Brennen's Birthday Blast

The night before Brennen's big day, Graysen wasn't feeling great. He was running a low fever . . . that got a little higher at bedtime. In fact, I went in to check his temp and it had risen to 101.5--thinking this did not bode well for our birthday activity list the next day, I said to Buck (who was also in the room), "Crap! His fever went up! But he's sleeping, so I don't want to wake him to give him anything." To which I hear, "No, I'm not, mom. I can't fall asleep." To which I replied, "Oh, well, um, then just forget the word you heard mom just say." Lol :) He had been mightily disappointed that his feeling-not-good-ness didn't allow him to participate in the birthday decorating, which has become a sibling tradition. However, we were all very happy that he was back to himself (mostly) the next morning, with no lingering signs of fever.

That meant, we were ready to celebrate with all hands on deck! Brennen got the traditional family birthday song at his door (plus Grandma J!). Then he admired his (generic/non-themed, this year) decorations, which looked very festive. Soon, he discovered his brother's gift waiting for him at the breakfast table. Brennen was very happy to open a pocket telescope to add to his adventure bag. He was also very happy that Grandma was in town and that means blina for his birthday breakfast!

We had been stock-piling eggs from our chickens, so we had quite the collection on the counter. These, I washed as my contribution to breakfast :) Gabby is our next-generation blina maker, and gladly helped Grandma Judi flip the goodness on the stove. Brennen accomplished half his normal blina load, before declaring he just wasn't quite as hungry as usual (but he made up for it by eating leftovers the next day :)


Buck and I had discussed what might be a fun birthday adventure for our son. Brennen had kind of thought maybe we could go bowling and then to The Olive Garden for lunch--okay, initially he said, "Hmmm, what's by the bowling alley? I guess we could eat at that buffet in the grocery store." Ha!! We can drive you a bit farther than the buffet at the grocery store for your birthday lunch, pal. :) So, Buck started doing some calling and discovered a pretty great deal on an arcade we'd heard of, sort of, but had never been to. It included an all-you-can-eat-as-often-as-you-want buffet, so I guess that part of the plan came together after all :)

For three of the four-point-five hours we spent at the arcade--we were the only ones there beside the owner and two guys who came in to buffet! It was amazing! They each had a $10 game card for anything that blinks, flashes, rolls, crashes, rides, or yells out repeatedly "DANCE DANCE Revo-LUTION." The kids got to play Skee-ball for the first time and earned a ton of tickets on the bowling ball roll (hey, that part of the plan happened too!!) At the very end, Brennen collected all the cards (which held the earned points in lieu of tickets) and purchased several candy bars at the prize counter.




I'm told the buffet wasn't too bad--tacos, nachos, pizza, salad, ribs, and Icee's! Apparently our children have never experienced the delight of frozen syrup with red dye 40 before . . . what?! :) I actually consider this fairly successful parenting ;)

We also enjoyed a round of glow golf with a 90s video game theme. They'd play excerpts from various video game melodies over the speakers and Buck would shout, "Zelda!" "Mario Bros." "Street Fighter!" As you can see from the picture, it got pretty crowded in there . . . ha!



Below there are three princess by their castle . . .



And three grumpy trolls guarding their bridge :)



They call her "Laser Granny" (no, they don't, I made that up :) But Grandma J took to the laser tag course like a champ! Graysen wanted to sit out with me, so we tried to sneak pics through the single window to the laser tag world. The others played two games (not back-to-back) and had a lot of fun. Grandma's been telling everyone she meets that she now plays laser tag, and might get a group of friends together for her next birthday party to play another round ;)



This crazy, rotating rock wall was also part of our package deal. Nobody wanted to try it for long, except Caelan. She scaled that thing no problem--and then it started to tip backwards! I don't know how she managed to hang on, but she kept right on climbing!



When the late afternoon crowd started to arrive at the arcade, we decided to mosey home. Buck had a big list of cooking to do--including asparagus, chicken wings (both grilled and air fried), and a whole chicken to grill. Caelan put together her homemade mac & cheese, and Brennen was super excited to eat! We did get a break from cooking, I mean they did, to watch B open gifts. He was delighted with his snacks from his sisters, his boots and bolo from Grandma J (just in time for the next night's Texas-themed mock trial), and the remote control cars from Buck and myself.








Once his feast was complete, we sang another round of Happy Birthday--but first he counted his candles to make sure we got the number right ;) Grandma's chocolate caramel brownies were his choice for birthday cake . . . so pretty much we also made her make food from the moment she walked through the door :)

The rest of the night was board games and reading his new Lemoncello book. He had a super fun, super special day, and we're thankful he's ours!