Perfect Ten

It just keeps happening.  Year after year, they continue to disobey me and get older.  Harrumphh.  On Saturday, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi (why didn't we name him Andrew FRANCIS?) my "golden child" turned ten.  

I said "Happy Birthday Andrew!  Double Digits!" and he said "Why does everyone make double digits a big deal?" "Because", I replied, "you'll be double digits for the rest of your life!" To which he stated "Not if I live to be 100."  

Always gotta be right, that one.  Wonder where he gets that from ? ;)

How many fingers?

Declan can do ten fingers  too, can't sit up though ;)

In the morning, we made him a big breakfast of his choosing (eggs and hashbrowns and sausage) and then went to First Saturday Mass, said the Rosary and went to Confession.  A very holy start for a very holy boy.  Andrew loves his faith and is a very serious little altar server.  Monsignor is training him to serve at the Latin Mass now, and told him he is the youngest server for Latin Mass he's ever trained, which made Andrew stand really tall!

Xander: I give you a birthday hug Andrew.  

Just a gratuitous cute baby and toddler capture.

Ok, now onto the gift from Mom and Dad!  We have a deal with our kids ~ we don't do "friend parties" because it's too much money and planning and headaches for our family.  We just do family parties.  Until they turn 10 and can either have a big friend party OR a big gift that they've been wanting.  When John-Paul turned ten, he chose a Kindle and Andrew was planning on having a friend party until he switched schools this year and was torn about which group of friends to invite.  So he also opted for a Kindle, the new one, and we bought the case too because we ain't no fools about boys and electronics.

He totally already knew what he was getting, but was still so excited to have it in his hands!

Declan's like "What's happening?"

Mom, take a picture of me taking a picture of you!

For dinner, he wanted Chinese food and we were all happy with that choice.

Dessert was a trip to a frozen yogurt place in our town.  He got Orange Sherbet with gummy worms and chocolate caramel cups.  Eeeewww!

Good to the last drip.

Declan was just happy to be out and about.  Side note, why is it always the BOYS who get the darkest and longest eyelashes?

We came home and finished opening his helicopter present from Nana and Gramps:

He loved it!

...and a coin sorter from his godparents FILLED WITH COINS!  (The kids couldn't get over that part!)

The next day was so beautiful out, and we headed out for a scenic drive to a farm and did a 2 mile hike with some friends.  It was so pretty and fun.  Andrew loves to be active, so this was right up his alley.  Just yesterday he had 3 hour-long sports practices - track, soccer, and basketball.  I couldn't convince him to skip one of them because sports is his favorite!

I call this one Contemplative Alexander.

All in all, it was such a nice family weekend and the birthday boy was in Heaven.  Happy 10th Andrew, you are growing into an amazing young man and we love you deeper than the ocean!