How Is It Possible That I Have A 9 Year Old???

On March 25th, Alex turned 9 years old! It truly doesn't seem possible to have a kid this old. It's also pretty amazing how much I have learned in the last 9 years. I love my kiddo so much and can't imagine life without him.

So through all the school issues, we were trying to plan a birthday party. It was not easy. Alex couldn't really decide on a theme this year, so we had to settle for two! We decided on a Nerf/BeyBlade party. Alex invited 8 kids, so there would be a total of 10 (with Darek and him). He invited his best friends from his old school and old neighborhood and it was a "boys only" party. Just so we remember who we invited, here was his list:

Jaxon
Christian
Landon
Michael (only one who couldn't come)
Hayden
Maddox
Colby
Ben S.

We were able to reserve a church building in our old area so the kids didn't have to come too far. We got there early and got it all set up. Once the kids got there, we started with BeyBlade tournaments. These were actually a lot of fun and I think the boys would have been content doing them the whole time. Jaxon ended up winning both BeyBlade tournaments! After that, we went over and had Alex open presents. He got a lot of BeyBlade items and money. Best part was that my mom and sister had hid money in socks and underwear. So they made him not only take the items out, but then search through to find the money (right in the crotch). I think he ended up getting about $50.00 after he opened everything. SPOILED!!! After all presents were open, we had cake and ice cream. By then we were really starting to run low on time. We broke the pinata as quickly as we could. I had set up a Nerf boot camp, but there was no way we'd have time to do that. So we got the boys split up into teams for a Nerf war. They ended up getting two or three rounds in before parents started coming to pick kids up.

It was a great day. We cleaned up and loaded his major haul of presents in the car. I think he absolutely loved his party, but really loved being with all of his old friends. That was most important to him.

My current list of things that stand out about Alex:

Funny
Smart
Tender
A Leader
A bit bossy
Loving
Sweet
Turning into a tween (doing the smart a** comments and being a little dork sometimes) :)
Will still give me hugs and even kisses
Athletic - he still loves soccer and really wants to be fit
Amazing and insightful to talk with
Simply put.... A really good kid

Our camera was not working at the party. My dad was taking some pictures, so I'll have to get those from him at some point. I did get some video, but I'm too lazy to put that on right now. :)

Love you Alex!! Happy Birthday my little man!