Happy Birthday, Jack!

Today, Jack turned 7! He has been counting down the days all week (2 more days until my birthday!), could not have been more excited, and could hardly sleep last night anticipating the excitement of today!

It is our family's tradition to have a special family celebration on their actual birthday, and a party with their friends at a later date. Brent likes to call it the "birthday season". Well, Jack had his family day all planned out, and this is how it went.

First, we started with a special breakfast...cupcakes! We stuck a candle in Jack's cupcake, sang "Happy Birthday" to him, and let him make a wish to start the day. He opened up his presents...Lego Star Wars Luke's Landspeeder from Will, Lego Toy Story 3 Western Train Chase from Gramma & Granddaddy, and a Nintendo DS with the Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga game from Mommy & Daddy. Do you see a theme here? Legos and Star Wars make this child happy! The really fun part about the whole day was that Will was just as excited about Jack's birthday as Jack was. He was thanking us for Jack's presents right along with Jack.

Then it was off to swim team practice. Jack told the coaches that it was his birthday, so they let him 'run' practice; he got to decide what drills they would do. And if you know Jack, he was on Cloud 9 getting to be the instructor to a group of his peers.

We came home and started the countdown to 11:10 am, the exact moment that Jack was born and would now be 7. We also played with the DS trying to learn the Star Wars game. Although we didn't have time to start building the train before lunch, Jack just had to get the Toy Story Lego characters out to start playing with them.

We all got cleaned up and headed to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch.

Enjoying Kiwi Twists


Jack's favorite pizza, BBQ chicken!


The cheeseburger pizza was delicious, too!

Next, it was time for the main attraction...

We have been looking forward to this movie for months. When we found out that the opening day was on Jack's birthday, we just knew we had to go! The movie was cute and both boys enjoyed it, but it was not as good as the original in my opinion. There were some scarier parts in Toy Story 3 than I remember in the previous two, but neither one of mine seemed scared at all.

Kicked back spending a little time with Buzz & Woody

As I was cooking Jack's favorite dinner, Spaghetti and Meatballs, he could wait no longer to get his hands on that Lego Train set!

Jack has been interested in Legos for 6 months now, and his building abilities have really improved. Six months ago, he needed help in building the different sets. Today, he was pretty much independent, building the caboose by himself. I say "pretty much" because I have discovered that I love Legos, too, so I can't help myself in wanting to be involved!

While I was cleaning up and getting the cake ready, we had a little after dinner entertainment.

Lookin' good at 7!

This is what 3 looks like!

Yes, normally they do wear shirts to the dinner table...except on Spaghetti night. I find it much easier to wipe spaghetti sauce off of bare chests, then trying to scrub it out of white shirts. And I am all about the easy.

We also opened up the cards from Honey & Happy and Mimi, and they came with a Toys R Us gift card and money! WOO HOO!


And finally the big moment....

Turning 7!

Today, Jack said the sweetest thing, "Mommy, thank you for my life." I told him how thankful I was for his life, that my life wouldn't be filled with the joy and happiness that it is without him, and how very blessed I am to be his mother.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

We love you more than you will ever know.
You make us so proud each and every day.
XXX & OOO

Love,
Mommy & Daddy