Happy 9th Birthday, Jude!

I will try not emote too heavily over this post. My middle child is the least dramatic of the three of my children, and he is the one who tolerates my drama least of the three of them. 

He likes things to just be.

So I will honor him in that.

I will say that I just watched an interview with an older actor in which she says one bad thing about getting older is that you feel like you eat breakfast every thirty minutes. I feel that way about this last year. We celebrated Jude's eighth birthday and now, suddenly, it was time to celebrate his ninth, after just a couple of breakfasts.

I would like to slow things down just a bit. 

That bit of emoting done, the documenting of said birthday must commence. He may not like my emoting, but he can't stop my birthday documentation. 

His actual birthday was on a Wednesday. The hubs worked hard to organize his schedule so he could have the early part of the day off. The two of them had a man date and spent some quality time doing man sorts of things.

The other two and I went to get his birthday present. We spoke his love language and bought him a skateboard thing that I was quite sure he was going to break on arm on. I ignored my obsessive worry appropriate motherly concern and purchased what is called a "ripstik." 

He was overjoyed.

Don't let the lack of emotion fool you. I think we've covered already that he's not one to emote.

Or put up with my emoting. 

 

We met for lunch as his favorite restaurant: Moe's. If you ask him where he wants to eat ever, he'll choose Moe's. 

And I must pause to quietly emote over the preciousness of that boy. Goodness.

We had Gigi's cupcakes for desert. And fine, I had a little something to do with this choice of desert. But he was good with that.

After lunch, he wanted to go jump at an inflatable jumping place, or roller skate, but since it was the school year, those places were closed during the weekdays. He agreed that going to the zoo was an acceptable alternative, and that was a really good thing since it suddenly turned the day into a field trip.  Yay for days off that are still school days.

Not that I'm obsessively counting or anything. 

We had a great time at the zoo, and since we had just wrapped a unit study on reptiles, it was great timing for school too. They studied the anaconda for a long while. That thing was huge. 

We then headed to church where he spent the last part of this birthday with friends, and that made him happy.

It was a good birthday.

The following Saturday, he invited family and a few friends to celebrate his day at home. 

When I woke up that Saturday morning, he had decorated the whole downstairs by himself, set out all the table decorations and gotten everything ready by himself. 

It was, as you probably already read, a "red birthday."

He chose all the snacks, which meant we had a plethora of BBQ flavored foods. And pickles. 

It's his birthday party. He can do as he likes.  

He also opted for a cookie cake and a regular small cake too. And two kinds of ice cream. Variety is the name of the game. 

He was blessed with really great gifts. He was so happy.

The baby, of course, nearly stole the show.

I shared her like a good aunt should. 

I mean, how could all of that cuteness not almost steal the show?

I was thrilled to get her at the end of the party. 

I love that kid.

We probably look as tired as we felt. It was a great day, though. 

He promptly spent the rest of the weekend building Legos and playing with his toys.

Which is exactly what a nine year old should do. 

Excuse me while I go quietly emote.