I now have a seven year old boy!

As of 32 minutes ago Garrett was actually a seven year old! It seems like I had just gotten used to having a 6 year old, and now 7 seems so much older and I am having to get used to thinking of him that way!


We woke him up this morning with Scott, Tig, Owen and I singing him "Happy Birthday". I had had a tough night sleeping last night and woke up at 4:30 wanting something productive to do, so I snuck into his room and hung streamers up all around it. Owen saw it first and loved it, and then Teagan said that she loved it too and wanted to wake up on her birthday with her room decorated. Garrett however, was not super thrilled at us waking him up ~ he has NEVER been one to wake easily or happily. He has been my only baby that actually spent time in the nursery in the hospital after he was born and it was all because of this predisposition of his to wake up grumpy! (Although lately he has been surprising me by waking up early, getting dressed, and putting his jammies away all before I am up and out of bed! But it ended today I guess!) Either way, he was not pleased that we woke him and it took him another 5 minutes to wake up on his own, come out of his room and be a person!

I had made him chocolate chip waffles, blueberry waffles, eggs, bacon and grape juice for breakfast - all some of his favorite foods. And normally, if we have bacon with our big Saturday breakfast, I usually limit it to 3 or 4 pieces per kid; just because a couple of my kids are serious carnivors and would like to devour the whole pound of bacon by themselves. But today, Garrett got to start off with SEVEN pieces! (lovely plates, eh? He chose to he Hercules this morning and let Owen be Zeus and Teagan be the Pegasus plate. They are just some of our fine - nonbreakable - eatware!) Man did that make his morning to start with so much meat!

After breakfast it was time for morning chores (yes, even on birthdays we still do chores...am I slave driver or what?!), and today's big ones were sweeping and mopping the kitchen and dining room, and kitchen detail. Every time I came around the corner to check on how he and Teagan were doing, he had more bacon in his mouth that he had "rescued" from the plate of left overs. All in all I think the kid probably had about 12 or 15 pieces of bacon! I knew he would munch on the plate of bacon, that was sort of the reason I had left it out on the counter, but it was fun to see him snitching the bacon one piece at a time!

After chores and some playtime, Daddy took all of us out to the mall to eat at a place called "Hotdog On a Stick." Yum...doesn't it just make your mouth start to water?! Yeah, me neither, but the kids sure thought it was great! You get to see them make your corn dog right there in front of you and they have homemade lemonade also (either cherry, lime or regular). So Daddy, Teagan, Garrett and Owen all got a hotdog on a stick with some lemonade and I politely declined and was just going to watch them enjoy their deep fried, mixed meat on a stick. (Corn dogs and I have never really been friends and today wasn't going to be the start of anything new.) While I was taking the boys to the bathroom before they ate Scott surprised me and went to the next stand over and got me an Orange Julius. That is what I had for lunch. ~ not super nutritious, but very delicious! Isn't he a sweetie?!

So, it has been a great day for Garrett. He got his present from his Aunt Jen in the mail today, he already had his card from his Aunt Annike and it came with 7 dollars (what kid wouldn't love that?!), I let him open his present from his Granny on Monday, and he has been the most popular person in the house today for phone calls with all of our family calling to sing to him. Life is good when you are seven! And to top it off, we are having his favorite dinner tonight - a Pig Out! That is when we eat spaghetti with our faces (and sometimes hands)- just no utensils allowed! We have to do it when Daddy isn't home because he is a party pooper when it comes to Pig Out Dinners and he doesn't like to play along! But the kids and I get all into it and love doing it! This is the second year in a row that Garrett has chosen this as his birthday dinner! I will try to remember to take some pictures of the kids tonight and add them to this - it is always a fun meal.

Okay, so our plans changed a little! Scott and I have been building shelves and racks and all sorts of tote-holding devices in the garage this week while he has been out of school, and I was way tired tonight and x-ed the Pig Out idea. Garrett then decided to have Cup-O-Noodles, Mary Moo Milk, and decorate-your-own cupcakes. (I also made a batch of peanut butter Rice Krispie Treats for Scott) It is an odd collection of food ideas for a birthday dinner, but they (again) are some of his favorites! The Cup-O-Noodles was the lime shrimp flavored variety and I added extra dried shrimp to make it doubley special. The chocolate milk is actually powdered milk, and as odd as it is, it is one of his most favorite treats! We haven't had it for quite a few months, so both he and Teagan were ecstatic when I made more tonight. And kids always love decorating their own cupcakes with as many flavors, colors, and textures as possible! Teagan and Garrett made the cupcakes themselves and didn't make too big a mess in the kitchen, so I was pleased! I told them they could each have a couple of cupcakes, but they all stopped after their first and went back to finish the movie Teagan gave Garrett for a present - Aristocats. So now I have 15 strawberry cupcakes left to share with the Activity Day girls in Teagan's group tomorrow! (If they last that long I suppose) He ended up having a great night even though we didn't do the Pig Out ~ they usually don't get to watch t.v. during the week, so getting to watch his movie tonight was a big deal for them and it sort of made up for my lack of energy! We sang Happy Birthday to him and he blew out his candles and everyone dug in. Owen didn't want to get dirty, so he just ate with his face. So I guess in a way, we did have a pig out of sorts!