JD's Birthday...

So I was looking at some old pictures last night and ran across these. My little guy has been 9 for a couple of months now, but hey, these pics definitely need a place in our family journal. His party was pretty low key because we didn't really know many people. JD decided to invite his best friend and cousin Tyler up for the weekend. It's so nice to be close to family now!

We rented out Camryn's gymnastics facility to celebrate. We didn't exactly fill the place up, but it was so much fun. They had a great time jumping on the trampolines, jumping in the GIANT foam pit, zipping down the zip line - into the GIANT foam pit and more. JD and Tyler busted out their giant foam nerf guns and played war. They set up a pretty cool course with a bunch of gymnastics mats. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it! I guess I was having too much fun playing.





They have 3 half pipes so kids can practice their snowboard/skateboard skills. JD gave it a try and I must say, it's much harder than it looks! I've seen kids do incredible aerial flips off the half pipe into the foam pit - I'll pass thank you very much.




The adults (Joel and Uncle Frankie and I) were quickly reminded how old were are! I tried to bust out some cool trampoline moves from my younger years. Um, yeah...not smart. I ended up with a trampoline burn on my chin. Nice. I love being old and out of shape.

For his traditional birthday breakfast, JD chose German pancakes with homemade carmel syrup - his all time favorite. For his birthday dinner, he wanted to go to Perkins - his favorite restaurant in town. He always gets french toast - this kid loves breakfast!

We have a little silly tradition (from my family) of reciting "heavy heavy hangover thy poor head, what do yo wish with a bonk on the head?" before each gift is received. We have to supervise of course because certain chilren take advantage and try to cause brain damage in the process!


We also have another tradition where the other siblings receive a little gift from the birthday child. Here is a picture of the eager recipients. I love this tradition because everybody feels special for each birthday. No tears.



If you know my son, it shouldn't come as a surprise that his big present was yet another Lego Star Wars set. You should see this guy's collection. Crazy. Christian is quickly following in his big brother's legosteps.


It was a fun day for JD. He loved having his cousins spend the weekend with him. He is a special young man and he was sent to us first for a reason. He's already taught us so much. I love that he still begs us to snuggle with him at night. I'm not sure how long that will last, so I better enjoy it while he's still interested. He loves to hear stories about history from his old forgetful (which is not good when asked to recall historical facts!) mother. He loves watching football with his dad - especially at night to get out of going to bed. His favorite show to watch is Junkyard Wars - it wouldn't surprise me if he becomes an engineer some day. We're still working on how to get him to enjoy practicing the guitar every day. I think he's enjoying it more than piano so we're making progress. We love this little man and can't believe we're about half-way done raising him! Happy 9th JD! Um, 2 months ago!