For starters — Happy Birthday Lex!! Nine years old and awesome!!

I’ve been feeling a little low about Lex’s birthday this week. It snuck right up on me and certainty didn’t get the front-of-mind attention it has in the past. Driving home from school Thursday afternoon, I started thinking about getting a head start on his cake for today, but then suddenly remembered that he needed cupcakes for school Friday! I hadn’t even talked to the teacher about it, but I sent her a quick email and started pulling out ingredients. Unfortunately we discovered, in the nick of time, that we had no good cupcake papers. Soo… Lex suggested peanut butter chip brownies, a recipe I had made awhile ago and everyone like. To fancy them up a bit I added chocolate chips as well, and marshmallows on top. They smelled delicious and looked great out of the oven. Unfortunately, when I tried to cut them at 9pm they were a gooey mess! Completely uncutable! I was going to make another batch of regular brownies, but we didn’t have enough ingredients. I was crying, seriously, over my complete lack of birthday preparedness. Alan put the brownies in the freezer and put me to bed.

The next morning I pulled the brownies out of the freezer and was able to cut them, but they were still pretty messy. I still hadn’t heard back from his teacher on sending treats in either. I gave Lex the option of messy brownies on Friday or really awesome cupcakes on Tuesday. He chose the brownies so we packaged them up in individual bags with cute labels and lots of napkins, and sent them to school. Hoping for the best and completely forgetting to take any pictures. Sigh. When he got to me Friday afternoon the first thing he said was, “The brownies were AWESOME!” Whew!

Saturday we spent making and decorating cake, filling goody bags, praying for sunshine, and prepping for a party. Oh yeah, and Eve learned to ride her bike again. Yay!

This morning came, bright and early, and my baby turned NINE! Nine whole years old and handsome as always. He had a few little presents waiting for him on the table.

Morning presents for my nine year old!

Nine years old!

I got him an awesome Lego movie t-shirt that has Emmitt on it and says “The Special Has Arrived.” I thought he would love it, but instead he laughed briefly and then discarded it. He refused to wear it today. You never can tell with that boy!

He loved these magnet toys!

Loved them so much he wanted a picture with them. :)

The forecast all week called for varying amounts of rain, but this morning it said clear skies and sunshine all day. Whoo hoo! We did our morning thing, then packed up a party and headed to the skate park for Lex’s birthday party.

This place is awesome. They have a skate park (seen here), a playground, and a big pavilion for parties.

A brave friend on the half pipe.

The birthday boy is one cool dude!

Alan joined in the fun.

Brave boys on bikes

We had a few girls there too. This one forgot her bike, but luckily I packed an extra bike and two scooters. Everyone had a blast!

Lex on his new bike.

Hey party people!

Cake time!

The cake was an evolving process. It started with a couple of round cakes and we went from there. Lex had input, I had input, the lack of supplies had input, and we ended up here. It is supposed to look like bike wheels. What do you think?

Making wishes and blow out candles.

Cake for everyone.

I like this group of kids. I miss being in their school every day and seeing them all.

Lex got some awesome presents!

Despite my last minute planning the party got rave reviews. One kid said it was the best he’s been to in a long long time, and another kiddo said it was an epic, EPIC party. Can’t beat that. Most important though is that Lex had a blast! Everything went well.

After the party we packed up and headed home. Everyone crashed for a bit. My parents were here and Mandy and Rachel as well. We ordered pizza for dinner, per Lex’s request (though he doesn’t eat the pizza, just the cheesy garlic bread), and enjoyed dinner in the front yard on a beautiful evening.

Happy birthday to my nine year old. My baby who is no longer a baby but a big, strong, handsome, growing boy. I love you with all my heart!