Saturday, March 1, 2014

Happy 8th Birthday, Sean!





The baby who changed my life forever became eight years old last week.  Seven felt like an extension of kindergarten age but eight is a big number.  It is getting awefuly close to the tween age and I am starting to realize he is going to be more independent and I won't be needed so much in the coming years.  I am going to kiss him and hug him as much as I can this year as I think the time is running out before he thinks he is too cool for Mom. 

Sean had a good birthday despite feeling anxious about getting extra attention from his classmates.  He feels anxious every year and says he wishes we don't celebrate his birthday.  In the end though, he enjoys the cake, the presents and all his friends and family wishing him a great birthday.  This year, I took 31 fudge squares to his class since that is what he wanted.  He was originally requesting chocolate football cookies, but that I realized it was going to be pretty labor intensive decorating 30 cookies with icing.  I am glad he changed his mind since fudge is super easy to make!  Sean said the kids really liked the fudge and everyone had a chocolate face after school.  Sean stood in front of the class and his classmates "interviewed" him.  The teacher said one kid asked him how old he is and Sean responded "I am 103 years old!" which made everyone laugh.  He said Sean was being very funny and the classmates were surprised since he is usually very quiet at school.  I guess they saw his real side! 

We had a party at home after school yesterday and several of his classmates and neighborhood friends joined us.  I decorated the living room with football themed decorations and Sean thought that was very cool.  I showed them Sean's favorite movie of all time, Toy Story, and they were all glued to the TV for a little while.  That made things easy for me since I was the only grown-up.  I served up four boxes of pizza and they gobbled up four pizzas between twelve kids.  American kids sure love pizzas.  I am not sure if Japanese kids would like them as much as the kids here do.  I don't know how but they can fit four slices of pizza in their tiny tummy. 

They had some play time after the movie so they went kind of crazy chasing each other.  They were so loud, they could not hear my voice.  I am used to that kind of noise, so it wasn't a biggie.  I must be one of those people who can tolerate kid noises.  After a little playtime, it was a cake time.  This year, I baked a layered chocolate cake with chocolate cream.  I made Seahawk's mascot decoration and wrote "Seanhawk 8th TD" (TD = Touch Down) and I thought it was pretty clever of me. :-)  I worked on it all morning and I think it turned out very well.  I love the kids' reaction when I pull out the cake.  "Whoa!!" "Cool!"  "That's awesome!!" Most importanly, Sean was very pleased with the cake this year, too.  He requested a Seahawks cake and that is what he got with a special personal touch.  You can do that if you bake your own and that is why I do it.  I don't get tons of practice baking and decorating cakes since I only do it for kids' birthdays but I enjoy it very much.  Saya already put in an order for her cake which is going to be My Little Pony and a fox.  I don't know why she likes foxes these days but they are her favorite animal.  So I have to figure out how I can incorporate ponies and foxes together. 

Oh I almost forgot.  Sean's party didn't end when the guests left.  His best friend, Parker, stayed for a sleep over!  They were so excited, they didn't sleep until 11:30 pm.  They were having so much fun though so I didn't bug them too much.  You would think they will sleep in but no.   Bright and early with just as same energy level as before, ready to play, play and play.  They were very cute together.  At one point at night behind the closed door, I overheard them talking to each other about them being very best friends.  I thought that was so sweet.  I hope they remain each other's best friend for many years to come. 

So, I would say that Sean had an excellent birthday!  Now one more to go at the end of April!

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