Braeden’s birthday surprise

It’s been a whirlwind of a couple of weeks in Casa Jones. Some of it good and some of it not so good but let’s start with a blog on the positives. Last week we were in Far North Queensland travelling from Port Douglas to Mission Beach. It was a fabulous week of tropical sunshine and goodness. Braeden celebrated his birthday while we were away with some pretty special activities including a helicopter flight over the Barrier Reef and a trip on a barbecue boat. But, the celebrations started before Braeden’s actual birthday with a special celebration with the family. We had a small surprise party and Braeden was seriously delighted. What could be better than spending time with family? Our party guy had the best day ever.

Braeden’s birthday surprise

Braeden watches a lot of YouTube, and he is always excited when he sees a video with a surprise party. So, we set about making his family birthday celebration a surprise and from his reaction he was totally caught off guard. His lovely support worker was in on it and despite the pressure of keeping it a secret she did great. Aside from everyone hiding and shouting “surprise” and throwing streamers at Braeden as he entered the living room, we also played games he’s seen his favourite YouTubers play.

You can watch a snippet of the surprise moment here

We all became human board game tokens and used foam mats as our board. We had a giant inflatable dice and as we landed on the various foam squares there were instructions about moving forwards, backwards and incorporated Braeden’s favourite characters and superheroes.Everyone was involved in the fun and it was great to see the joy that alone brought Braeden. When you are non-verbal it can often be isolating at a family gathering where everyone is naturally keen to catch up on news and with each other.

I’ve shared before how much Braeden loves playing soccer. Many of his fave YouTubers use giant inflatable soccer balls for games, so with that in mind when I travelled to the US, I bought a packet of them from Amazon so we could play at home. The inflatable soccer ball is great fun and certainly brings an ease to the game, even for a non-sporty person like myself!

Thank you to those of you who sent Braeden birthday cards. We packed them in our suitcases and took them away with us so he could open them on his birthday. He loved having so many cards to open and it made his day extra special.

While in the US I also stocked up on graphic t-shirts for Braeden’s birthday and Christmas presents so he’s delighting in having new choices each day. Lately the weather has been warm enough for t-shirts too so he hasn’t had to wait long to wear them.

Braeden had a really lovely birthday and the surprise of having family travel from near and far to make it extra special not only pleased him but warmed my heart too.