Jake's Party

Here are some pics from the big party yesterday with Jake, his sister and his cousins. It was a real fun-filled day for everyone, especially for the parents when all 4 kids went down without too much of a fight.

Actually, the only one who gave us any grief was...you guessed it...

the birthday boy himself.

To be honest though, we knew he was exhausted and after one trip down the stairs to tell us adults that "he could hear us", we told him we'd be quiet and to go back to bed. He followed our advice promptly and perfectly and we all enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Especially Dave and me. We trounced Jennifer & Kristin at a good game of spades.


Here are all the cousins starting the day off at Red Robin for some pizza and burgers.

After Red Robin, we all made our way up to Lokomotion for some go-carts, bumper boats and arcade games. Here is Jake, getting buckled in and looking a lot like Racer X.

Here he is, showing off how easy it is to drive with one hand. Can you imagine him in about 10 years waving to all the cute girls? Calgon...take me away...

Here's old Slick. He'd spent too much time waving and not enough time watching the road and ended up slamming into the guard rail, stalling his car along the way.

This is me, the concerned father, laughing at how my son just crashed into the guard rail. Can you not see the concern etched into the crevices of my skin? Me neither.

"Hey Dad...I saw you laughing at me when I crashed in my go-cart. Let's see how long you're laughing after you taste my red-hot lazer!!"

Once the Lazer Tag was done, we all got into a great water gun fight on the Bumper Boats. Side note here: see how our family would look if we had 4 kids instead of just 2? I'd probably have a lot more gray hair and yet a lot less of it overall.

Finishing up the night at Noodles Italian Restaurant, here's Mr. Cakeface, determining if he wants any more icing or his Thomas the Train that sat on the cake to begin with.

My wife asked "why we could never get a serious smile picture with our kids?" I'm still trying to figure it out but I think we can attribute a lot of the liveliness to the amount of sugar he consumed yesterday.

Thankfully, the birthday celebrations are over and the excitement has begun to subside. Here's hoping we can regroup (Jennifer and I) before Saturday gets here when we start it all over again for Kaitlyn's sleepover.

I'll thank you in advance for your prayers.

Happy Birthday Jake!!

Well, here we are, celebrating the big 5 birthday of our son Jacob! It's so hard to believe that not only is he 5 years old today but he'll soon be starting kindergarten this fall. I don't know who's going to have a harder time with it...Mommy or me. Ha!

It's already been a busy day.

I started things off with an early morning workout at 6:15 and then a run to Panera for some bagels. Jennifer's sister and her family came in last night for a couple of days so Jake & Kaitlyn are thrilled to have their cousins here with us. So, since everyone is here, I bought enough bagels to feed a small commune. Of course, I bought too much but with everyone here, I'm sure all the bagels will be devoured soon.

Jake got his usual (ie: favorite) combo of a plain bagel and plain cream cheese for breakfast, complete with an after-meal "moustache". Cream cheese is hard to get off a child's face if you let it sit longer than 30 seconds.

He also got his name read on the radio this morning (KLRC) and was thrilled yet slightly embarrassed to hear the DJ call out his name. Of course it didn't help that Mommy & Daddy also began to yell and cheer like 12 year old girls either.

We let him open a few of his gifts now and we'll save some for later with his cake & candles. I was extremely fortunate to get a Thomas the Train cake made up for us at the last minute. It wasn't like I forgot to get one. He'd just had one 2 weeks ago at his early birthday party but that cake met an untimely demise as it fell on the floor only hours after the party was over. So, Mommy asked me to get him a new one for today and the guys at Harp's were only too happy to oblige.

I think back to when he was born and what a joyful time that was for us. I go back even further when I think of how his arrival was announced to me.

We had just gotten back from Disneyworld with Kaitlyn (she was 3 at the time and so cute with her hair all done up in pigtails and the ever-present Minnie Mouse dress). We were lucky to have found a room at the Nickelodeon hotel there in Orlando that was only minutes away from the Magic Kingdom. I don't know if it was the experience of being in Florida with my wife and daughter or perhaps it was the Spongebob decor of our room but apparently when the three of us arrived, we unknowingly left as a family of 4.

At least that's what my wife told me when we got back to Columbia and she let me in on the good news a few weeks later.

You know, those souvenirs at Disney are already pretty expensive. I didn't expect to bring one back that we'd have with us for at least 18 years under our roof. LOL

Ah, in all seriousness, our kids are absolutely incredible!! Today we celebrate Jake's 5th birthday and Saturday we celebrate Kaitlyn's 9th. Hard to believe they are both growing up so quickly but time stands still for no one, especially us parents.

Having Jake was the big turning point in my life that helped me get the courage up to leave radio for good and just stay home and be a "dad". That has been one of the greatest decisions I've ever made and I'd never do anything differently as a result.

I realize how blessed we are and how awesome God really is. He's given us 2 incredible kids who fill our lives with such joy and laughter, all the while keeping us young and active. In fact, I've now become Jake's personal boxing dummy and have a nice fat lip to show for it.

