Nine!

Friday, May 10 we celebrated Luke's 9th birthday. 

We took the day off from school and enjoyed a day with a few friends and family. 

The week prior to Luke's birthday, Ethan was insistent that he wanted to buy a gift for Luke. He counted his money in his wallet ($7.65) and repeatedly asked to go shopping. Although, we've never done this before, we made it happen. I suggested several low price items that Ethan could buy so he wouldn't spend all his money. However, he was not swayed by my suggestions. He insisted on buying a lego set that cost $7.34 with tax. It was really such a sweet moment (that I NEEDED to see!) -- Ethan so delighted with giving his gift and Luke realizing what a sacrifice Ethan had made by spending all his money on him. I couldn't have planned it better. 

The week before, Darin and I had fun making a "Luke 9" sign out of legos. 

What a great surprise for our lego lover Luke!

Luke requested ice cream cake, so I kept it simple with a homemade strawberry/vanilla ice cream cake. No crafty creations for me this year. It was a bit of a relief!

Of course, wearing the traditional "9" shirt! I love this tradition!!!

 After lunch and cake, we relocated to mini golf with a few special friends. Our plan was to try out a new mini golf course. We had scoped it out, looked at pictures online and gotten really excited to try it. Unfortunately, this Mommy never considered calling since we had such a small group. Imagine the disappointment when we pulled up to find it was CLOSED for a company picnic!!! We had one sad 9 year old on our hands. I'm so thankful he bounced back and made the best of a change in location to a less exciting course. (Too bad his brother didn't change gears nearly as maturely! bummer!)

9 year old at the NINTH hole!

Golfing buddies and friends since 2004!

We finished up the day with gymnastics class and dinner out with all the grandparents. (So fun to have Grammy, Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa join us for our traditional birthday dinner.)

Phew! What a marathon day. Boy, do I love this 9 year old and the fine young man he is becoming.