A.J.'s mini-party.
After picking A.J. up from school yesterday afternoon, he had an assignment to finish: decide where he wanted to eat out for his special birthday dinner. From a long list of available choices I gave him, he picked Outback Steakhouse. I admit, I was surprised but very happy with his choice - it had been a looooong time since we'd eaten there. :-)
We met
Heather at 5:00pm. Since A.J.'s party won't be until the middle of September (just too much crammed into all the weekends between now and then), we wanted to go ahead and give him the gifts we had, plus the gifts from our moms.
The restaurant was not crowded yet because of the early dinner time, and that was a nice thing. It did take a while longer than expected for our food to come out, but our waitress was so nice and friendly. Right from the get-go, the staff knew that it was A.J.'s birthday - it was kinda hard to MISS that fact, what with Heather and I walking in under PILES of presents. ;-)
The boys suckered a different waitress into giving them both TWO animals filled with crayons. A.J. played with his platypus and alligator while Jack banged his shark and bird around. But don't the platypus and the alligator look eerily related? ;-)
A.J. had a 'Boomerang Cheeseburger and Aussie Chips,' and Jack chose 'Kookaburra Chicken Fingers and Aussie Chips.' I had the Queensland salad, but I didn't pay attention to the description underneath; I was expecting a grilled breast of chicken atop salad greens, and instead I had ordered a seasoned chicken salad. It was okay, but it wasn't what I was wanting.
When everyone was finished eating (which nearly KILLED A.J. and Jack to wait for us to finish a decent amount of food, by the way), it was time for A.J. to begin opening his presents. The folks around us got pretty tired of the camera flashes, I'm sure, but hey - you only turn 7 once!
A.J. really gets into opening his gifts!
A.J. opened a gift from my mom first. She sent him a blue lunchbag filled with a water bottle (which A.J. is so excited to take to school every day), a radio pen (seriously, you write with this thing and it even has headphones if you want to use them - who thinks of these things?!), a fish plate and his own set of stationary.
Next he opened a gift bag from Heather FILLED with about 50 new shirts! So many nice clothes, even though I was a bit more excited about them than he was. ;-)
Next came Grammy's card and gifts. She'd had to wrap and mail them in two separate boxes, and A.J. opened the larger one first. He's always had a thing for anything shark-related, and boy, was he ever excited to get a cool, new shark pillow!
A.J.'s new shark pillow from Grammy and Papa George
And since A.J.'s big birthday party will have a 'Madagascar' theme this year, Grammy also sent him a Madagascar version of the game SORRY! Too cool.
Then both of the boys opened birthday gifts from Heather's kitties,
Milo and Tasha. The kitties had bought them two more of the Imaginext® line of dinosaurs - yay! (And yes, the kitties got Jack's to him a little late, but I don't think he really cared!)
A.J. then opened a gift of books from me. I bought him one about the United States, and he immediately said, "Is there Kansas in here, too?!" He loves anything about the States. I also had gotten him a book called Rodeo Ron and his Milkshake Cows - it was a really cute story. :-)
Then both of the boys had gifts again - this time from Heather's mom. Jack had a rough time getting into his at first, but once he did, they were both rewarded with awesome, new ScoobyDoo fishing poles!
A.J.'s new ScoobyDoo fishing pole from "Ms. Charlotte"
Ms. Charlotte also sent the boys each a tackle box filled with hooks and lures, and they thought the smiley-face lures were just too cool.
A.J. went on to open a gift of books from Heather next, and when one of them turned out to be a duplicate of one we already had, he graciously gave it to Jack, who dug right into it. Then A.J. opened a gift of more books from Mom - these were two SpongeBob books, and he was pretty excited about that. Daddy had sent a box the day before, and in it, he included a DVD - 'SpongeBob Goes Prehistoric.'
THEN it was time to open the BIG gift. Heather and I had gone in together on this one, and it was...
A.J.'s new GameBoy Advance SP
He was opening it, and Heather and I were standing by with our cameras, waiting for a big, excited smile... except they weren't coming. He kept saying, "it's something FOR the GameBoy Advance," but we could tell that he just wasn't "getting" that it WAS a GameBoy Advance. Finally, he had it entirely unwrapped, and I said, "A.J., you know what that is, right?" Again, he said, "It's something for the GameBoy Advance, but I don't have one of those."
And Heather and I both said, "Now you do. That IS your very own GameBoy Advance!" When he finally "got" what we were saying, he practically bounced off of his chair in excitement!
He had several games to open then: PowerPuff Girls, Spiderman 2, Shrek 2 and a ScoobyDoo game that was 2-in-1. He was so excited!
Finally, all the gifts were finished, and it was time for A.J.'s special birthday dessert - a 'Spotted Dog Sundae.' It was vanilla ice cream rolled in Oreos and chocolate syrup, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Heather bought one as well, and I got one for me and Jack to share. It was a great end to a great mini-party. :-)
It took Heather one and me two trips to get all of the leftover food and presents into the car. We pulled out of the parking lot at 7:10pm, and I couldn't believe it had taken us over 2 hours to eat dinner and open gifts! Of course, then it took me about an hour to open all of the gifts when we got home! ;-)
We met
Heather at 5:00pm. Since A.J.'s party won't be until the middle of September (just too much crammed into all the weekends between now and then), we wanted to go ahead and give him the gifts we had, plus the gifts from our moms.
