James turns 9

 My oldest and youngest having birthdays two weeks apart makes for an emotional two weeks. James turned 9! We started the morning with crepes for breakfast and opening presents.

He got a flag football set, legos, a maze cube

And lots and lots of snacks.

Erica got him a giraffe palm pal, Henry gave him his shoshibo cube and Sarah gave him cosmic brownies.

He couldn't decide what he wanted to do for his birthday until a couple of days before. "I just want to play outside with my friends." It wasn't his year for a friend party but if all I had to do was buy gatorade and order pizza, we'll invite friends over. I picked them all up from school (the loudest car rider ever) and they promptly went to the backyard and played.

Here was James's plan.

Then they came in so James could open presents. Such nice moms to get a gift on short notice.

My chocolate-loving kid wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. You got it.

We sure love this boy!

9 Things about 9-year-old James

1. He loves Legos. He got two sets for his birthday and that's all he wants for Christmas.

2. He is pretty witty. He can throw out a mild burn with the wit and confidence of someone twice his age.

3. He will just about any book I bring home from the library for him. He's a fast reader too! Pretty sure he stays up later than me reading.

4. He is pleasant and easy-going 80% of the time. 5% grumpy and whiny, 5% spazzy and obnoxious.

5. He's good with numbers. I live in a house of human calculators and it is so convenient when cooking dinner and scaling the recipe and I can call out "What's 2/3 of 150 grams?" and get a chorus of correct answers.

6. He goes from playing with all his friends all day and that's all he cares about to the next day hibernating in his room with Legos.

7. The only places he wants to go are the doughnut store, Chick-fil-a.....that's it.

8. He wakes up at 7 every morning and watches TV until it's time to get ready for school. He gets dressed, makes his lunch, practices the piano and then rides to school with his friend Calvin. He rarely eats breakfast.

9. He doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up but he really likes building things and he's not afraid of heights.