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!