Matthew's 8th Birthday

On November 9th, our biggest boy turned 8.  EIGHT!  He is super big and mature beyond his years.  He proves he is still a boy though with his New Year's resolution to not get any yogurt on his shirt.  Not surprisingly, all Matt wanted for his birthday was Lego.  He was quite thrilled to receive the town center Lego kit and began building it immediately.

The boys were very interested in helping me adorn the birthday cake with M&Ms.  Matt and his signature pouty face that he does now for photos.

We decided to do something different for Matt's birthday party this year.  I was all done having a large number of rowdy boys in my backyard trampling over each other in a bounce house.  Instead, we picked up 4 of his school friends, Ava, and met 2 of his church friends at Austin's Park & Pizza.  We recruited Uncle Tim for extra chaperoning.  We had a lot of fun.  It was busy there that day, so the kids didn't get to ride the go-karts as many times as they wanted to because the lines were super long, but it was still a fun time.

They waited nearly an hour to ride the go-karts.  And they all loved it.  They were trying to pass each other, and each one of them had such a serious face as they whizzed by.

Mini-golf was a hit.  It started off pretty organized--Steven laid down the rules.

Everyone was focused.  These boys are so competitive with one another.

Will's look of determination.

Oopsie.  Lost one.

Handsome birthday boy.

After golf we played laser-tag inside, and it was so much fun!!  I did pretty well I must say.  It was fun getting to do fun activities with Matt alongside his buddies and to watch his interactions with all of them.  They ate lots of pizza and kept stopping by the buffet to grab a slice or a cookie or a drink.

After that fun we hauled everyone back to our house for some cake and backyard soccer playing.  Will was right in the thick of it, loving every second.  Those kids are a crazy bunch and sang the loudest rendition of the Happy Birthday song ever.  Poor Ava was plugging her ears.

The next day after church we had our family and close friends over to eat BBQ, enjoy cake and celebrate Matthew one more time.  He is one lovable boy.  I love his vocabulary, I love the one-on-one time we get, I love how he watches the Weather channel online, I love how we've looked through the Lego book 100 times and he still wants to know what my favorite is on each page, I love how he looks forward to my cooking, I love how he lets Johnny crawl all over him & tackle him, I love how he lets Will snuggle up next to him after school, I love getting the giggles watching him clumsily get dressed and 99% of the time end up with a twisted waistband, and I love how he still just wants to be in the same room with me.  Matthew is growing up fast.  We are so proud of him and still so in love.