Celebrate

Last year for his birthday, Jonah had a small belated celebration at RIC, after spending his actual birthday at Lurie finishing a round of chemo.  This year an all out celebration seemed called for - a chance to celebrate life, to celebrate the fight, to celebrate the community that has stood with us and carried us during this long journey.

Here are some of the highlights of our joy-filled celebration.  If are interested in seeing all of the pictures, they can be found here:

http://aimeemazzenga.pixieset.com/jonahs6thbirthday/ (password: jonahisloved)

RC Juggle came and provided balloons, entertainment and balloon entertainment at the party.

We were delighted to be able to celebrate with Blaine, Christina and their families.  Although these lovely ladies are friends we've added on the journey, it's a shared journey which builds fast and strong bonds.

Kid Group Shot

Some old preschool buds

And some new preschool buds

Jonah thinks that someday he may marry RyAnn

Mrs. Marmorstone was Jonah's teacher in the 2s and 3s room - these 2 have a special bond

A little cake on the nose for Dan

Jonah and Granny

Party favors - #teamjonahgoodall all the way

The kids watching the entertainers perform

Granny and Julia

Auntie Leslie came into town as a surprise 

Celebrating life and love and community

So thankful to be able to celebrate together

My heart burst with joy at being able to soak in these moments

The party was jumping!  It was like a wedding for kids - friends from all venues of life together in one place.  Seriously, there were about 200 people in attendance and our wedding only had 115-120.  This was a big deal in our family.

Daddy and Noah

The cake - there was little direction, just airplanes, minions and puppies

Happy Birthday Jonah - you fought hard to get here, so let's celebrate like never before

Jonah and Liz

Julia's bestie came to the party too

Until this moment, I don't know that I've ever been truly 100% surprised by something, but Leslie's arrival for the party was certainly a complete and delightful surprise to me.  

Julia and Liz

Anna and mummy

The man of the hour

Chatting away

Jonah was surprised by Auntie Leslie too

In the spirit of giving back, we asked people to bring donations for the pediatric floor at RIC instead of gifts.  I'm going to be honest, most people brought both, but with the generously of community, we were able to shower blessing onto RIC through our celebration.  This picture doesn't do justice to volume of toys filling the table.  This is stuff they will use for therapy, for entertainment for families on the floor and for gifts.  Because they are just 1 floor of a hospital that stands in the shadow of a full pediatric hospital, sometime RIC gets overshadowed, but they do amazing things to for kids too and we just wanted to make sure they didn't get forgotten.