Ashton is 9!

How I have a 9 year old, I just don't know. It is crazy to me how fast these years have gone by and yes it makes me sad! But it's also fun to see who he is becoming.

His birthday fell on a Monday this year, so to his dismay he had to go to school. But no chores! And he was excited to get to sit in a beach chair and do his work on a clipboard all day at school. Just one of the many fun things his teacher does.

Anyway he had a really hard time falling asleep the night before because he couldn't stand not knowing what we were getting him for his birthday. He always tells us that he hates surprises and it literally drives him crazy not knowing something. Finally when he was still awake at 10, I went in and laid in his bed with him and talked to him for a long time...probably about 45 minutes. I told him I would lay with him till he fell asleep. That and what I will write about next were my favorite parts of his whole birthday week. He is so busy during the day and never hardly slows down, so moments like that these days are so precious to me. The other one was the night before when I was in talking to him before bed. I told him that since he was turning 9, it kept making me think of a book I always read to him when he was little...called Love you Forever.

 I reminded him that he used to love rocking in the rocking chair with me every single night. So he asked me if we could go rock and read that book. It made my week :) He looked and felt like a giant on my lap, haha but I treasured every minute. I had Gunnar go get the camera and snap some pictures.

Flashback to when we used to rock all the time...

Anyway in the book, there is a part that talks about the boy being 9 years old and some of the things it says totally remind me of Ashton at this age.

Anyway, back to his birthday...

Oh wait, before I get to that I also have to mention that Gunnar didn't hardly sleep at all that night! He woke up at 2 am because he was also way too excited about what he thought Ashton was getting for his birthday and after that point he pretty much called me into his room at least 10 more times and was mostly awake till 6 am! It was kind of a miserable night :(

Anyway...

So that day Ashton woke up to a bunch of balloons on his floor and a sign on his door (at 6:30 am right after Gunnar had finally fallen back asleep) then, we let him open his gift which was the Skylanders SwapForce game for the Wii.

 Lars had gotten him a 22 gun also and had already given it to him while we were in Price. Then I made him cinnamon rolls for breakfast and got him off to school.

Then Gunnar and I went and got taco time crisp bean burritos and took them and ate lunch with him. I could tell he was loving having us there with him. It was fun!

Later in the afternoon I took donuts (super healthy eating for us that day!) in for his class and he got to get up and read his paper he'd filled out all about himself and show some pictures I'd brought in for him. For having to go to school, I think he had a pretty good day!

Not long after we got home, Grandma arrived.

Right after we noticed it was 4:17...the exact time of day Ashton was born on January 6, 2005...so of course we had to snap a picture!

Anyway Grandma brought him a fun Lone Ranger Lego set and went to dinner with us at Pizza Pie café.

 I tried to talk him into some other things besides a party to celebrate his birthday, but he is always in favor of a party! And actually I know that he probably won't be for too much longer and I love to plan parties, so I didn't mind too much.

His request was a Minecraft theme, so that's what we did that next Friday...

Next post!