Birthdays and parties and such.

As most of my friends know yesterday was Shadow's birthday. He's getting so close to double-digits that it's scary. 😲 Anyway, I think he had a pretty good day. Nick went ahead and gave him his presents instead of making him wait until today at his party. He seemed to like them. He also got a few "Happy Birthday" comments and messages which seemed to make him happy. Thanks to all who thought of him. 😊

Other than that I can't really think of anything else noteworthy yesterday other than some phone calls. My mom called first thing in the morning which just seemed to make his day. After school his father called (more on that later). Jajuan called all the way from China to wish him a happy day and that was really sweet. And finally, my brother called at about 10 pm. He's in Hawaii so there's a time difference and he didn't get a chance to call any earlier (he's in the Army so you could imagine how that goes). Though Shadow looked a little stunned when I woke him up to take the call I think he enjoyed hearing from his Uncle Cade. 😀 He always does.

So back to the phone call with his father. When Shadow answered he was all "Who's this?" Then he smiled all big. That's ok, but I just hate that he'll have his feelings hurt again when he doesn't hear from him anymore until next year. Even if he does it doesn't last but maybe a month anyway. 😕 Well, they talked for a few then hung up. His father called back a bit later and said that someone else wanted to talk to Shadow. I correctly assumed that it was one of his half-sisters. Shadow was standing near me so I could hear the conversation. It went like this:

Phoenix: Happy birthday, Shadow.

Shadow: Thank you.

Phoenix: I miss you, Shadow.

Shadow: I know.

Phoenix: I love you, Shadow.

Shadow: Thank you.

Seriously. Isn't that sad? He's never even met his little half sister before, but apparently his father's trying to make them out to be close or something. I felt bad for her that she wasn't getting "I love you, toos" and "I miss you, toos" back, but Shadow simply doesn't know her. And I know she wouldn't have said any of those things if they hadn't told her to. I really don't think that they should have - that's only going to hurt her in the end.

Anyway, just wanted to get that off my chest. Today was Shadow's party and it went pretty well, I think. He (and the rest of the kids there) seemed to have a lot of fun. I'm really glad. I had a good time, too. It was nice to see people that I don't usually get to see. Ok, enough blabber. On to the pictures!

Shadow's super awesome red velvet The Punisher / GhostRider / flame birthday cake. Yes, that was his idea. 😂

Shadow blowing out his candles.

Group photo, but I think some of the kids were missing. 😕

And there you go!