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| Yup, you guessed it! He's not the King of Cambodia, but he sure thinks he is. |
What? You were expecting the real king? Considering how many people stop, stare, and try to touch and fawn over him, I think Aidan makes a fine substitute. :)
Ahh, but the adulation of the masses is not the only similarity this lil guy shares with royalty. You see, Mr. Aidan has turned a whopping 8 years old recently. In true royal tradition, we celebrated his birthday much like they do for the king here - with multiple parties.
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| Look! Aidan in 3d! |
We started off with some low-key stuff - taking just him to Pizza Company for lunch (that's 1), taking him and his friends to lunch there too (2), and of course, taking him there with the whole family and a small team (3!). We also had minor celebrations at home with Jess and I giving him tons of gifts. (4) Ginny and Eric had a turn as well, with more gifts following (5).
Why is this important? Well, prior to moving here, we were not 'party' people. In fact, it was enough to simply survive all the things life had in store for us without trying to organize massive parties and get-togethers. With the bullying he was receiving, he also didn't exactly have a lot of friends we would want to consider inviting over. So, for parties, we'd stick to the three of us and a nice solid trip to Disney. This of course made birthdays awesome for everyone. I even went on a few rides - and you've seen my bio. I'm not an adventurous person by nature. :)
Still, Aidan has never had what you might consider a traditional party, with banners, and decorated cake, and tons of screaming friends. This year that all changed!
When asked how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, he rattled off a very long list of activities. Some of these weren't feasible (Hong Kong Disney is a little far to walk, and a 9 course meal of all his favorites in one sitting wasn't very healthy), but aside from the small celebrations I mentioned, one stood out. He wanted to go to the water park.
With his friends.
All of them.
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| Small sample |
All 70+ of them.
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| More. :) |
To recap, that's Aaron, Sokun, Father's House (all), Sak Saum Phnom Penh, Sak Saum Sa'ang, and two visiting team members, Kendall and Shannon... Oh, and the fam of course. :)
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| Moses leading the captives out of.. no, wait, that's just Aidan. |
To say that Aidan was making up for lost time is an understatement. Let it be noted that the idea for a gigantic party is credited to my wife. She is an awesome mother, and she wanted Aidan to have everything that time and mean children had taken from him. She organized this with her mom and a few other key people.
What did Aidan think about all this?
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| Father's House all made cards for him by hand. :) |
I'm pretty sure at some point he cried because he was so happy. We got to bless a lot of people with his birthday, but nobody moreso than Aidan.
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| A bus full of peeps! No, not those marshmallow things... |
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| Aidan kidnapped Kendall and Rhiannon at alternating times. |
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| Presents from Sak Saum. He uses that thing as a massive pillow. |
After the water park, we headed home to some cupcakes and blowing out of candles. Aidan only wanted a couple of people there, so it was just the family and Kendall and Shannon.
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| Whoosh! |
At the end of the day (and the end of the 8th or 9th party), Aidan was happy, full, and content. What's more, another piece of his heart was healed, and the damage caused by the difficulties of making friends, bullying, and issues with schools that just didn't understand him were wiped away. All because someone loved him so much that they couldn't stand to see anything taken from their son.
In Aidan's words (he was with me for writing this part), "Thank you for being kind and generous to me on my birthday! ...and thanks for the good presents! You are always an awesome mommy!"
"When am I gonna get more cupcakes?!?"
