Today, March 5th

   At 9:34 AM on March 5, 2004, my oldest nephew was born in Minnesota.  I was then in college in Columbia, SC, and thrilled to be a new Auntie to the cutest little nephew in all the land!  Soon afterwards, I traveled to Minnesota to meet my new nephew, visit my family, and help welcome Joshua into God's family.
  Now, eight years later (whew, ok - let's focus on celebrating how old Joshua is, NOT how old this makes his Auntie feel) - he is a growing, thriving, intriguing not-so-little-anymore boy. He is a wonderful brother to his two younger siblings, a great helper to Mama and Papa, and a keeper of information for all.
   Joshua used to claim yellow as his favorite color, but has recently decided it is now red. He likes reading and riding bikes to the park/playground.  He is very good at writing his own stories, too. He is fascinated by time zones, how the same moment is a different time all over the world. He also likes clocks, time, weather, and looking at how it all connects.
    After a bit of thought, this all made the idea for Joshua's birthday banner simple. Of course, the actual making of said banner wasn't so simple, but the idea just all fell into place.
  For the letters, I used a red background, a pennant-style triangle shape. I added a small picture or map of various places, all over the world, and a clock set to the exact time in that location to match Joshua's birth date and time. I put the locations in order, except for the first one is where Joshua was born.  I was sure to include places where Joshua's family (grandparents, Auntie, etc.) were living.
   For the letter dividers, I used blue paper with a map overlay. Then I added pictures of Joshua with his family, over the last eight years. The first one has his Mama and Papa, and also a clock set to Minnesota.

    The "H" has Oahu, Hawaii (where Auntie now lives with Uncle), the "A"is Juneau, Alaska, and the "P" has California. I took a little of this...

dividers like this...

   Used Antarctica for the "!" and a picture of baby Joshua 

with Auntie Hannah as the last divider to end it with this...

and, finally, put it all together to get THIS:

     Actually, it all got strung together to be one long birthday banner, but, for photographing purposes, I took the picture just before I strung it all together.  This banner was a bit more involved than others, but it is pretty neat. I hope Joshua enjoys it.

    As the banner says, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSHUA! 

   JOSHUA, know that you are dearly loved. We are so thankful that you are here, that you are growing bigger and stronger every day, and that you know Jesus loves you. God's continued blessings!