Birthday Extravaganza

Ladies and gentleman, we have an 11 year old!!!  It's hard to believe but true.  And since he kind of got the short end of the stick LAST year with his birthday -- you know because it was the day before we moved -- I wanted to make EXTRA sure that there was nothing about this year's celebration that could be held over my head for the next year to come.  Hahaha.  Because even though we tried to make things fun for him last year and took the whole fam to Bounce U for his big day, he still maintains that it wasn't a real birthday because I never took the kids shopping to pick out all their presents for him.  {Although, let the record show -- I did get around to that eventually.  In November.  Once I realized it was still bothering him from the summer.  Hahaha.} 

This year was packed with fun and celebration and presents from sun up to sun down.  And Scott even took the day off to play!  {Although this will probably backfire and now EVERY kid will demand that dad stays home on their big day.}  He was originally planning on taking him to the amusement park for the day -- hence the taking a day off work to go mid-week when the lines aren't as crazy -- but since Ethan and Grace already did that last Saturday with Scott, we didn't think it seemed necessary or budget friendly to take the whole family this time like we had originally planned. 

Ethan agreed to settle instead for a movie outing to see "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and, as a bonus, I threw in some Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast and some Domino's for dinner.  Two of his favorite things.  Haha.  We also wrangled out another trip to Target for birthday presents once the movie was over and I whipped up his requested Clash of Clans cake for the grand finale of the day.  All in all, I'd say it was the best day EVER for him!  Especially since he also had unlimited electronics usage as well.  What can I say?  A birthday comes but once a year.  :)

Join us as we document his special day...

 Nom.

 Scott made the donut run for me and came back with THIS assortment of donuts.  Huh?  What??? Only 3 chocolate sprinkle donuts??  And jelly-filled ones??  What the bunnysauce?  Hahaha.

 Ethan's thinking the same thing.  Haha.  J/K.  He was pretty happy just to come down to some Dunkin' Donuts.

 Early Bird Matinee!  You know it.  And it still cost too much for what we got out of it.  I spent half my time going in and out of the theater with Alex, and Scott was stuck with Jane.  In the end, I took Alex out to the lobby and he spent the last 20 minutes of the movie watching Power Rangers on Netflix on my phone.  So, you know -- definitely worth the $11.25 for the two of us.  Not!

 So exciting!

 Waiting for the movie to start!

 Creating the shield and letters for the Clash of Clans cake out of melted white chocolate chips.  It was such an awesome idea in theory.  In actuality, the execution did not end up matching what I had envisioned in my head.  Therefore I was extra aggravated by the time this cake was done.

 Not my best work, but Ethan seemed happy enough.  {There's an "11" on the shield for his age and there were supposed to be arrows stuck in the shield, too, but I couldn't get them to work.  It's complicated.}

 Sophie made the cute "Ethan" banner to hang in the doorway.

 He looks pretty happy, right??

 Checking out the sparkler candles.

 Making a wish.

 First gift of the night -- iTunes gift card from Alex.

So happy for Ethan!

 And not so happy.  Once Alex realized all the presents were for Ethan and none were for him, it was a sad, sad time.

 Piece de resistance -- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on CD.  He and Grace have been listening to the first book every night at bedtime and I figured it was time to throw something new into the mix.

Digging into that cake and ice cream!  And just for those who are wondering, Ethan also scored some silly string, a rocket launcher thing, and the game Telestrations that they played all Christmas vacation long at the cousin's house. 

And there you have it!  A successful day.  I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that, today, Ethan was the happiest I've seen him in a very long time.  It makes my heart happy to see that.  Thank you and goodnight!  :)