7

Ethan turned 7 last week.  We enjoyed the evening together at the park and then had a dinner that he wanted (chicken nuggets and chips) and of course, birthday cake in the shape of a baseball cap.  Since I can't quite get my *#@t together I asked him if he wanted to pick a few friends to take to the movies for his birthday and then we'd get ice cream.  Sure!  So 5 days before the event (*#@t still not together), I sent the invites with Ethan to school so that he could deliver them to his friends (who are not in his class).  Well, upon arriving at his friends' classroom, he saw that they were not there so he gave them to another boy to play mailman and give to them instead.  (Apparently Ethan's *#@t isn't together either.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.)  The "mailman" a.k.a. DeMarco completed 50% of his job.  One invite was delivered and one was not because the other boy ended up being absent from school that day.  So, being the managerial type, Ethan promptly directed his friend DeMarco the mailboy to put it in his friend's cubby.  Sure thing boss!

Let me pause here to say that as I was hearing this story, I felt pretty certain that the movie goers in our party would be:
*Matt
*Kim
*Mackenzie
*Ethan
*and DeMarco
since only one invite had been delivered and it was now 4 days until the party.  At this point Ethan was given strict instructions to: a) make sure boy #1 got the invitation and b) boy #2 pulled the invite out of his cubby that was placed there by mailboy.  Both boys were instructed to have their moms call me.

So 3 days to go until the party.  Both boys had their invites (and it was possible that so did mailboy DeMarco).  No phone calls from moms.... Not sure if it would be a party or a family outing.

2 days to go and we get a phone call from one of the moms.  Matt takes the call and informs me that boy #1 cannot come because he has booked a previous engagement.  (Kids today and their booked up schedules...) BUT... Matt then questions his message taking skills and wonders if the mom said that the boy could or couldn't make it.  ???  Apparently Matt also doesn't have his *#@t together either.  We make quite a pair.  At this point we realize that there is another boy we would like to invite, and we quickly send out an invite to him and his mom lets me know that her son would love to be there. YAY!  A positive, quick response!  It's no longer going to be a family outing, but a birthday movie party!

1 day to go until the party...no more phone calls, no more responses.

Day of the party....boy #1 shows up.  Yay!  Then I get a phone call from the mom who spoke to Matt and she is on her way.  (Mental note: review with Matt that it is important to listen to the person you are speaking with on the phone).  Boy #2 shows up.  Yay!  Mom of boy #2 informs me that boy #3's mom followed her to our house and she should be here any minute.  Yay!  Four 7 year old boys playing in my house (because everybody who knows Ethan knows that he ripped open every one of his presents before his guests even entered our house.)  We ate pizza, and then we headed to the movie theatre to see Tron.  Great movie, by the way.  Afterwards we had just enough time to go through the drive through at McDonalds to get sundaes for everyone.  Voila!  Happy 7th birthday buddy!  And a great time was had by all!

(This was one of 3 pictures I took of our whole time together.  Shocker, I know!)