Eighteen

I've made many cards for eighteen year olds over the years and have always thought how grown up they are. Eighteen seemed such a long way off. But now my eldest son has just turned 18. He finished school last summer and is currently on a pre-army programme and living on a kibbutz in the south of Israel.

It all seems to happen in the blink of an eye.

My son has received a handmade card made by mum on his birthday ever since he turned 1 (I started blogging about them when he was 8). I think that his 1st birthday card, or maybe it was his 2nd, had the pinky purple Bleeper People on it, from his favourite pop-up book at the time Where, Oh Where, is Kipper's Bear?. I no longer decorate his birthday cards with favourite toys, characters or animals of course. In recent years I have shown him keeping fit and learning to drive.

My 18 year old is a big fan of the Premier League football club Arsenal. On this years birthday card I have shown him wearing the white T-shirt of his mechina (pre-army programme) and waving his Arsenal scarf to cheer on his team. He is going to London to see them play against Spurs in December - his very first time seeing them play in the Premier League!
Since my son was born here in Israel, he also supports a more local team. He has been to see Beitar Jerusalem play many times so I added their badge to his card as well. He also loves going out for a burger with his friends and of course he's 18 now, he can enjoy a beer with them too, though hopefully not too many!

My son will be going into the Israeli army next summer (conscription exists in Israel for all Israeli citizens over the age of 18 who are Jewish, Druze or Circassian; Arab citizens of Israel are not conscripted). I'm probably not going to be able to discuss his army service here but I have included the badge of the Israel Defence Forces on his card and have wished him "Good Luck" in Arabic. He learnt Arabic at school and chose it as one of his Bagrut (Israel's high school matriculation examination) subjects. It seems that he's pretty good at it.

Finally I added a pair of walking boots. He enjoys the outdoors and has done a fair bit of hiking and orienteering on his programme and seems to enjoy it. Those walking boots have been put to good use so far!

For the first time in his life my son was not home for his big day. I arranged for a friend to deliver his birthday card and was thrilled to receive this video of him opening it on the morning of his birthday.
Even at 18 it seems that he is very happy with his customised card handmade by Mum - and his friends seem impressed too!

* This post has been shared on Make It Pretty Monday, The Keeping It Real Link Up, Our World Tuesday, Inspire Me Tuesday, Project Inspire{d}, The Happy Now Blog Link- Up, Wow Us Wednesdays, Wednesday Around the World, The Creative Circle and Little Things Thursday.