38 is great!

Andrew's birthday was just a few days after I returned home from Utah (I still have plans to finish posting about that trip, but life is moving on at a ridiculous clip). Rachel, of course, made his cake. I didn't really do much of anything, other than make the children fill out some birthday balloons for him. 

Since Andrew always makes fun of everyone for always settling on acrostics, I challenged the kids to pick a different short-form poetry. My mom will appreciate our attempts since she also has been writings some short poems

Alexander wrote:

We liv in Gorgu. You are fothor. 

[We live in Georiga. You are father.]

RLiv togethor in Gorgu Bhord thrho 4 not mozior thtim.

[I'm going to be honest; beyond "we live together in Georgia" I'm not sure what he's getting at here.]

YYoui Aare Tthe BEE Best DDad
["You are the best dad," but I think he was going for an acrostic-vibe with the extra letters in there, though I don't think he understands that acrostic poems spell something because YATBD doesn't really mean anything.]

HPPY BORTHDAY DAD! I LOV YOU!

[This doesn't really need a translation.]

Zoë wrote:

Dear Dad, You are the best. You know how to do a lot of things and you cook and you work. You are a very good dad. 

Love, Zoë 

PS Happy 3th Birthday! Dad, you are the best!

Benjamin wrote...

An acrostic:

Daring
Awesome
Dandy

A haiku:

You are my father
You've travelled to Italy
You are 38

And a note:

You've been my dad for a decade. You are so smart and kind. You make graphs all day (which I think is cool). I love you, Dad!

Miriam wrote a limerick:

There once was a guy who was cool
and excelled in the art of tomfool-

-ery. He knows R
and has a stabbed car
And never will go to the pool. 

Let me explain a couple of points here. (1) our car was once a drug smuggling car (we bought it used from...a drug dealer that we know...*cough*Andrew's sister*cough*...when they had to go back to prison) and it had been privy to a few altercations, including a little bit of a knife fight of sorts. It's fine. One of the seats is all slashed up, but it's fine. There are no drugs in the car anymore. We once borrowed a K-9 drug sniffing dog *cough*from this sister's ex-husband*cough*it was a bit of a messy situation*cough* to sniff all of Andrew's sister's stuff, just to make sure, before we stored it (we've got kids, you know).

Anyway, onto point (2): Andrew didn't come to the pool with us a single time this pool season (and the kids were a little bitter about it)! He swam with us at the beach and then hung up his trunks for the rest of the summer. How he survives, I will never know. Next summer we'll be better about dragging him to the pool with us every now and again. I think this summer just got eaten away by COVID (and then trying to catch up on everything after having COVID). 

Rachel wrote a limerick as well:

There once was a father from Orem
Who taught students stats, didn't bore 'em.
He's turning thirty and eight
And we still think he is great
While old, he retains his decorum.

Then she says:

Happy birthday! Thank you for being a great dad and for introducing us to nerdy things. I love you!

There's also this little note that says:

Look at me, not waiting a month to write this! (Truly revolutionary)

Because, you know, he put off writing her birthday balloon message for about a month (see previous note about the summer being...the way that it was).

I wrote the following:

Dude! You read this poem
And thought it was acrostic.
Don't assume stuff, for
Due diligence will inform 
You that this...is a tanka!

A tanka is a...more extended form...of a haiku. 31 syllables rather than a mere 17. But did you see that my tanka is also a haiku?! 

I followed this tanka with:

Danke for being
A wonderful companion,
Delightful husband.

And that ones was a haiku! But seriously: I love you and your love for learning, your dedication for acquiring new skills, your patient and supportive nature and so forth. You are the absolute best. I love you! HBD!

I also just wrote him a note:

Thank you for all you do—chauffeuring and carpentry and cooking and cleaning and creating, et cetera—to help our home and family run smoothly. You complete me.

I thought I was finished with poetry, but apparently I also wrote a cinquain:

At first
I thought my heart
had been stolen. How wrong
I was! You just took it for safe-
keeping.

XOXO

We're so glad to have this Daddy of ours!

Here he is lighting his cake. We used sparklers because...that was new and fun and I found them in the cupboard before I found the birthday candles.

And here he is watching the sparklers burn out: