June is Birthday Month

June is the month for birthdays at our house - half of us celebrate birthdays in June, starting with Dennis.

Dennis is HARD to shop for. This year I had his flag framed and a plaque made for the front explaining that this flag was flown over the U.S. Capitol way back in the 80s in his honor when he became an Eagle Scout. Now instead of being in a worn cardboard box in our closet it is proudly displayed at his office.

Of course the boys made him posters and gave him back rubs and treated him like a king.

For part of his birthday, he had been on a camp out with the boys. Nate had caught a fish and cooked it up perfectly.

The twins celebrated their birthday the very next day. They are 12! That is huge!

We didn't have a party, but that doesn't mean they didn't get presents. They both got Paper Jamz guitars, Dylan got a magic kit, and Derek a human hamster ball, among other things.

They chose waffles for their birthday dinner, smart kids, and we happened to have leftover chocolate from a chocolate fountain I brought to the seminary graduation.

Sweet! That chocolate was a nice, albeit messy, addition to an already fabulous meal. If only every day was a birthday!

Because 12 is such a very special birthday, we later took the boys out to a nice dinner at their choice - Cheesecake Factory. No complaints from me!

All three of the birthday boys chose to finish their meal with the Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake. It was the one pictured on the menu, of course. Is it any surprise that that is what they chose? A thing of beauty!

Turning 12 is a very special birthday for boys in our church because that is when they first receive the priesthood. It also means that they get to start going to Young Men's and are official boy scouts- a big deal. We got a brand new bishop on their birthday, and they got to break Bishop Risenmay in that very day as he gave them his first bishop's interviews. He was probably as nervous as they were.

A few weeks later, they got to pass the sacrament for the first time. In fact, Dennis, Alex, and Nathan got to pass it with them. Except for one other boy, the entire sacrament was passed by VanBuskirk men! I was leading the music and so I was sitting on the stand as I watched 5 of my men fulfilling their priesthood duties. I shed more than a few tears up on that stand. It was something I will never forget. A joyous day! I am so grateful that they are so excited and so prepared to receive the priesthood and serve the Lord.

Just two weeks later it was my birthday! It was officially the 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday! Imagine that!

Of course I was showered with gifts from my kids and family. Caleb worked hard to give me this - a fancy dinner for two in the back yard, complete with a table cloth, leftover pizza, and hand cut roses from the garden in a plastic cup vase. It was so precious that I had to take a picture. Sweet boy!

For my birthday cake I picked up an ice cream cake from Coldstone using the gift certificate I won at the Best Mom's luncheon. It was fabulous! Unfortunately, we only ate half of it that night, and when someone cleared the counter afterwards, put it in the fridge instead of the freezer. Bye bye birthday cake.

It was a fabulous birthday anyway. I got a new Nook e-reader that I LOVE and a MILLION well wishes from my facebook friends, which was just so fun! It was great to hear my iPhone chime all day long whenever another friend wished me a great birthday! I felt so loved! That night Dennis took me to a fabulous new sushi place. Man, I love Sushi! Man, I love my man!

But my birthday didn't end there. The next week I had four different lunch dates with 4 different girlfriends!!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE lunch dates with the ladies! I even got a pedi out of the deal! Every day my kids would ask who I was going out to lunch with this time. (That is one thing I love about summertime with kids who are babysitting age.) Thank you Dayna, Shari, Amy, and Roxanne!!! I love you all! Lets do lunch again.

That was all the birthdays in June - until next year...