happy eighth birthday, caedmon

this weekend our little caedmon turned eight years old.  our family tradition is to have a bigger birthday party for their eighth birthday party, and you may remember jackson's a couple of years ago.  normally, we just have family parties, but when they turn eight they get to invite their whole class from school and we go all out with a theme.  some may say that we go "over the top," which may indeed be the croatian meaning of "milinovich," but we can't be sure.  regardless, like any pole-vaulter worth their salt will tell you, there's only one way to go, and that's over the top.

cade wanted a narnia theme, so we worked hard to make the entrance to the church basement the wardrobe door, which, when opened, revealed a rack of coats and furs.  Once you passed through the coats, you came to a group of evergreen trees, in a snowy white room, punctuated proudly by a beautifully handmade lamppost, which actually lit up!  many thanks to shannon's dad for making this for us.

once you passed through the snowy entrance to narnia, you could enter into cair paravel, and the castle dining hall, which was pretty impressive, if i do say so myself!

and that's just the decorations!  we had a blast of a party, playing all kinds of games in which the kids had to free animals from the white witch's icy spell, defeat goblins, witches and giants, and knock the witch over with snowballs, just to name a few!  we had all kinds of good food, including sardines and toast (swedish fish on graham crackers), turkish delight, poultry and sausages, roasted potatoes, and fruit skewered on queen susan's arrows, just to name a few.  the kids loved drinking the white punch out of their golden goblets, too.

but in the end, all of the work and all of the festivities were about celebrating that little ball of energy named caedmon.  he was a great host and had a great time, and enjoyed being called "king caedmon" for a few hours.

i can't tell you how proud i am of this little guy.  i know it can be tough to be the middle man in a family of three boys, but he more than holds his own, and is a loving and compassionate child.  yes, he may be the heaviest sleeper i've ever met, and he may give us a run for our money when it comes to his attention span and his inability to sit still, but he is so clearly a preposterously undeserved gift to us.  we named him for a singing poet, the first english hymnwriter; and he lives up to his name, with a big voice and a love for singing.  he isn't afraid to belt out a few verses, whether it be an old german hymn, a modern worship song, or even "what does the fox say?"  and i love his unabashed willingness to just be himself.  i'm crazy about him, and so proud of him.

and finally, i want to say thank you to all of our family who not only drove various long distances to come and celebrate with us, but who came to help us with set-up and cooking and tear down and cleaning up.  you helped us put fruit on arrows, shields on walls,  and make cookies and cakes and potatoes and lampposts.  you bought fur coats and lent us everything from evergreen trees to fake snow.  and then you helped us transform it back into a church basement in about an hour.  thank you so much!  you are kings and queens in my book!