A Very Merry Un-birthday To You!

This weekend we had absolutely nothing on our social calendar. Which would be completely shocking, except that it's not. We're just not that cool. ;)

So, we decided to make our own weekend fun. I realized that Sunday was Clayton's half birthday, so I talked it up and made it into a big deal. Which Clayton was totally on board with, of course. We took him to Main Event on Saturday. We played arcade games and let Clayton bowl for the very first time in his 4 1/2 years on this earth. I just knew that he would enjoy it, since he loves to bowl on the Wii.

Well, even with the bumpers, he had trouble getting more than a couple of pins down at a time. He decided that it wasn't fun since he couldn't get a strike every time that it was his turn. (Dang that competitive Carpenter spirit!) So, halfway through, he declared, "Mommy, I'm bored."

Y'all, it took everything in me not to chastise his little ungrateful self after the small fortune we spent on renting the lane for an hour. Instead, I channeled my inner Donna Reed and said, "Darling, you can't win every game. What's important is that we're all together." Or something of that nature...

By Sunday evening, I had officially created a half-birthday monster. There was a lot of, "Mommy, since it's my half birthday can I eat dinner in the living room?" and "I sure hope that I get an Army guy costume for my half birthday." At which point, I was beginning to think that a half birthday celebration was a huge error in parenting judgement.

But, I'd already bought a tiny cake at Walmart, and, by golly, he was going to eat it. So, we lit a candle and sang, "Happy Half Birthday Dear Clayton..." He thought that the trick candle was great fun and seemed to understand when I explained that you don't get gifts for your half birthday. :)

Arcade games

He had to play some Skee Ball in honor of his Aunt Leigh Ann

Drew just ate a Mum-Mum and chilled in the stroller

Check out that granny ball stance. Ha!

The (Half) Birthday Boy

He blew with all his might...

then cracked up when it re-lit itself.

It's a good thing that birthdays only come once (er, uh, twice) a year!