We celebrated Conner's 8th birthday last week. Wow. Scott and I just look at each other and ask, "are we really old enough to have an 8 year old?" So weird. It feels like we've reach some kind of milestone -- like we're finally grown-up parents. You know when you're raising just the toddlers and babies and you look at families, parents with kids who are "older" and you think (at least we did) -- 1)they are so old; 2)they've got it all figured out; and 3)life must be so smooth & easy. Well, now that we are the parents of an almost older kid I can positively say that all 3 of those statements are false. Especially #1. And sure, we're not in the throws of diapers, and spit up, and toothbrushes being flushed down the toilet. Now it's a different kind of busy -- in fact, I look back to those days of just toddlers and babies and I'm a wee bit envious of all the down time we had (no school pick-up, soccer, cub scouts, etc. etc. etc.). As far as having it all figured out . . . I don't think that ever happens. Each year, each stage, is a whole new lesson in figuring it out. The point is, it's just interesting being in this new demographic.
But I want to get back to the real reason for this post . . . . Conner's birthday.
Lucky for him, he had no school on his birthday. So we took advantage of the day and went to McDonald's for lunch and to the movie theater to see Bolt. There were only 4 other people in the theater. Conner was so excited that he could see the whole screen - no heads in his way. And Red Vines kept everyone happy.
To describe the rest of the day I thought I'd share some of our birthday traditions.
*The night before the birthday I decorate the kids' doors with streamers. Always something fun to wake up to. These streamers stayed up for almost a whole week. The kids loved running through them.
*We make a special outing to the balloon store. For Conner's 8th birthday he gets 8 balloons. When the sales attendant saw us she said, "oh, it must be another birthday!" So, either she has a great memory or we just cause enough of a scene that no one could ever forget us. :)
This is probably my favorite part of the day. There's just something so happy and festive about balloons.
*Birthday kid picks the birthday dinner. Conner chose cheese pizza which is very odd for him. He's usually a pepperoni kinda boy. For his cake he chose "vanilla cake with vanilla frosting." Translation: white cake with white frosting.
*Between dinner and cake we open presents. Conner got some really great stuff : a remote control car, golf clubs, his cub scout shirt & book, Lego Star Wars game for Wii, and the last minute gift that got the best reaction . . . . an LED book light. Most nights he stays up and reads in his bed. (Right now he's on book 3 of The Great Brain series). But that means the bedroom light stays on and Payton really wants to go to sleep. So he was thrilled to get this little book light. It is perfect for him.
The non-tradition part of the day came after dinner & cake (of which he ate none - he said that looking at food made his stomach not feel very good) . . . . when he lost his lunch (literally) and the red vines. We'll be having our carpets cleaned soon.
What can I say, he's a great kid. He's happy. He has a good attitude (95% of the time). He's helpful. He's considerate & thoughtful. He's smart, athletic, and imaginative. We sure are happy & blessed to have him in our family.
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Here are a few other milestones from last week I wanted to share real quick.
#1 - Cub Scouts. He's officially in cub scouts and he loves it. He's constantly thumbing through his Wolf book and every spare second of the day he's saying, "mom, I need you to play catch with me for 30 minutes", or "mom, let me tell you how to take care of a cut", or "dad, we need to practice folding the flag." We are trying to remind ourselves that we need to encourage his enthusiasm so hopefully it will continue going strong.
#2 - Golf. On Wednesday he got to play 9 holes with Scott for the first time here in Oregon. For some reason, the courses in our area won't let kids play until they are 8 years old. So this wasn't Conner's first time on the course - Scott makes sure to take him when we're in Idaho. But this was a milestone because it means that Scott now has a full-time golfing buddy. And they both have orange golf bags. :)