What's that they say? Love hurts? Boy, does it ever. LOL

Jake, your mommy, daddy & Kate love you so much and we wish you an absolutely fantastic 5th birthday! May God bless you wildly and guide you by His hand to make you have an indelible impact on this generation for His glory & honor!!

I love you, son!!

Now, let's go play some Motorstorm and get ready to fight 'cause we're about to represent!!!

Evan Almighty

To be honest with you, when I first saw the previews for "Evan Almighty", I wasn't too impressed. I've seen Hollywood try to re-invent biblical stories and messages into something that's more "fan friendly"...not wanting to offend anyone. So, when they started showing previews for a movie that was attempting to make a modern day Noah's Ark, I was very skeptical as to what kind of fluff we'd see.

I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

In this movie, Evan Baxter, played by Steve Carell from The Office (one of my fave shows!) is a former TV news anchor who has won a seat in Congress and he and his wife are on their way to Washington DC to live. They bring their 3 boys and all their stuff to an extremely young yet affluent neighborhood outside the Capitol called "Prestige Point". Success also brings high profiled appearances and as such, they arrive in a brand new Hummer H2. This thing is huge and flashy, just the kind of image Baxter wants to portray. Yet, almost immediately, things begin to happen that indicate this may not be a normal relocation.

The first morning of his new job, his alarm goes off at 6:14am. The camera zooms in on the clock and we see it's a General Electric brand but only the GEN are still colored. The rest of the ERAL ELECTRIC are faded out, having lost their white painted cover. So what you see is GEN 6:14 on the screen.

As he gets up, wondering why his clock went off so early, he stumbles over a large crate on his front doorstep full of tools like hammers, awls and such. He thinks it's obviously been delivered by mistake and thinks nothing of it.

However, we begin to see more "coincidental" episodes that reflect GEN 6:14 that culminate with God Himself appearing before Evan. God, played by Morgan Freeman, reveals that He wants Evan to build an ark and He'll send him the tools and materials needed. Evan, skeptical as we all would be, laughs at this guy who's obviously not all there and walks away to begin his day in Wash DC.

As is the case in real life, when God wants you to do something and wants you to hear from Him, He is real good at being persistant and grabbing your attention. God shows up in one scene in front of Evan everywhere from the backseat of his Hummer to the traffic cop along side him to the pedestrian crossing the street. It's really well done and very funny watching Freeman playing this part and Carell's exasperated mannerisms.

As the movie progresses, Evan begins to believe that God really does have a mission for him...the task of building an actual ark. Like the real Noah probably went through, Evan began to face ridicule from everyone from his friends & co-workers to even his family. When the ultimatum was finally given from his wife to either "come back to them" or they'll leave, he remains commited to the task before him and his family leaves.

To me, the most relevant point in the movie occurs when Joan is sitting in the restaurant right after she's left Evan and God visits her in the form of a waiter. Freeman (God) scoots up next to her and begins to ask her what is wrong. She tells Him that it's her husband, that Noah-type guy, who's got her so confused and hurt. God mentions to her how we all need to remember that during those times of trial in our lives, God gives us "opportunities" to find what we're asking for.

When we ask Him for patience, He doesn't wave a magic wand and give us immediate patence. He gives us the opportunity to practice patience.

When we pray for courage & strength, God gives us those moments to show our courage & strength.

It was this message that really struck home for me. I've often prayed and asked the Lord for patience, strength, courage, the ability to live righteously and do what He wants from me. It's suddently dawned on me that these things don't happen instantly but only when I truly rely upon Him will I begin to see more patience, strength, courage and righteousness in my life.

As far as the movie itself goes, it's a decent family movie to see with very little language issues for the little ones. Of course, with animals involved, there are a few "poopy" scenes where birds or llamas get the bad guys but overall, it's a fun flick for everyone. It also doesn't hurt that for once, Hollywood didn't steer away from the issue of God and try to put Him into some humanistic box.

It actually showed Him as Someone who loves us enough to come down to our level, reaching out to us when it becomes obvious there is no way for us to reach Him.

Guess Who's Seen A Few Summer Blockbusters?

This one is going to be short since it's late and I'm kinda planning out the week right now.

I was looking through all the movies that have come out this past summer and am astounded at how many good movies there've been that we've all been looking forward to seeing. I don't know if I'll remember them all but as of tonight, July 1 2007, here's a composite list of the movies we've seen since Memorial Day weekend: (in no particular order)

Spiderman3
Shrek 3
Live Free/Die Hard
Surf's Up
Ratatouille
Evan Almighty
Pirates 3
Ocean's 13
Nancy Drew
Fantastic Four: Silver Surfer
Ghost Rider (still in theaters but I saw it at home on DVD)
Meet The Robinsons

Still to come this summer:

Harry Potter
The Transformers
The Simpsons
License To Wed

OK...License To Wed we didn't circle a date on the calendar for it's release, but since we've become fans of the show "The Office" and John Krasinski is in both, we now have one more flick to see.

Needless to say, it's been a great summer for movies...much better than I remember it being in years past.

I'll give my review of Evan Almighty tomorrow but I'll tease you now by just saying I was pleasantly surprised about it.

Have a good night. I'm off to bed and will be asleep within 42 seconds after my head hits the pillow.

Seriously.