Joshua's 12th Birthday!

Joshua turned 12 on Monday (11/7)! It's hard to believe he's almost a teenager....

Joshua's special day began with him waking up to find his bedroom door decorated and covered in balloons and streamers. :-) After donuts for breakfast, it was time to run off to school.

After lots of homework and dinner, we let Josh open his one big present from Mom and Dad-- an air soft, remote controlled, tank! He was thrilled!!! :-) (This thing weighs over 7 lbs. and is 2 feet long!)

Later in the evening, we had a little bit of family over to celebrate. A tank-cake seemed appropriate for the occasion (ordered from Nugget). 

The tank is a Transformer robot!

Another item Josh specifically asked for for his birthday was Perplexus Epic. It's like a labyrinth maze, but inside of a sphere. He already mastered the basic Perplexus, so now he has a new challenge in trying to beat the Epic. It was so funny watching Sarah's dad (who is an engineer through and through), and Joshua (destined to be an engineer, himself, one day) both trying to figure out the Perplexus mazes! The next several pictures show their concentration and determination. :-)

 

Papa then moved on to see something James wanted to show him from  the NASA website. 

Uncle D.J. and Chloe did a swap of head gear-- he's got her barrette on, and she's wearing his Oregon hat. :-) Don't they look good?