Long Claw: The Sword of Jon Snow ... Nerf Talon, The Sword of Junior

It's a birthday weekend here at Pure Florida Head Quarters. My baby boy is 18.


How suweeeeet is that?


Very.





He wanted a small birthday dinner (his dinner was not small) at Chili's in St. Augustine with his grandparents, family, and a few friends so we spent Saturday in the ancient city.





Lest you think us weirder than you already do, let me explain him just a little bit.


He's not all muscle and handsomnicity.


He has a brain too and he is a voracious reader ... mostly of two genres ... Star Wars (yes, there are books that carry the saga on) and sword and sorcery series.


That last one is important in understanding some of these photos.


The story goes like this ...


...Sweet Emma loves tales of dragons, magic, and good vs evil swordy sagas. Her grandmother is given that information a few years ago and randomly picks out the first book of a series by George R. R. Martin.


Emma loves it.


She tries to interest Junior, but at the time he is Star Wars fixated. He resists.


Later, he tries it.


He loves it.


The two of them devour each book in the series and introduce their friends to it.


Now they are all crazy about this saga, even though the author's habit of killing off characters you thought were "safe" drives them all crazy.


Often they will get a text from a friend who is reading one of the books.


They usually go like this, " Arrrrghhhh! I can't believe So and So just got killed!"



Now they are all impatiently waiting for the author to publish the next book in the series.





It's pretty funny to watch.





So, if you think about it, one of the common threads running through both the Star Wars sagas and the"A Game Of Thrones" saga, is the sword.





Junior is a sword nut. He has movie quality light sabers, wooden martial arts swords, and real steel swords stashed about his room.


He and his buddy Jonathon are often outside whacking at each other with the wooden swords or carefully choreographing swordplay for one of their classic homemade videos.


So this birthday party is loaded with swords, but we are not all insane.


We just believe in giving folks what they want for their birthday.





Okay, enough of that ... let's look at the party pics back at his Grandparent's house.

I love this shot of my girls being ... so girly. Are they aware they are at a party and the guest of honor is holding up a present he just opened?


Maybe ... heehee.

And get the classic sisterly "Are you nuts?" look that Em is giving Kate in that shot ... meanwhile Birthday boy is totally stoked with the Nerf Sword he just unwrapped.
He got 3 of those so he and his pals can battle each other.


Here he is with the grand prize gift, the one from all of us. A full scale replica of a favorite character's sword, Longclaw, the sword of Jon Snow. I have to admit it is pretty cool and it came with a neat wall plaque/holder for me to mount in his room.

I think Mom and Dad were bemused by his swordy gifts. Mom gave the best material gift of all ... A full batch of Toll House Cookies. Junior is being stingy with them, but I will remind him that in January she will make me a birthday batch and I have a long memory.

Friends in the balcony, Jonathon and Laura.

Yes, of course we took Bear along. His Grandmother is completely smitten with him and I am under orders not to come without him.

Today, I am BBQing some ribs in his honor.

I still can't believe he's 18.

Wasn't it just yesterday that I wrote this?

Seems like it.