Stuff's been going on. It's busy, you know? Even with 3 mornings a week without children I seem to be way overscheduled. My own doing, I know.
Anyways.
On to the good stuff.
For Josh's class treat he chose M&M snickerdoodles. Who knew that was a thing? I decided to make these cute tags on my Cricut. After I had cut them out Josh decided he didn't want them. "I want just number 9's!" Um, too bad, child. You approved these already! (He later admitted he liked them.)
Since it's an odd numbered year Josh didn't have a big friend birthday party - but we decided to allow him one friend to sleep over. He chose Justin. (Justin is over here enough it didn't feel that different to me, but the boys were sure excited!)
Since we don't do sleepovers Saturday night because of church the next day, Justin slept over on Friday night and we decided to just do all of our celebrating a day early. (Josh's actual birthday was on Saturday. This confused and angered Cole to no end.)
So, Friday morning Josh awoke to our traditional birthday pancakes!
This is about how much excitement you get out of the boy at quarter after seven in the morning.
It was a little sad not having Spencer there with us. (He leaves before anyone else even wakes up.)
I allowed Josh to open one present that I got to pick - a Minecraft shirt that Cole got for him. Josh was disappointed it was "just a shirt". He's kind of a jerk that way. But he later changed his tune and happily wore it to school that day.
After school I let him open another gift, only because I knew it would keep him occupied all afternoon and keep him out of my hair until the sleep over!
A new binder for all of his Pokemon cards! Thank you Grandpa Viggo and Grammy B!
Justin "finally" came over (Josh's words, not mine) and we headed out to dinner. The birthday boy's choice? Teppanyaki Buffet. The servers were impressed we were there with 5 kids.
We haven't been there in quite a while, and I was pleasantly surprised! I think for a while we went too often and got tired of it, but 2-3 times a year seems just about right.
The kids were all relatively well-behaved!
Spencer gave him 4 packages of Ice Breakers Duo Mints - Josh's candy of choice on our big road trip. Josh was extra pleased. (Until he caught Cole stealing some a few days later. Hey, if you're not smart enough to know to hide candy from younger siblings, then this is a good way to learn.)
Justin gave him a rather loud and obnoxious Bop-It toy. The perfect gift for a 9 year old.
Tess gave him this giant pencil. It really works!
Lance and I gave him this pitching machine, along with extra balls for it and some new baseballs. He was pretty excited.
Then Lance decided to use the pencil as a bat...
Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie supplied a much-wanted baseball glove. He sure was excited!
Thank you, Grandpa & Grandma!
Finally, Lance and I gave him this big, fuzzy blanket we had found at Costco. Josh had been begging for one like Tess's, only Tess's has Frozen on it. We could have bought him a Frozen one, but wisely went with grey instead. He's been snuggling up with it every night since. Score!
After presents it was time to test out the pitching machine. It worked pretty well and the kids all had a great time batting and catching and eventually shooting balls at each other, as was expected.
I got a good shot of Justin missing a ball. I never got any pictures of my kids, though, because I got bored and started picking raspberries instead.
Eventually we all trooped in for cake - only we didn't have cake. The birthday boy had requested Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies instead. My kind of treat!
Those are peanut butter cups and peanut M&Ms in there. Delish!
Just before blowing out the candles. Oh man, I can't believe how big this kid is getting!
Josh is a great kid. Oh sure, he knows how to push buttons. Especially mine. (And especially especially Cole's....) But all of his positive attributes totally outweigh this. He's kind and helpful and has a great sense of humor. He's a good friend. He can be a hard worker when he really wants to be. He's developed patience and can generally find good ways of entertaining himself. He's bright and very well-liked at school. He thinks he can't ride a bike but he could if he really wanted to. He's super at doing laundry, not so much at helping Cole do, though. ;) He's coming along so nicely on the piano. He's well-behaved at church and he seems to really pay attention to what is being taught there. He's goofy and silly and lovey and sometimes ornery and happy. In short, a pretty typical, well-adjusted nine year old boy.
I sure love him!
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