Birthdays . . .

An extremely long post. 

It's been a little quiet on the blog but that's October for you.  School is in full swing, as well as football, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and then we throw in two birthdays only 6 days apart.

 It's a great mix of non stop work and play.

Like most parents we try to make birthdays special.  I'm not sure why, but I'm not great at hosting a birthday party for kids.  I tried it a couple times 6 or 7 years ago, but abandoned the idea when we had plenty of family around to create a nice dinner party for the boy of honor.  Now, six years later the boys are interested in birthdays with activities.  So I'm trying my best to make it happen and still stay within the budget of common sense.  That, and I usually have about a week to plan something because that's just the way October rolls around here.

This year the Scientist wanted to go swimming for his special birthday activity.  After checking around we decided that the affordable option would be Open Swim time at the Arne Hanna pool.  We invited some friends to swim with us and afterwards the family went out to dinner at the birthday boy's favorite restaurant, Denny's!

His actual birthday landed on a Cub Scout den day so we brought cupcakes and sang happy birthday during snack time. That night we had a small cake and officially declared him an eight year old.

A week later he received a big surprise when a few friends who didn't make it to the pool, gathered to say "Happy Birthday!"  The birthday boy was stunned, a bit confused, but gracious and thankful.

After Popsicles the boys played football in the sun.  The boys and I felt very blessed by this gathering.

Our oldest turned thirteen last weekend and his birthday activity took us across the border into Richmond, BC to a crazy place called "Extreme Air."

 This place boasts 42,000 sq ft of interconnected trampolines with half pipe, dodge ball courts, trampoline basketball and foam dive pit. 

This place is crazy big and with everyone jumping around I had a terrible time trying to get a decent photo.

We stopped at Five Guys Burger and Tim Horton's donuts before we crossed back into the US.
That was on Saturday.  On Sunday we had a nice family dinner with many of his favorites.

Salmon, salad, fresh bread and cake of course.

And to mark his teen years he received a few new tools.

Happy 13th Birthday Professor!