space shuttles that we hung off of shepherd's hooks all around the patio. She got some balloons with space images on them. She even ordered a space shuttle piñata, which the younger kids thoroughly enjoyed wacking away at.
But the most amazing thematic element was the space shuttle cake made by our good friend from church, Stacy Wilson. As you can see by the photograph, she is an amazing cake decorator. She also made cupcakes that had brightly colored toothpick things stuck into the center of them. The toothpicks looked like a burst of fireworks coming out of the cupcakes. The kids loved them.
But the space shuttle cake was by far the thing the kids got the most excited about. And it tasted fantastic too! Stacy is truly amazing.
David has always had a tendency to make friends with some less-than-savory characters. We have been pleased to see this change over the last year or so. But the friends that he invited from school were absolutely wonderful young ladies. They were polite, well-behaved, very nice to the younger children, and (as David kept pointing out to us) very pretty. I was also quite impressed to hear one of the girl's sing along with an Earth, Wind & Fire song when it came up on the playlist. Any young teenager that knows Earth, Wind & Fire music is at the top of my list.
David invited five of the girls from his school. Four of them had planned on coming to the party, but one of those four had to cancel at the last minute because something else had come up. But the three young ladies who were able to come encouraged us greatly as to David's choice of friends. This is a huge area of improvement in his maturity and we are very proud of him for surrounding himself with friends such as these.
In the evening, we had our newlywed friends Joe and Abigail over for a pizza dinner and a movie (Alvin and the Chipmunks). It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful day. Joe and Abigail are such a great couple. After they left David said that they both chose well. He said that Joe and Abigail were made for each other. I believe he's right.
We talked to Joe and Abigail about the day we brought David home from the hospital. That was 13 years ago today. It was a very stormy night with heavy pelting rain that beat against the windshield. I drove very careully because we had the most precious cargo in the car we could imagine and we wanted to get him safely to the destination.
It strikes me now that we have never finished that trip. Although the storms have varied—they have never abated ever since David entered our lives. And we still drive very carefully—not just in the car but in all of life—trying by the grace of God to protect our precious cargo and help him arrive safely at his destination. Yesterday's party held evidence that he is getting there.
A lovely post about a grand day and a fine boy. Enjoy every day with him. They grow up and are gone while you are not looking! Blessings to all of you, Peggy
ReplyDeletePeggy - It's hard to believe it has already been 13 years. He's already talking about the fact that in three more years he'll be eligble to get his driver's license. YIKES!
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