Happy Birthday, Randy!!!

(Due to technical difficulties, this was posted the day after his actual birthday- Nov. 4)

Randy's 9th birthday is today.  We knew Jason would be out of town, so we celebrated on Sunday with presents and "cake".  (FYI:  Since May, Jason has been traveling to New Orleans every week- flying out Monday morning and returning home Thursday night.  This is the last week of his "six-week" project.)  Randy is the easiest kid to buy presents for.  He opens each gift with unrestrained glee and showers you with gratitude.  Pictures can't do justice.  Even a cheap, worthless present from Walgreens gets high praise. 

As you can see, his favorite dessert is cereal, which is pretty difficult to decorate with candles.  We still wanted to sing to him and let him blow out birthday candles.  So, we used a week-old cupcake, stuck nine candles into it, sang to him, and then I ate the cupcake.  Hey, a mom's gotta' do what a mom's gotta' do.

This morning, Jason called to wish Randy an official "Happy Birthday."  Randy's face lit up when he heard his dad's voice.  He said, "Thanks.  I really appreciate it."  It was so cute to hear such grown-up words from his mouth.

For dinner, we took him to his favorite restaurant- IHOP.  Not my favorite choice, but any place that has "Pancakes" in it's name is good in Randy's book.  He knew exactly what he wanted and cleaned his plate- pancakes, eggs and bacon.  Unbelievable!  I've never seen him eat so well in a restaurant before.  As we were leaving, he told us that he is going to take his wife and kids to IHOP "every day."  

As we ordered, Randy could barely keep still in his seat.  We explained to the waitress that today was Randy's birthday and he was super excited to be there.  Halfway through dinner, she and two other servers brought Randy an ice-cream sundae and sang "Happy Birthday" to him, which he loved.  The ice-cream sundae?  Not so much.  If it was plain vanilla ice-cream, I think he would have ate the whole thing.  But since it was covered with chocolate chips, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry, he only took a few bites and then was willing to share.  

Randy said he had a great birthday, and we had fun celebrating with him.