Kelton's Birthday Celebration

I know I still have photos from his birthday party on Easter to share but thought I would tell you about his birthday celebration from last night. This year Dakota has been lucky enough to have study nights on the actual birthday days for the kids which meant she could work it out to come home and join us for a birthday dinner.

Yesterday afternoon Kaylen and I took cupcakes over to Kelton's classroom so he could have a mini-party. It was so sweet to see him in his room, with his friends....it's a world that I only get glimpses of every now and again so it was nice to be able to hang out in the room for a while. Kelton picked three friends and they all passed out the cupcakes (Kaylen and I passed out napkins). Then the class sang to him and gave him a birthday card they had all signed. Then, as tradition goes, he stood in the front of the room to take three questions from classmates. Then his teacher reminded him that he wanted to say something - and this is where it got cute....he turned to a bundle of nervous little boy. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought my chatterbox would be nervous to talk in front of his class. I will proudly take credit for this quirky trait. :)

He told the class all about his "best present", his Nintendo DS that we gave him and the new Pokemon game his grandma gave to him (and about the other two DS games he bought using gift cards given my two other relatives). The oooohs and aaaaaahs were fun to hear and he looked very happy and proud.

Kaylen and I said our goodbyes because even though it was almost time for the day to end, Kelton wasn't coming home with us. He was selected a couple weeks back to be in a special after school PE program. The program was open to all 1st and 2nd graders with only 30 being selected "lottery style". Kelton was selected so every Tuesday and Thursday I pick him up at 5pm.

Dakota arrived home shortly before it was time to pick up the birthday boy so we all piled into her car and drove over to wait for him. On their birthdays, they get to decide where we go for dinner and Kelton picked Red Robin (no surprise there - that's where they both have opted to go for the past couple of years).

Kelton told us all about his day - how we got to go to "the birthday box" at recess and pick out two gifts (a cool pencil pouch made from recycled Kool-Aid packages and a coloring board of The Incredibles) and about how they announced his birthday during morning announcements. He told us how people were saying Happy Birthday to him all day long.

As we were getting ready to leave Red Robin Kaylen spotted Red himself so we were able to get a photo of the kids with the big red bird. Kaylen was very proud of herself because she said hi to him but notice how she wouldn't stand near him. :)


After that excitement we headed over to our local One Stop Shopping place because Kelton had a birthday wish - more Pokemon trading cards. I suppose a boy just can't have too many because he seriously has a couple hundred already but whatever.....

He agonized over which pack to pick but finally he made a choice and we were on our way.

At home he had one final gift waiting for him - a box sent by our good friend Stella. He could not wait to rip the paper off and when he did - he found a Make Your Own Monster Puppet kit which, I have to say, rocks!

He had so much fun making monsters and that fun extended to Kaylen as well. Just check out the fun.....













And as a bonus - the monster has suction cup fingers so it sticks to windows! :)

All in all - I'd say our new 7 year old had a great "real" birthday!