He's Nine and Oh So Fine!

Our son turned nine last Sunday, and I can hardly believe it.  Look how much he's grown! He is only three inches shorter than his older sister who had him beat by six inches last year!

Since his birthday fell on such a busy weekend with fall festivals, trick-or-treating, church activities, and such, he agreed to wait until the following weekend for his party.  I baked cupcakes (and his sister decorated them) for his classmates on the Friday before his birthday, and then he got to open gifts from the family on his birthday.

Nana and Pops drove up in Dad's styling new truck to treat us all to Yo-Lo, which has become a celebratory celebration.  They gave the birthday boy lots of nice clothes he needed very much, his favorite athletic socks, and a soft athletic jacket he wears every single day except when I sneak into his room to launder it.

His paternal family gave him the Overdrive raceway he had been wanting, and he, his dad, and the cat play with it nonstop.  Just getting him to put down the phone or tablet he uses as a controller for it so he can get to school on time each morning is a bit of a trial.

His sister had been planning the gift she would give him for month after hearing him mention that he would like to have a fleece blanket like hers.  So she did extra chores to earn the money for the supplies and then begged me to take her to Joanne's where we looked through hundreds of fabric samples until she found a front and back she knew he would love.Then she hid up in her room making the blanket and even wrapped it in paper of her own procuring and made a care with silly pun related to the STEM classes I teach.  Gifts must be one of her primary love languages because she is go thoughtful and gifted at finding just the right gift for everyone.

For his party, I offered all types of different venues, but he had his heart set on going back to Hard Knocks for a few laser tag missions with only a few select friends (he's an introvert). He also wanted an Oreo birthday cake with oreo ice cream from Baskin-Robbins.  After an hour on the internet, several hours on the phone, filing a compliant with BR corporate, we finally got his cake ordered, but the local franchise charges much more for the same cake than the website advertised.  Then we called twice asking the staff to thaw the cake before we arrived, but they did not take it out of the freezer until we requested it at the counter. So the cake was like a brick to cut, but the kids were patient and did not seem to mind.

The whole process of trying to reserve a birthday party room at Hard Knocks was another disaster.  After being told we did not have enough people to reserve the room, we ended up having enough people on the morning of the party when a Y Guides outing got cancelled last minute, but by then they were at capacity, so they told us to arrive an hour later.  We came later, but they were still booked solid and  would not honor any of the rates they promised me on the phone.  It was quite the ordeal, and by then we only had time for the boys to play one mission instead of three (the minimum purchase is three), so they played one, ate some fries, and we drove them back home, arriving two minutes late after over three hours of party time. The boys did not care.  They had a blast just playing around the house before/after our trip to Baskin-Robbins and Hard Knocks.