Noah's Birthday!

The day has come. Noah Paul Sock Monkey is 8 yrs old! Hooray!! (insert applause) We were so excited to celebrate Noah's birthday today. Now, we opted to throw a simple party just with the 5 of us, because in 3 weeks we're headed to Rockford, IL to go to the annual Sock Monkey Festival! Yes. There is indeed a SMFest, so that will be where he has his "real" party. :-)

As is our custom, we decorated after he went to bed on Sunday night, so he could wake up to a fully decorated dining room. The kids look forward to this every year. I, once again, was worried about whether or not I had enough stuff to decorate with. Thank goodness for printers and leftover lanterns! Oh, and of course, an ample supply of sock monkeys with which to decorate. :-)

When Noah woke up, he was super-duper excited! Can you tell?? When I asked him what he wanted for a cake this year he said he wanted a cinnamon pancake cake. Noah doesn't like regular cake, which I guess, given his new diagnosis, this works in our favor! In years past we've done the infamous crescent roll cake and ginormous donut cake. So, a pancake cake was a fun idea!

This was taken after some of the candles had been taken out, but it's a tall stack with bacon trim, covered in butter and syrup. And, guess what? He got to eat the whole upper layer without a worry about carb intake. Yay!

He really wanted his cake for breakfast. Guess that's why he chose pancakes. So, we all sat around and enjoyed a morning breakfast, which doesn't happen ever during the week, because Pete's always off to work by 7. What a special treat!

Of course, letting him go to school without opening a present wouldn't be fair, so we let him have just one.

He was very happy to see a sock monkey travel mug! He kind of already knew he was getting it, because I promised it to him in the hospital. Told him I'd get him a sock monkey cup to take to school to hold his water. :-)

When he got home from school, he sorted through valentines and built his lego present from Keeden, as he waited for daddy to get off work. Once Pete got home, we had him open his presents, so we could head off to Cracker Barrell for dinner. Wow! Check out those presents! Nana and Papa T. got him a gift card to Walmart. Nana and Papa D. got him a Phineus and Ferb DS game. My brother actually sent him a birthday card, which, if you knew my brother, is very, very exciting! Noah won the bday card lotto this year by getting that card. ;-) Then we got him the sock monkey, the sock monkey shirt, and the Mario Yahtzee game. He'll get another present the day we go up for the sock monkey fest. It's a custom order, so it won't get here for another week or two.

Anyway, after his presents were opened, we headed out the door for some supper. Yum! I love the kids' birthdays almost as much as they do, because it means I get out of cooking and doing dishes for the evening. Happy Birthday to me!

Noah ordered like 3 plates full of food and went to town. He is soooo like his father. Pete will take gravy and literally cover everything on his plate in it. Basically making a giant gravy lake. Noah has taken to doing the same thing, only with syrup. So, he got himself some sugar-free syrup and drenched his bacon, his eggs, and his chicken. Ugh. Didn't sound appetizing to me, but hey...

... looks like it wasn't a problem for him! ;-) So, once again we celebrate a birthday of one of my amazing kids. Every year they get older, I find I love them even more. They are pretty amazing and I think, without a doubt, we've seen just how AMAZING Noah can be after these 2 1/2 weeks of change. Love you, m'boy. You are a one-of-a-kind, sock monkey lovin' kid and we love you to pieces. Happy Birthday, Noah!

Here's a little video of his birthday song and candle blowing. :-)

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