A "Repeat" Birthday

Well, just a few short weeks ago my Conner officially gave up his title as "my baby" and became what he has so long wanted to be, a BIG BROTHER. Now, his second dream has come true, to be done with age six and be officially SEVEN-YEARS-OLD!!! I have never seen my Conner boy so content with life. He is so eager to grow up and BE all that he envisions himself to be. It is really endearing. He has longed to be a big brother for so long and it suits him so well. He really has surprised me with his skills as a loving big brother and on top of that, magically his temperament has come down a few octaves (not as much drama and sassy-ness) leaving us with a very mature, responsible and adorable young man! He is as much at peace with his new brother as I am with having a new son. It has definitely been something we've both needed. Usually I lament these milestones, I can't stand how fast these kids are growing, but this time, I am truly happy for Conner. He is awesome!

Conner's Birthday is actually June 24th, so I am way late on getting it documented. But we did celebrate on his official birthday and it went very well. This year, he went back and forth with how he wanted to celebrate his big day. Generally, we try to "live it up" for the kids' birthdays. It is their ONE big day they look forward to, so if it's affordable and not too crazy, we usually go along with it. This year, Conner mentioned "Jumping Jacks" the inflatqble bounce house place where he has been a few times before. I called them and it was a pretty steep price tag. $150 for a tne kid party-yikes! So, he played around with some other ideas, but ultimately found his way back to the bowling alley. The SAME exact party we had for him last year. He surprised me when he opted for a "do-over" party but as the old saying goes, "if it aint broke. . ."

The bowling alley party is really a great option. It was like $35 and we were able to invite way more than 10 people. Plus, the employees there are so nice and accommodating and they do a lot of cute little extras to make the birthday kids feel special.

We bowled, ate cake and ice cream (another shocker when Conner opted for a PINK cake this year! Who is this kid?) and opened presents. Of course, we couldn't end the party without first breaking open a pinata! The bowling alley parking lot has the perfect set up for this. All the candy spills into the open area of the car port so all the kids can safely fill their candy bags without getting run over! The manager said he'd never seen anyone do a pinata out in the parking lot before. We said he must not have noticed when we did it last year!

The whole thing came and went so fast. We had a ball (no pun intended) and Conner could not have been more thrilled with the outcome. I wonder if he'll go for this birthday again next year?