SLEEMAN: OH SOMEBODY HAD A BIRTHDAY, OUR LITTLE JEXTEN DEAR!

May Father in Heaven Bless Him, Through all the coming year!!
Jexten's birthday celebrations started on Saturday, August 6 with Grandma Janet and Grandpa Kit coming down for the Thorson Family reunion. We all had a great time at the reunion, and afterward he got to go to the toy isle at Wal- Mart and pick out WHATEVER HE WANTED!! He was beyond excited to get to do that! He was so funny because he kept choosing the $5-$10 Transformers toys. Grandma and Grandpa kept trying to show him the "Bigger"toys. He was set on what he wanted though, so Grandma bought him 3 presents!!! WOW! Jexten was elated! Those 3 "guys" have not left his side ever since.
The next weekend, Saturday August 13, our family took a day trip over to Logan to buy a bike for Jexten that Kurt had found off of ksl.com. He was so proud to get a "big boy bike". We had burgers and fries at Arctic Circle, and went to the Willow Park Zoo. We laughed at the Capuchin monkeys, and squaked with the parrots, we giggled at the geese, ooo ed and awwwwed at the swans, we fed the ducks, and laughed at the way they quacked and dove for the pellets. Then we flapped and squaked and quacked all the way through the rest of the zoo, past the deer, and the owl, the porkupine, the red tailed hawk. Then we got to the great bald eagle and the elk! We stood and looked at them, and they stared back at us. There we stood, staring, blinking, breathing. Then someone whispered in the smallest voice you had to strain to hear, "i'm getting thirsty". So away we went all the way back, squaking, flapping, quacking, cawing, laughing in between. Back through the zoo until we stopped at the entrance, which is also the exit, where those funny Capuchin monkeys were picking through the pockets of the pants that were hanging from their cages. We pointed and laughed at them, and they pointed and chirped back at us, I would say it was a good time for all the monkeys involved. We found a snow cone shack, and we each got our own. Jexten ordered "Tiger's Blood" he will say it had real blood in it, and only super heroes can eat it. I ordered cotton candy, it really tasted like cotton candy! Adessa ordered red raspberry, and Kurt mixed flavors and made strawberry cheesecake, then Adessa changed her order to the same as daddy. We played at the park for a while, and then Jexten remembered that he had a new bike in the trunk of the car. We had to get home to try it out!!

Later that evening was our Stake Super Social in the park. We ate BBQ roast beef sandwiches, corn on the cob, salad, and soda pop. After dinner, there were musical numbers on the stage. Adessa and Jexten sat on the ground in the bowery in front of the stage with their arms around each other's shoulders and rocked back and forth as they sang along with the music : "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray, you'll never know dear how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away." By 8:30pm they opened up the Brigham City Pool for our stake. We stayed out past dark, and swam after bedtime! We were all asleep the moment our heads hit the pillow that night at about 9:45pm.
On Sunday, Jexten got to stand up in front of the entire Primary (about 20 kids) with the Bishop while they all sang "Have A Very Happy Birthday, filled with sunshine everywhere! May the year bring joy and gladness, and the love of friends who care!" Then Jexten was handed a birthday baggy filled with candy, paper streamers, and stickers "Wow is this for MEEE!!! GEE THANKS!" Then he turned to the Bishop and they "high 5ed" each other, as Jexten said "THIS IS SO COOL!"
Monday was Jexten's "real" birthday. We spent the day playing, and we went to visit a neighbor to practice a couple of musical numbers I will be performing for a Relief Society program in September. Both Adessa and Jexten had a blast exploring her house! Later that afternoon I baked Jexten's special Transformers birthday cake and took him to Kent's where he go to pick out his very own ice cream! While we were there Jexten also found a package of transformable jets! Of course I let him have them. As we were in the checkout line he made a point of telling everyone that "I'm 4 now! I'm BIG!" We payed for our groceries and then I took Jexten to the balloon counter where he got to pick out his own birthday balloons! He walked right up to the counter, slapped his hands up on the countertop, got up on his tippy toes so his chin would be higher than the counter, and said "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, I GOTTA HAVE SOME BALLOONS!!" He picked out a Spiderman mylar balloon, then the attendant asked if he we wanted a "bouquet" before I could answer Jexten screwed up his face and said, "A bouquet??? No way!! What would I want a bouquet for??? I'M A BOY!!" We laughed and I showed him the pouches full of colored balloons that he could pick from to go with his Spiderman balloon. Jexten picked, a red one, a silver one, a gold one, and a black one. We got home and ate pizza dinner, opened a surprise present that Adessa had for him (a bumblebee transformable figurine)