Today our son is turning eight! He is so grown-up and we are so proud of him. He opened his cards (thank you, Aunt Melissa and Great-Aunt Jean!!!) and a gift from his sister - two Cars the Movie cars he (amazingly) didn't already have. We told Aidan that he had one more gift in the basement and he was super-surprised to see what we gave him: a huge collection of Star Wars Action Fleet toys that Jim has collected over the last 12 years. They are still working on opening all the packages and setting out the figures and ships. The packaging has already generated three big trash bags of garbage and they're still not done! Anyway, he's having a great time with them already.
For breakfast this morning we went to Marge's Donut Den, where Aidan ordered two big ol' cake donuts coated in powdered sugar. He ate one and a half, as his eyes were bigger than his stomach on this particular occasion.
We went to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park after the donuts so that Jim could take Aidan's birthday portraits and they turned out terrific. There are a lot of great shots and it will be hard to decide which ones to print. We will post some soon.
We met Grandma Margie for lunch at Jimmy John's, which was really good. Aidan was super grateful for the birthday gift Grandma gave him - a Star Wars Lego set!
When we got the mail there was a package notice, so in the afternoon Jim went to pick it up, and there were birthday gifts for Aidan and Esme from our amazing friend Danielle of Australia. She sent Aidan a really cool ant farm (ants not included, so we'll be ant hunting later!), and Esme a paint-it-yourself piggy bank! We still don't know how she does it, but Danielle always picks out the best gifts for the kids. Thank you, dear Danielle!
After dinner we'll have some chocolate Death Star cake, and Grandma and Grandpa Hollopeter will be visiting on Tuesday next week, so the celebrating isn't over!
On a side non-birthday note, I called (248) 852-1193 this afternoon to talk to Mom, and "Beep! The number you have dialed has been disconnected. Thank you for using AT&T." Now, I've known this day was coming for a looong time - but somehow that sounded so final! My parents have had that phone number my whole life. Good gracious! They'll be closing the deal on Monday. Congrats, Mom and Dad!