Category: Family

On the 12th (Wed) we had a joint celebration with Alex as he was going into the MTC the next day. So we had a combination Farewell and Happy birthday cake.  That’s the first picture. The video is also on my FB page (so his mom in Germany could see), if you want to hear the combo song 🙂

On the 13th (Thurs and Sam’s bday) Samuel woke up crying because “I didn’t get any presents for my birthday!”  Well, I guess that’s what usually happens after you sing happy birthday and blow out candles, you get presents.  I assured him that today was his birthday, and that we were having his party today, and he would get presents.  My boys missed the 1st 2 hours of school so we could take Alex to the MTC by 8:30 am.  It was a great testimony building and confirming experience for them as they saw the fruits of their prayers come to pass. Side note: Missionary arrivals are usually on Wednesday at Noon, however his flights were delayed due to snow. So I called the MTC and they said bring him by Thursday morning.  So we did.

Took the boys back to school, and Samuel to  his preschool.  At 1:00 (Before school got out) I had Samuel’s preschool friends come over and we had a fun little b-day party.  Julles stopped by to pick something up, and I said, “Oh good, you’re just in time for the party!”  She stayed and helped and played balloon games with us.  Got some smiles out of her, so that was good.  BTW – yes, you only see 1/2 a cake for Samuel.  We ate the 1st half of the cake the night before for Alex’s farewell.  Saved the other 1/2 for Sam’s bday.  Not like the kids cared!  All they wanted was the chocolate and the icing anyway.  I also sent home some citrus in their party gift bags.  I tell you, EVERYONE (even the kids) were excited for it!

Benjamin’s birthday was fortunate to land on a Friday, so we had kids come over right after school.  We had cake 1st, a foam sword fight, and then we gathered up our snow gear and went sledding to the golf course.

Wasn’t the best sledding conditions, but it was warm enough that some didn’t really need to wear their jackets.  Though they did all wear their gloves.  And as is tradition with all Berky birthdays that are outings, someone got an injury that required 1st aid.  It was a friend that went off a small jump and landed face first in a snow wall that someone had built up and got a HUGE bloody nose.  We saw him at church on Sunday, it there were some pretty awesome looking scabs on his face!  Fortunately the mom had already arrived to pick him up, so that was good timing.  My first aid kit for my car is starting to run out of supplies!  Time to load it back up!

Just a few weeks before attending the World’s Longest Pinewood Derby Track event, our local Cub Scout Pack had their Pinewood Derby race.

We made 4 pinewood derby cars with the help of a neighbor and his jig saw.  The boys had their cards painted with spray paint and then they painted their own designs on them.  Although none of the cars were super-fast, they were not the slowest cars either and all the boys got to race their cars after the official race was over.  Anthony, the only Berky boy eligible for the official race did well with his car – once they got it going the right direction.

Then several weeks later we attended the World’s Longest Pinewood Derby event in Sandy, UT.  Grandpa Berky was with us as well.  The event was held at the Rio Tinto Soccer stadium in Sandy.  There were not as many people there as we had thought there would be so the boys got to race their cars down the track a lot of times.  And since it was not an official race, we were allowed to put all kinds of extra things on the cars to weigh them down so they would go faster and longer on the track.  We used batteries, screw-drivers, even the bottle of wood glue we had brought along.