I can't believe it's been eight years since I held this little bundle of joy ----
Adam turned eight last week. (OK... two weeks ago. This post has been sitting in the drafts folder for so long!) He's still a bundle of joy.... and energy and mischief.... and I love him so much.
The celebrations of his birthday began on our Michigan trip at Easter. We rented a party room at the hotel where we were staying and we had a really nice birthday celebration for Adam and his cousin who is one week younger than him.
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| The birthday kids with Grandma |
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We got a six foot long sub for the party.
The birthday kids couldn't wait to chomp into it! |
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Kelly picked out the cake design with their favorite colors.
Flowers for her and balloons for him. |
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The best thing about the party room was that it over-looked the pool!
The cousins had a blast swimming all afternoon and Grandma and other family members enjoyed watching them.
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These two are best buddies!
They have so much fun together. |
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Happy cousins!
We missed Addie and Zack! |
The day before Adam's birthday Pappy and Mary arrived at the house with a special gift for him ---
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| A BARBIE HOUSE! |
This was such a funny joke. For some reason we've always teased Adam about getting a Barbie Dream House. Perhaps because he's just 100% boy. I had no idea they were doing this joke. Right before they came over, however, I gave the annual... "When you receive a gift, no matter what it is, be gracious and thankful" talk. His reaction was priceless. He was so gracious and actually speechless.
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They even played with it for about 3 seconds...
but he was SO RELIEVED when we told him it was a joke. |
How can an 8 year old boy be so (genuinely) excited about getting a container full of little boxes? He's our little hoarder-in-training!
Adam's actual birthday was a full day of co-op classes and Karate. We did open some presents in the morning... and we went out for spaghetti for dinner.
Word to the Wise: Be careful what you do for the oldest child. You most likely will have to grant subsequent children the same privileges. When Ray turned 8, we let him have a video game truck birthday party. Adam has counted the days until it was his turn for a game truck party. We made good on that promise.
His party had a Minecraft theme. He invited 8 friends, 2 cousins, and my sisters and my mom.
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He had specific instructions about the decorations...
including this front door "portal." |
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| Minecraft-themed snacks |
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| Adam's best buddy arrived wearing the same t-shirt as Adam was wearing. |
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| Adam decided we should have a Minecraft-themed game in which the party-goers had to search for "chests" that contained treasures for their goodie bags. We made duct tape "creeper bracelets" and perler bead "creeper necklaces" for prizes. |
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| The tough big brother showing off his loot. |
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After the prize hunt, a crazy silly string battle ensued in our front yard.
It's likely that there will always remain little bits of this stuff in our yard, no matter how many times we mow it. |
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| At last, the truck arrived! |
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| Ten little boys, my niece, and one big boy had an awesome time playing video games! |
Since NO bakeries around here would decorate a Minecraft cake, Adam decided to ask Dairy Queen to make a cake with a big blue box on it. This (supposedly) is a "diamond brick." I had the task of making a pick axe out of icing.
After filling themselves with sweets and pizza, the boys had some kind of wild rumpus in the back yard. Jon had the most fun of any of them.
The guests were so generous with lots of fun gifts for Adam!
His big gift from us ----
a "big boy" bike!
Happy birthday Adam!
We love you!
