9 Year Old Boy in Tha House!

Alert!  We have a 9 year old now.  It happened so fast but the day is here. 


We started the day with Collin being dropped off from spending the night with Trace and Clayton.  The night before, Dad was a DJ at the neighborhood couples Back to School party.  I was a little sad that I did not get to wake up to see the birthday boy, but it's not all about me.  He was fine that he woke up somewhere else "as long as I get to spend most of the day with you".  OK, I am all better now.


We went to Petco to buy his birthday present....3 hermit crabs.  He has been wanting them since he saw them and got to play with them at Jake's house several weeks ago.  After explaining these crabs were his responsibility and understand what that meant, he promised to clean the cage, feed them, spay water every day and take care of them, we bought 3 because it's recommended to have at least two.  Hermit crabs are social and need buddies to pick on...which is what these guys (or gals) do. 


Collin wanted to keep the crabs in his room.  We explained that he needs to make sure Burke does not get in his room without us knowing because...bye, bye crabs.  He picked a spot in the corner of his room which will probably work out well.  These crab came with painted shells so he named them based on their shells:

Crab's home

Lazy is on the top of the picture and Lightening Bolt is at the bottom.  Mr. Greenie is hiding right now.  They like to burrow in the sand.

At 4:30pm, his friends started to arrive.  15 boys were coming over to have pizza and a birthday cookie before heading to watch a local baseball team play.





Skeeters baseball team banner



Boys patiently waiting for pizza



What are they talking about while eating?

It was so humid outside that it fogged the camera lens

Birthday boy table

Before heading out, we sang Happy Birthday to Collin.  The boys were really excited that the birthday treat was not cupcakes or cake but a cookie instead.  Yum!

Look at all of that icing!

Time for some singing

Now, that's a happy birthday boy

He did not have a hard time blowing out one candle

After eating ALL of the cookie cake and a dozen of blue iced cookies, we loaded up 5 cars and went to the baseball field.  Before loading up, the boys posed for a picture.  I was impressed the slack line held them all.





When we arrived at the field, they were handing out Selfie Sticks.  I immediately collected them from all of the boys because I could see these turn into weapons really quick.  Later when I passed them back out, these were golf clubs, swords, lightsabers...anything but the a Selfie Stick.  Only a few of the boys knew what these were for.


We took up 3 rows at the game.  At first, the boys were watching the game but finally got thirsty, hungry or bored around the 4th inning.  We planned to stay until at least the 6th inning and needed to stay until the 4th inning because that's when they would flash Collin's name on the board and wish him happy birthday.  Most of the boys, including Collin, missed this because they were too busy trying to get one of the players to throw them a ball.  That did not happen so they were ready to go. 

When we first got there, it was easy to get a picture of all the boys

...and here is what it looked like right before we decided it was time to go

Birthday boy cooling off and not wanted to pose for a picture

Timmy sat next to me and had lots of questions.  He is a talkative little guy.

Posing for a picture before getting back in the cars

This was supposed to e the serious picture

Yep, the crazy one. 

As a birthday treat for the boys, I did not want to hand out candy or Dollar Store items.  We handed out a small Skeeters baseball bat instead.  The boys were REALLY excited about these but we let them know we would take them if these were used in the car on the way home.





Collin opened presents that night when his cousins came over.  He got several $20 bills, boxes of candy, football, airplanes and play masks and swords (which he immediately played with).  I was surprised not to see any Legos in the pile.