Dylan Turns 7

Well, as much as I wanted to post a birthday post ON Dylan's birthday, we were much too busy enjoying every minute of it for that to happen. The kid had every second of the day planned out. What a nut! I had to remind him often that we were celebrating just with our family this year. The parties have gotten a little out of hand and with more than one child, I realized we could not maintain that level of party forever. Too much work and way too much money. We've gradually been downsizing the last few years and have decided on having "special days" or immediate family birthday parties except maybe on "big" birthday years. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, the Birthday Bear visited our home again this year and decorated. It was fun for Dylan to wake up to all the decorations and to see how excited he was about something so simple. He informed me weeks before that he wanted a pancake breakfast with blueberries forming a smiley face...like him. Easy enough! We ate our pancake breakfast and got ready for our day at the Living Planet Aquarium. That's where he wanted to go for his birthday and it was perfect since we're currently finishing up our ocean unit for school. Abuela talked to me about what the boys wanted for their birthdays (Preston's is on the 15th) so I ended up getting annual passes for the three of us with the money she gave the boys. They were so excited and loved every minute of it. I was not super excited with the fact that we ended up there at the same time that two school field trips arrived so I was really glad we would be able to return with our passes again in the near future. We saw everything, but didn't linger and read too many signs. It was a bit too chaotic for that.

I was close to my fun limit at the Aquarium and Marissa definitely was so we headed out to find somewhere to grab a bite of lunch. I should've thought that through and packed something since we were taking Dylan out that night, but I didn't. We ended up going to Village Inn so the kids could have more pancakes. Go figure! Pretty good food though (and cheap) and the kids were surprisingly well behaved. I had the baby half asleep in her car seat and all our stuff when Dylan said he needed to go to the bathroom. Geez! I'm the mom that almost always makes everyone go into the bathroom together and still makes my seven year old come with me in the women's bathroom. Sorry people...I'm over-protective that way. But it was horrible timing and Dylan was nervous and didn't want to go alone so when he asked to take Preston, I just let them go together. I could see the bathroom door and figured I could at least watch to make sure they were okay that way. When it took longer than expected, I decided to go check on them. Of course I couldn't leave the baby or my purse or the diaper bag or camera bag unattended. So I grabbed all my junk and hobbled over to the men's restroom. I opened the door and immediately realized the problem. There was Preston standing in front of the urinal with Dylan behind him trying to wipe his little bum. Dylan seemed relieved to see me and proceeded to tell me the story (while simultaneously adding a lecture for Preston). Apparently while Dylan had gone into the one and only stall in the bathroom, Preston had pulled his pants down and pooped in the urinal. Poor kid! I'm sure he has no idea what that thing is for anyway. Dylan, not knowing what else to do, started cleaning up after his little brother. He got a paper towel and took the poop to the toilet and flushed it and then was trying to help wipe Preston when I came in and discovered the mess, relieving Dylan of his "big brother" duties. Honestly! It's one of those stories that will probably go down in family history and be told for generations to come. I grabbed Preston shuffling across with floor with his pants still down to this feet and dragged him into the women's restroom where I could clean him up more comfortably. I have to say that as big of a pain as it was, it sure made me love my little birthday boy even more. He is such a good big brother! Yes, he fights with Preston and leaves him out and teases him ALL the time, but he is kind and loving and very responsible. I love that kid!

We eventually headed back north and I dropped Dylan off at his music class while Preston, Marissa and I went to buy a bag of bubble pops, the treat he requested to share with his classmates. He was so excited to pass them out. Once in awhile, I catch myself thinking things are pointless and being a grumpy mother and then I remember how much little things like that meant to me when I was a kid and I come back to semi-cool mom mode. So yeah, we bought a treat so he could share with everyone. And he was adorable and asked which colors everyone wanted. He even made sure siblings of his classmates received a sucker too, even though that meant there were no more to take home with us after. It was cute!

Marcos was running late and we were full from our late lunch so Dylan got to watch his favorite show Dino Dan while I cleaned up a bit. We finished off our day of adventure at Olive Garden. We had a gift card so I kind of planted the idea for Olive Garden in his head to keep the day more reasonable financially-speaking, but it is one of his all-time favorite restaurants so he didn't need much convincing. We came home and he opened his present - a kneeboard (kind of like a skateboard). He was so excited. It was a great day for a really great kid! And yeah, the cake was an afterthought. I made a basic cake mix and the next day we put some frosting on it and his dinosaur toys. It's what he wanted. I bought white frosting and he said that was dumb because it would seem like the dinosaurs were on clouds so I mixed in a little cocoa powder. It served the purpose just fine. Gotta love how relaxed I've become about birthdays! I used to stress about making the parties perfect. Now I completely space the fact that I need to make a cake and end up winging it. Yep, things have definitely changed!

The aquarium was so cool. They all had a blast! The bigger picture is of a lady feeding the octopus. I didn't see the sign that says no flash photography and took a picture. Next thing you know, the lady feeding the octopus puts a sign IN the tank that says "Please No Flash Photography." Even when I do something like that on accident, I feel horrible. It's the good student, rule follower in me. :) There also happened to be a worker nearby that then proceeded to tell me why. Apparently it can make the octopus go blind. So then I felt super guilty. Sorry cute little octopus. I won't do it again! Dylan LOVED touching the stingrays and spent a great deal of time there.