Derek's Pre-Birthday Bash

Since Derek's birthday landed on a Sunday this year, we decided to celebrate on Saturday and Sunday. So on Saturday, Dave, Taylor, and Derek went to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars in the theater and then out to lunch at McDonald's to get the Clone Wars toy. Later we celebrated with some of his extended family. We invited his grandparents and the Utah County crowd. If you know Derek, then you know that he is obsessed with the color blue. If given a choice he will always choose the blue crayon, marker, plate, popsicle, shirt, candy, yogurt...anything! He's even begging us to buy a blue house. So I thought it would be fun to throw a "blue party". We went to South Fork Park up Provo Canyon. Here he is with his blue cake before the party just in case it was destroyed on the drive.


We asked everyone to wear blue. (We forgave Lindsay and Bryce since they came straight from the pool.) We ate on blue plates, used blue forks, drank from blue cups, drank blue juice, and covered the table in blue. I thought for sure Derek would be all "blued out" by the end of the day, but no so...the blue obsession continues. He even chose a blue light saber as his gift from Grandma and Grandpa when they took him out shopping. Apparently it has been his "dream" to have one.We roasted hot dogs and s'mores, opened presents, and ate cake. The kids all had fun throwing leaves and rocks into the river and running around the grass.Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks for driving down to visit!McKenna was entertained with this plate for quiet some time.Yes, the cake was even blue inside. It took a lot of food coloring to pull that one off.
A group shot with the cousins!
Derek was spoiled with gifts from family! Thank you to everyone that sent and brought presents on his birthday. I pointed out to him how much he is loved by his family. He is so blessed to have such a great support group.

Here's a little spotlight on the birthday boy:

Favorite Movie: Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Favorite Thing To Do: Play soccer

Favorite Food: Doughnuts

Favorite Place to Go: Seven Peaks

Favorite Color: Blue (duh!)

Favorite Toy: Light saber and Batman dude

Some Interesting Things about Derek: 1) He loves to be the leader. (Afterall, his name does mean "ruler of people". Oops...our bad.) 2) He has a very large imagination. He has always put together random articles of clothing to "become" something. Like when he was 2 and 3 he'd put on green goggles, a football helmet, snow boots, a "soft" (aka blanket) tied around his neck, and carried a sword to pretend he was a knight. 3) Derek loves to make others happy. For example, he always gets a chair for the primary teacher and sets it up each week. Even though it means that he misses out on getting the big chair for himself and is left sitting on a little one. Once in a while he'll leave a quarter under our pillow as a fun surprise for us. He's the best at entertaining McKenna when I need a few extra minutes. He compliments me on my hair or shoes. He says "thank you" without a prompting from me. And he loves to give big hugs to his family.

We love you, Derek! Happy Birthday!