17 September 2008

The Sons of September Slip into Celebration Mode

Part I - Brennan's Birthday


So all three of my sons were born in September. We couldn't break the mold no matter how hard we tried. Whether we liked it or not, we got all our boys in September and our girls in December.



So Brennan's birthday came first... He got breakfast of his choice (pancakes and muffins), a wireless Playstation 2 controller, homemade Oreo cookies for his birthday cake, lunch with Dad and the family (thanks to work being so close to home now!) and some presents that are awaiting shipping from overseas (Kingdom Hearts 2 collectibles.) It was a fun day.



That weekend, we threw Brennan's party at NickelMania. 10 kids and 4 adults, and it was a riot! Though I have to say, I wonder if the adults had more fun than the kids. They say youth is wasted on the young... well, many of the kids blew most of their 40 nickels in about 20 minutes due to throwing them into the "ticket" games trying to win prizes. Brennan and his friend Bryson put 20 of them each into a Simpsons arcade game so they could have 60 lives each. heh.

They certainly don't appreciate the concept of arcades as the adults remember it from our youth (said in the voice of Grumpy Old Man: "Back in my day, video games cost $0.25 and we LIKED IT!!! Oh how we LOVED IT!!!") See, when we hit arcades as kids, the goal was to see how long you could go on one or two quarters on a game.

And these nickel arcades are packed with games we used to play as kids. The really fun ones, like Frogger, Q*bert, TRON, Joust, Donkey Kong (and all sequels), Super Mario Bros, BurgerTime, Defender, etc. they're all there and more. One wall is lined with old-school pinball games. They have some newer ones too, so there is pretty much something for everyone there. The adults talked a lot about ditching the kids some time and having an adults night there. I think we will.



Anyway, everyone had a great time; and it was wonderful to see Brennan have such fun with his friends.

Part II - Ryan's and Andrew's Birthdays


Congrats, Gwennie!!! You survived the twins' first year! You are more than Mom-of-the-Year material, trust me... And we still need to do some kick-butt bash for you and your achievements! Since I didn't have time to do anything cool around their birthdays, we'll have to see about something special come Anniversary time. ;)

So Ryan and Andrew celebrated their first birthday on Sunday with my family gathered round (we had six birthdays to celebrate amongst my siblings' famlies and mine; my own family accounting for three of them. heh)

As is tradition, we like to give large pieces of cake to the children (Brennan got an entire small cake for his first birthday) and enjoy their reaction to it after being placed in front of them. We must not like getting sleep.



Needless to say, Ryan and Andrew didn't delay in devouring their chocolate goodness that tastes infinitely better than that nasty-smelling formula they've been forced to consume throughout their first year.



It was a well-received right-of-passage into toddlerhood, and they accepted it gleefully. The pictures and video will tell all; but for a cliff-notes explanation, Ryan dropped a large portion of his cake down in his lap just before I started taking video of the event. So when his tray already looks empty when you watch the video, that's why. You'll chuckle when he finds it again during the video. Enjoy!







And now our feature presentation...

click play on the video below



And finally, the aftermath... Way to get in to your work guys! Y'all really cleaned house (rather made a mess of it...)



Happy Birthday, the boys! I love you!

7 comments:

heidi said...

Awww! Happy birthday to them all!! The twins are ADORABLE! Hey, I never did ask - where did you guys come up with the name Brennan?

kener4 said...

Too flippin cute!!!
Happy Birthday to all 3 boys!
Time just flies by doesn't it? I'm sorry that I still haven't gotten to meet these little cuties yet. One day we will make the loooong journey out that way! HEhe.
So, BIG news....We're expecting again ourselves! Sure would be fun to have twins! BUt I'll be great just to finally get one here!
Enjoy those little cuties-they sure are fun!
OLIVE JUICE MOSTEST!

Me said...

LOL!!! I loved it when he found that big piece he'd dropped! Happy Birthday!

Mary P.

wjlarsens2 said...

Your boys are beautiful---is that okay to say for boys? Good job with the video. It'll be great footage for their wedding videos, right?

That One Guy said...

Heidi: I don't come up with boys' names well (I kept wanting to call him Grimace.)

kener4: Congrats on expecting again! We'll pray for the full-term miracle; I'm so excited for you! OLIVE JUICE MORE!!! (No saysbacks)

disillusioned: We laughed so hard at that part of the video that night while we were retiring to bed and watching it on the camera, that we almost woke up all of our sleeping children. :)

wjlarsens2: Thanks for the kind words! I was thinking of exploiting them before the wedding videos... like for every girl they ever date. heh!

Mike, Julie and Braden said...

That NickelMania party sounded awesome. Remember when we would ride our skateboards up to Peter Piper Pizza and play Spy Hunter, Karate Champ, etc. Those were the days...

That One Guy said...

Those WERE the days! We joke around in the break room putting our lunch on top of the microwaves to reserve our spot as "next"; just like we used to with quarters/tokens at the arcades back then. :)

Good times!