The restaurant was not crowded yet because of the early dinner time, and that was a nice thing. It did take a while longer than expected for our food to come out, but our waitress was so nice and friendly. Right from the get-go, the staff knew that it was A.J.'s birthday - it was kinda hard to MISS that fact, what with Heather and I walking in under PILES of presents. ;-)
The boys suckered a different waitress into giving them both TWO animals filled with crayons. A.J. played with his platypus and alligator while Jack banged his shark and bird around. But don't the platypus and the alligator look eerily related? ;-)
A.J. had a 'Boomerang Cheeseburger and Aussie Chips,' and Jack chose 'Kookaburra Chicken Fingers and Aussie Chips.' I had the Queensland salad, but I didn't pay attention to the description underneath; I was expecting a grilled breast of chicken atop salad greens, and instead I had ordered a seasoned chicken salad. It was okay, but it wasn't what I was wanting.
When everyone was finished eating (which nearly KILLED A.J. and Jack to wait for us to finish a decent amount of food, by the way), it was time for A.J. to begin opening his presents. The folks around us got pretty tired of the camera flashes, I'm sure, but hey - you only turn 7 once!
A.J. really gets into opening his gifts!
A.J. opened a gift from my mom first. She sent him a blue lunchbag filled with a water bottle (which A.J. is so excited to take to school every day), a radio pen (seriously, you write with this thing and it even has headphones if you want to use them - who thinks of these things?!), a fish plate and his own set of stationary.
Next he opened a gift bag from Heather FILLED with about 50 new shirts! So many nice clothes, even though I was a bit more excited about them than he was. ;-)
Next came Grammy's card and gifts. She'd had to wrap and mail them in two separate boxes, and A.J. opened the larger one first. He's always had a thing for anything shark-related, and boy, was he ever excited to get a cool, new shark pillow!
A.J.'s new shark pillow from Grammy and Papa George
And since A.J.'s big birthday party will have a 'Madagascar' theme this year, Grammy also sent him a Madagascar version of the game SORRY! Too cool.
Then both of the boys opened birthday gifts from Heather's kitties,
Milo and Tasha. The kitties had bought them two more of the Imaginext® line of dinosaurs - yay! (And yes, the kitties got Jack's to him a little late, but I don't think he really cared!)
A.J. then opened a gift of books from me. I bought him one about the United States, and he immediately said, "Is there Kansas in here, too?!" He loves anything about the States. I also had gotten him a book called Rodeo Ron and his Milkshake Cows - it was a really cute story. :-)
Then both of the boys had gifts again - this time from Heather's mom. Jack had a rough time getting into his at first, but once he did, they were both rewarded with awesome, new ScoobyDoo fishing poles!
A.J.'s new ScoobyDoo fishing pole from "Ms. Charlotte"
Ms. Charlotte also sent the boys each a tackle box filled with hooks and lures, and they thought the smiley-face lures were just too cool.
A.J. went on to open a gift of books from Heather next, and when one of them turned out to be a duplicate of one we already had, he graciously gave it to Jack, who dug right into it. Then A.J. opened a gift of more books from Mom - these were two SpongeBob books, and he was pretty excited about that. Daddy had sent a box the day before, and in it, he included a DVD - 'SpongeBob Goes Prehistoric.'
THEN it was time to open the BIG gift. Heather and I had gone in together on this one, and it was...
A.J.'s new GameBoy Advance SP
He was opening it, and Heather and I were standing by with our cameras, waiting for a big, excited smile... except they weren't coming. He kept saying, "it's something FOR the GameBoy Advance," but we could tell that he just wasn't "getting" that it WAS a GameBoy Advance. Finally, he had it entirely unwrapped, and I said, "A.J., you know what that is, right?" Again, he said, "It's something for the GameBoy Advance, but I don't have one of those."
And Heather and I both said, "Now you do. That IS your very own GameBoy Advance!" When he finally "got" what we were saying, he practically bounced off of his chair in excitement!
He had several games to open then: PowerPuff Girls, Spiderman 2, Shrek 2 and a ScoobyDoo game that was 2-in-1. He was so excited!
Finally, all the gifts were finished, and it was time for A.J.'s special birthday dessert - a 'Spotted Dog Sundae.' It was vanilla ice cream rolled in Oreos and chocolate syrup, topped with whipped cream and a cherry. Heather bought one as well, and I got one for me and Jack to share. It was a great end to a great mini-party. :-)
It took Heather one and me two trips to get all of the leftover food and presents into the car. We pulled out of the parking lot at 7:10pm, and I couldn't believe it had taken us over 2 hours to eat dinner and open gifts! Of course, then it took me about an hour to open all of the gifts when we got home! ;-)