From the Crazy Mixed Up Files of E's Birthday

E has had some mixed up birthdays in the past:
Age 2 our house was for sale and we had 4 showings scheduled that day.  We finally got back in the house in time to grill a quick dinner and let E make a mess with his cake; the phone rang as we put him in the tub for clean up--another person was out front and wanted to look at the house.  We quickly packed the poor birthday boy up and went for a ride while they looked.
Age 5  D was out of town overseas for that one and the celebrations just kept going to make up for that.  Preschool party, special lunch, neighborhood party, family party and then party with D when he returned loaded with trinkets from his trip for E.
This year's birthday at age 11 will rank right up there with the mixed up for E.  The day of his birthday we were all so sick that he barely got a "Happy Birthday" out of any of us.  The birthday calls from family brightened him up some and we put off the big celebration until the weekend. We began the celebrations slowly with a Friday night homemade spaghetti dinner.   Saturday we also had a nice day of celebrating our favorite 11 year old.  The boys chose a walk around the Birmingham Zoo as the outing for the day.  It is nice to be a member so we can go for a while and know that when someone gets tired we can go back and finish another day.  We saw a few animals and then sat for the sea lion show.  Farley, the sea lion, was the hit of the day.

 After the zoo we had special lunch of E's choosing and ran a couple errands before heading home to an afternoon of play and relaxing.  I made the birthday boy's dessert of choice which was a giant snickerdoodle cookie.  He is 11 now and not a fan of cake anyway.

 Funny how as the kids get bigger the gifts get smaller (for the most part).  No, not a phone (please, we won't even get the poor child a regular video game system); it's my old iTouch with all internet access/email access removed for now.  As he shows us his responsibility level he will gain access to items for his favorite new gadget.  So far he has been very good with it.  He also got a new kickball and bases to play kickball or baseball with. 

So while this was a crazy mixed up birthday for E I think he enjoyed it in the end.  Happy 11th Birthday to my first baby boy!  love and hugs, B