Ethan Turns 8

In mid-May, Ethan turned the great 8!  The year of rhymes has begun - don't be late - you are now the great eight!  Ethan has grown so much this past year - he has shot up 3 inches to a height of 4'1" and is overall acting and thinking older.  His birthday became more of a month long celebration - a grandparent party, celebrating on his actual birthday, and then his friend birthday was at the very end of the month.

For the grandparent party, he requested a "cookie buffet".  I made his two favorite cookies and then he bought 4 types of cookies that I would normally never buy!

Only Ethan would show the exact same excited face after receiving a $100 bill from Grammy....

And a chess instructional book from Grandpa!

Blowing out the candles on his cookie ice cream sandwich.

For his birthday dinner (the night before his birthday due to activities), Ethan picked Smokey Bones so that he could order a half slab of ribs!  He loves BBQ, especially pulled pork and ribs!

On his actual birthday, Ethan requested a homemade lemon cake.  He loves citrus!

So I surprised the kids with a new type of birthday candle, which you will notice the large flame scared Ethan so much he ran away from it!

After the initial large flame, the candle opened up into a flower that spun in a circle and had the Happy Birthday music playing.  

Not spoiled at all...  His gifts are primarily Legos, Skylanders, and super hero items.

The final birthday celebration - a friend party at a Springfield Sliders game, which happened at the end of the month due to the Sliders' schedule.  Here is Olivia and Ethan with Speedie, their mascot.  You will notice it is the last day of May, and all are in long pants and sleeves since it was a temperature in the upper 50s at game time!

Most of the party guests with Speedie.  It was hard to get them all in one place!

The Sliders birthday party came with tickets to the game, food, the kids could sit anywhere they wanted in the stadium, a bounce house, and many of the kids were pulled out to the field to participate in games.  Ethan was picked to say "Play Ball!" at the beginning of the game, and to announce the players for one inning.

Our party also had access to a VIP viewing booth, which the kids loved!

Singing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy!  The stinker blew out his candles before the end of the song, so I didn't get that picture.

The Sliders provided the knife for cutting the ice cream cakes.  Although, I use the term knife loosely since it was more like a weapon!  However, it did cut through the cake easily.

Olivia and two other birthday guests were selected to run in the hot dog/mustard/ketchup race.  Olivia placed second.

The theme of Ethan's party this year was Big Hero 6.  We all agree that the Baymax balloon is one of the cutest balloons we have ever seen.