Christian's 12th

Last year, I started asking the kids if they want a birthday party or a more expensive gift. Both years, Christian has chosen the gift. Last year he got a Nintendo DS Lite. Unfortunately, for the past several months, he hasn't been able to find it. This year he requested a remote-controlled dragonfly. He saw a boy flying one in the church gym quite a while ago and has wanted one ever since. He said that if I couldn't get that, could I get him a Nintendo DSi, which is better than the one he got last year, plus it has a built-in camera. Michael and I decided that the dragonfly probably wouldn't last very long, so we decided to get him the DSi.

We had to celebrate his birthday a day early since we had a funeral to go to on his birthday. As Christian requested, we went to Bertucci's for dinner. He love the rolls and oil dipping sauce. He had pizza (one of his favorite things to get) and was pretty excited that they came out and sang him "Happy Birthday". He also was happy to get his very own chocolate layer cake!

The whole weekend before his birthday, he kept talking about how excited he was about getting a dragonfly. When it was time to open his gifts, Michael told him that he wasn't going to get a dragonfly since he was still talking about it. He didn't look happy at all.

I decided to let him open his gifts in whatever order he picked them up.

Not too excited about socks (who is?).
Putting on a brave face. How many 12-year-olds get a tie, after all?
NOW, we're talking! (It's a DSi case, so I think he knows what he's getting...)
I don't think he minded that he didn't get his dragonfly...
I had to talk him into opening his suit...then he went straight back to his DSi.

On his birthday, my mom waited at our house for the kids to get home and then took them to her house. They had some yummy food, ate outside, and watched a movie that Christian picked out (The Wizard of Oz). My mom was also ambitious enough to make a dragon cake, one of Christian's favorite things...