February 3 Brendan's Card

Tuesday:  This is the card I designed for Brendan's 14th birthday!

 These were all separate pages in Brendan's card that I stapled together to make a mini-book. I'm pretty sure he liked it.

February 3 Brendan's Birthday

Tuesday: Well--he's done it again--Brendan completely and absolutely ignored my mandate that he was NOT allowed to get a year older. I even threatened to remove February 3 from my calendar--ERASE IT! He knew I was only kidding ... but seriously ... it felt like yesterday he was turning FOUR not FOURTEEN.

I brought gifts over for Brendan today--his birthday fell on my usual cleaning day of Tuesday; and since it had been three weeks since I had actually shown up on a Tuesday over at their house, it had been three weeks since I had done any cleaning whatsoever. I arrived a little bit early today, unloaded my car of cleaning supplies, and walked around the main floor assessing what needed the most cleaning attention. I made some headway in the kitchen, but then I left and met my friend, Jen, for lunch from 11:30 - 12:30. 

I finished up the rest of my intended cleaning just about the time Brendan came home from school at 3:20. We visited for quite awhile. He was showing me a "preview" of a Nintendo game that is due out some time in April. He wanted me to see this very much, so I settled down on the couch with him and watched it for almost 30 minutes. That was a LONG preview!

The little kiddos came home at their usual time and we did our typical cinnamon toast snack with all four of them talking to me at once about their day. I tried to keep track of all of it, but I'm afraid I was more concerned about burning the toast in their toaster oven than keeping straight everyone's stories. 

I told Brendan we would open the gifts I brought for him once his parents came home from work. However, when Dylan got home from work it was just to change out of his work clothes and then have the kiddos and him pick Kelly up from work and go out for a birthday dinner for Brendan. They invited me to come to dinner with them, but I was a bit torn between just wanting to come home--my back has been bothering me the last few days, as well as my knees (yikes--I'm sounder older by the minute); so I asked Dylan if Brendan could open the gifts I brought over before they left for dinner.

Everyone tried to get in on the opening of Brendan's gifts ... but he handled it very nicely (as always).

It's difficult to see what is actually in these packages, so I'll just have to spell it out. The little square package has a cool blue magnetic shape maker (that is very difficult to describe in words). I should have taken a picture of it!

Here, Brendan is reading the 8-page birthday card I made for him that necessitated purchasing a special stapler so that I could put it all together for him.

It's very sweet how these guys enjoy my homemade cards.

Dylan, taking a closer look at the card. 

Here are two of the three Snoopy books I got for Brendan. I was hoping they didn't already have these three at the house--it turns out that they DID have one of the titles--but now it is Brendan's own personal copies. All of the kids really enjoy these books--I do too! I also got Brendan some knee, elbow and wrist pads for learning to use his skateboard (his folks got him one for Christmas!).

The grandchildren convinced me to join them for dinner, which I am very glad I did. We went to a restaurant I have never been to before, with excellent Chinese food. I was treated to my favorite--chicken fried rice AND crab rangoon! There was enough for TWO entire meals, so I ate the other half tonight for dinner--it was even better the second time around. Look how tired little Cal is (below).

I snapped 3-4 pictures before I left to go home, but I was at an awkward angle and never did get Aidan totally in any of the pictures.

It was very nice to be invited out tonight. Brendan really likes Ramen noodles, and this place had a ton of different choices mixed with all kind of yummy stuff. Cal ordered some too and ate it like a trooper--he and Brendan have similar palates and are easy to feed because of that. Erin didn't do as well with her meal, but she had eaten quite a bit with her afternoon snack, so hopefully she was okay. Aidan ordered plain rice and seemed to enjoy it too.

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY, Brendan. I don't suppose I can convince you to stay this age forever, so I'm not going to try. Anyway, no one in their right mind would want to be stuck in Middle School for the rest of their life! Sigh.