Harrison is Nine

Youngest is nine!  Ahhh! 

The other three are all teen-age-ry, and he's still a kid ~ into all the fun stuff kids are into.  He wanted to go to Olive Garden for his birthday because he had seen a commercial, and he really wanted those breadsticks. And I think there was a baby in the commercial, and he kind of wanted to see a baby chomping on a breadstick.

Phillip had the idea of getting him a fish as his gift from us. This is the first "real" pet we've had, ya'll. It's a Black Orchid Betta. When he first saw it, he starting tearing up and said, "This is a big responsibility. I hope it doesn't die because I will probably go to my room and cry." 

So he was feeling a bit of a burden on his shoulders. But we talked to him about how to take care of it and that fish often don't last long and we wouldn't blame him if it died, etc, etc. By the end of the day he said it was the best gift he's ever received. He named it Charlie.

We all realized too late that no one got a picture of the jello cake Elizabeth made for him. So I found a picture online that gives you an idea of what she did (picture above is a random internet picture). It was blue jello in a clear bowl with Nerds at the bottom for pebbles and Swedish Fish swimming around and other plastic sea animals. She put ground graham crackers at the top for sand with a dolphin splashing up and a crab on the beach. It was really cute. 

After Olive Garden for Supper, we came home and set up a table of snacks in the front yard. Neighbor kids came over, we lit the number "9" sparkler and sang to H. Then we played a bunch of party games that I remember playing when I was a kid: pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, drop the clothespin in the jar, egg on a spoon races, and wrap a mummy with a roll of TP. I don't know that he'll be into those kind of games next year when he's 10, so I was glad to get them in this year. 

Later that night he said this was the best birthday he's ever had. 

I asked him, "Why?"

"Because I got the best gift. And because we had the incident."

"Which incident?"

"Where there two?" he asked.

"Well, what incident are you talking about?"

"How I got two of the same gift."

"Oh yea, that was funny. Yep, I guess that does make the birthday pretty special."

Ha, ha. That kid. He got two of the same Lego set. It's a Creator sea creature set, and he said he wanted to keep both so he could build two of the projects and have them play together. With Creator sets you can build three different things out of the set of Legos, but you can only build one at a time. 

Anyway, he's a fun kid. Happy Birthday, Harrison!