The Troy Fan Club

This past weekend we celebrated Josh's 31st birthday. The kids woke him up with breakfast in bed. We made him a special lunch and his Aunt Deon's yummy Coconut Pound Cake. This cake is so moist and reminds me of a coconut snow cone. It was de-lish! The kids picked out special presents for their dad and made sweet cards for him.

Josh's birthday was a day that both kids had been looking forward to for several days. One of the reasons, of course, was so that they could give their dad his presents and give him extra TLC on his birthday. The other reason for all of the excitement was that Josh agreed to let Mary Alice have a sleepover at our house on his birthday. I'm sure that having a bunch of noisy,giggly girls over on his birthday was not his dream come true, but Josh was sweet to let Mary Alice have her friends over on his special day. Ultimately, though, Josh LOVED seeing his Mary Alice girl have so much fun with her friends.

My youngest brother, Ben, is starring in a local performance of the play High School Musical. Until a few weeks ago, I had never actually seen this movie. I rented the movie and concluded that it was just what I expected, a very cheesy representation of American teenage life. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to push teenage popular culture on my seven year old daughter. I think little girls should act like little girls. Children hardly have time to be children anymore these days! Almost as soon as they are out of diapers, society pushes them to start behaving like little adults! Josh and I agreed to allow Mary Alice and Major to watch the movie. It was a "cute" movie for a Disney musical, but not one that we are going to run out and buy. Maybe I take things too seriously? I just want to be very intentional about what goes into the minds of my children. The teenage years will come around soon enough. :(





Uncle Ben played the part of "Troy", a basketball player who tries out for his high school's musical, despite attempts from those in his peer group to persuade him that he can only be a jock. Mary Alice and her friends showed their support for Ben by wearing red t-shirts. They went to the play dressed as "Troy's Fan Club". The shirts said things like "We heart Troy." "Troy Fan Club", and "Troy is my uncle.". They wore buttons pinned to their shirts with Ben's picture in them. They brought little notebooks to get the autographs of the cast after the performance. The girls spent the night and went to church with us the next morning. All in all, it was a fun, giggly, silly, happy, ultra-loud way to spend time with friends. There is nothing quite like a good slumber party. SO much fun!


Here are some funnies:

A picture of Mary Alice's "TO DO" list for Josh's birthday. She is very thorough. It cracks me up!


A few pictures of the "Troy Fan Club" before we left for the play. I told them that they had to act like Ben was a superstar when he came out. :)






At the musical...


On the way home...I think this picture captures the silliness of the girls quite nicely. :)


The next morning over breakfast. The girls made cinnamon toast and compared autograph books. :) Sweet.