This year it seems like 8 took a long time to get here. Maybe it is because many of Jack's friends have birthdays earlier in the year, maybe it was the anticipation of baptism, but whatever it was, I was already thinking of him as 8 long before April 20th.
Don't misunderstand, I don't want to hurry his growing up at all, he just seemed so ready to be 8.
Jack has taken an interest in cooking, baking really. He has made his own cookies, brownie bites, and last week he made a cheesecake for the church auction.
He is now old enough to attend the opera. In the last three months he has attended The Magic Flute and Beatrice and Benedict courtesy of the BYU opera, and heard Mozart at the Utah Symphony. He loves it. He loves the Daddy/Mommy time and the events themselves. He loves the food after the event, be it ice cream or French fries and hamburgers. We love that he is growing up and old enough to take places like that.
Being it is an even birthday, it was birthday party season. This was much more pressure than I anticipated. Entertaining 8 years olds seemed so much more daunting than entertaining 6 year olds. It didn't help that every time I would float an idea past Jack he had some form of criticism to throw at it. Conversations went something like this:
Me: so, would you rather just take two friends somewhere fun, or do you want to have a party at our house?
Jack: Well, I want to have friends over, but what will we do?
Me: You can do birthday stuff, you know, play games, open presents, eat cake.
Jack: Ya, but I don't know how to do any of that stuff.
Me: Oh, well, that's my job.
Insert disbelieving look
Jack: You? (note complete and utter distrust in his voice)
So, you see why I was a bit nervous, I was up against a very tough crowd. But, after some scrapped ideas and a little help from a friend, a lot of help from Jared, and some elbow grease, I think it turned out great.
The theme was Tron. We played minute-to-win it games. The favorite was shooting rubber bands at playing cards.
We made light cycles, and had a light cycle course outside.
Light cycle cake.
Presents and friends.
It was really fun. Even Jack thought so.
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