Nine

This is it!

This is his last full year of being a single-digit kid.

And he couldn't be happier!

[Mom softly cries in a corner]

"Baby" G's birthday festivities:

He wanted to be able to enjoy his gifts throughout the day, so he got up at 5am to open presents with Dad.

Waiting for Dad to get his morning coffee so he can start opening presents. The blanket and angry birds he's holding is from his pseudo-sister, Hannah.

A gift from sissy

ugh it's blurry... It's a Hexbug zipline set.

I wish I would've caught the expression on his face as he was opening this!  Pure and utter excitement, with a calm cool look quickly to follow.  So him!

A glow in the dark hexbug (which we had been holding onto for 8 months).  Almost forgot to give it to him.

He changed it up this year and picked Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast instead of Donut Joes.

K really was happy.  It's his thing to be cool, now that he's a teenager.

He was torn between AirWalk (trampoline play center) and bowling.  Final Decision: Bowling

His is the top score.  He did pretty good!  Yes, he had bumpers, but they weren't used very often.

His game lasted less than a minute, but he loved it none-the-less.

After, a Frosty from his brother.

Birthday Lunch:

Sloppy Joes... Only Sloppy Joes, no side item (per his request)

After making lunch, I immediately took to making his birthday cake.

I'm not America's Top Chef.

But I feel this birthday cake isn't too shabby.

In honor of his OBSESSION of frogs...

A Frogger cake:

I found gummy frogs at a local store, used tootsie rolls as logs, and got these mini cars at the dollar store.  Unfortunately I didn't have red icing, so the lilypads had to be green.  He didn't mind though.

He knew what it was... so mission accomplished.

And right after I prepped this, it was on to making his favorite dinner:

Meatloaf, Cheesy Potatoes, and Green Bean Casserole with sparkly grape juice

And after dinner, we had to find room in our tummies to have cake and ice cream.

He chose strawberry cake with cotton candy ice cream.

by this point, tired of smiling. :)

And let's not forget the mandatory (by his mother) reading of his first year book.

Then there was a lot of playing with gifts. Only 2 moments were captured though, because his menu had me in the kitchen cooking for hours. :)

combining Hexbug sets

Quadcopters at night