Boys' Birthdays - Part 1 (and an update)

This week has been filled with many wonderful "Wow, I am so grateful for my family" moments.

It has also been filled with cold meds, Advil, naps (for me), early bedtimes (again, for me), and more Kleenex than I care to count.

We've celebrated both boys' birthdays this week...all week. It's been a non-stop birthday extravaganza around here. I can't tell you how many times I've heard the phrase, "But it's my birthday!" Let's just say a lot of rules went out the window this week. Half in part because I've been battling a cold which led to laryngitis and almost the complete loss of my voice.

But, let's focus on the fun things that occurred...

We kicked off the week on Monday with a small birthday dinner for Payton with our neighbors. We allowed him to go ahead an open his ONE gift. Yep, he got one gift from us this year. Are you ready to start judging me and throw stones? Because here's the gift...

All joking aside, I love this picture. Look at Parker's expression! Priceless!

We gave him an iPhone.

Yes, I hear your gasps.
Your "What? He's only 9! Why does he need a phone?!?" comments.
It's okay. I've come to grips with the fact that most people won't agree with our decision. And I'm working on accepting the disapproving motherly looks (I'm not great at accepting disapproval).

But, here's how we came to our decision:
1. No one in our household has an iPad or iTouch.
2. We do not have a land line for our house, so we've always used a 3rd cell phone to leave at the house with babysitters, or for Payton to use when he rides his bike to friend's houses that are out of our circle.
3. When we recently switched cell phone carriers, they replaced all 3 lines with 3 new iPhones. FREE! So, we've had this iPhone sitting in a box in our bedroom for a month now.
4. He's been begging for an iPad, but seems to be getting along just fine with his Kindle, so really he just wants an Apple product to be able to play all of the additional games/apps that his friends use on their Apple products.
5. I could go on and on with other reason, but I'm guessing you really don't care...

Did I mention I'm not good with disapproval? Guess I just wanted to justify our decision.

What it comes down to is that Payton is a really great kid. A trustworthy, hardworking, faithful kid. Oh, and we made him sign a 2-page cell phone contract, so just in case he goes awry, he loses all access to the cell phone.

Phew...okay, now that that's all out of the way, I can continue...

We had a really fun time celebrating Payton that evening and then of course the next morning on his actual birthday.

Cupcakes for all!

 Donuts for breakfast on your birthday? You betcha!

Parker & I joined him for lunch at school...which is Parker's most favorite thing to do (I think it has something to do with him being able to use a lunchbox.) :)

I love this picture. They were having such a sweet conversation.

Sadly, that evening we did not spend the night out at a fun restaurant celebrating his special day. Instead we spent it at team practice for his school's "Battle of the Books" team. It's quite an intense competition in 3rd grade. I won't go into all the details, but they have to read & memorize every detail about 8 chapter books. Then they test on the books, then try out for the team. The competition itself was very serious. No photos. No filming. No clapping. It had to be complete silence until the end of each round. They had judges from other schools so it wasn't biased... I'm telling ya... they take this thing seriously.

So, even though Payton's team didn't win, they did come in 2nd out of 5 teams, so we were very proud of him. Not only for making the team, but for giving it his best!

The next day was Parker's birthday celebration at his preschool. I brought in juice boxes, cookies and cheese (because that's how preschoolers celebrate) and read books to his class. It was so sweet to see the excitement in his face.

This is the sign outside his classroom

And then today (Friday) we celebrated Parker's actual birthday. Starting the day off with presents and the birthday breakfast of champions...donuts!

I'm fairly sure his favorite gift was a roll of Bubble Gum "tape."

 

I'm not sure what's in store for this evening, but we're going to try to make it fun for the birthday boy. And then the "big guns" come in tomorrow. You know...the grandparents! The boys are out of their minds with excitement. It's like a mini Christmas.

.....................................................................................
Before I go pass out on my bed for a few minutes, I wanted to update you on three quick things:

1. I'm already half-way through my new Jennifer Weiner book, and I'm loving it!
2. I didn't go to Target at all this week! (One week down, three to go.)
3. I had two days of really good meditation/quiet time this week. It felt SO good to be in the word just letting His truth fall over me like a warm waterfall.

Okay, that's all I got for today. I hope you have a fantastic weekend! I am happy to be celebrating my little boys this weekend and saying goodbye to this stinky cold. Yahoo for healthy bodies!