Jared the 8 year old

Birthday Crepes 

Birthday Crepes 

Handsome new 8 year old

Jared is a great kid.  He can be very helpful and sweet and more often than not he is. He is smart and silly and very dramatic.  He is especially dramatic when he is asked to do something he does not want to do and it admittedly drives me crazy.  For example he has to read for 15 minutes each night and do a reading log. Jared enjoys reading but when I tell him to do his reading he acts like it is the worst punishment in the world.  He complains and whines and then starts reading and after the timer goes off he keeps reading because he really does enjoy it. Drives me insane.  Just the complaining part before he starts.  He is still working on controlling his emotions.  It is hard for him to deal with conflict head on.  Which I completely relate to. When he is upset he goes into his room, locks the door and does not want to be disturbed.  Last week we had friends over and after a disagreement outside he stormed inside vowing to not play with them the rest of the day, shut the door to his room, closed the blinds and played by himself.  We had a little chat where I pointed out how much he wanted this play date and how it was not polite to ignore his friends.  Fortunately he does not hold grudges.  A short while later one of the friends came in and asked to play and he was quick to let them play Legos with him.  

Popsicles in school for his birthday treat

He seems to be doing well in school. It is harder than previous years but not too hard where he struggles. We have conferences on Tuesday and I am looking forward to hearing from his teacher.  He has really nice friends for which I am really grateful. He is quick to figure things out and he wants to succeed and be the best at things. He is a big fan of awards and recgonition.  He loves his trophies and medals and often gives himself A+ or 100% on school assignments or even just pictures he drew.  He loves nerf guns, most sports such as football, baseball, soccer and swim team and money is still a big interest to him.  He is a fun kid and we are so glad he is in our family. 

There was a lot of celebrating of Jared this month!  With his birthday party with friends, baptism on his actual birthday and get together after the baptism it feels like there has been some celebration happening or being planned the whole month. It was nice to have them and its nice to have them over. 

Admittedly having Jared's baptism on his birthday, something he was really excited about and had looked forward to for most of the year was slightly more busy than I would have liked but I feel like we did manage to get in all our birthday traditions which individually really don't seem like that much but with a baptism and get together thrown in it was a lot. I already looked at Lydia's 8th birthday and it does not fall on a Saturday so I feel pretty confident it will not be happening again.

Since we had Sue and my Mom and sister here Jared was actually sleeping in Lydia's room so that is where we put all his birthday balloons.  He requested crepes for breakfast and meat rolls with ham, potato and broccoli soup to go with it. Even though I made him a cake for his birthday party I still felt like we should have a cake for his actual birthday so I decided to make him a number 8 cake.  It was fun since for his 1st birthday I made him a number 1.  I was really happy with how it turned out. We had cake and presents before dinner which worked out great.  When I look back on that day/week I feel tired.  Crepes and meat rolls are not super hard but they do take more time than other meals.

Here is the schedule of that Saturday.

Breakfast: Crepes (started cooking them at 7:00)
*Soccer at 9:00
10:00 soccer ends, rush home to shower and get to church
Baptism pictures at 10:40
Baptism at 11:00
Baptism get together at 12:20 or so
Get together over around 2:30
Birthday Scavenger hunt from Grandma Sue
Cake and presents 3:45
Birthday interview after
Mark dinner, eat by 5:30.

It was non-stop.  I do feel that Jared felt really happy and special and that makes me really glad.  More often than not my life is pretty straight forward.  We plan things to do but never that many in a day.  It was kind of overwhelming but fun and special too.  I will admit that it felt pretty great when we finished his birthday interview.

2017 birthday interview

1. What is your favorite color? Blue

2. What is your favorite toy? Star Wars Legos

3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries 

4. What is your favorite movie? Free Willy

5. What do you do well? Build with Legos

6. What do you like to do with Daddy? Play Ticket to Ride

7. What makes you happy? Mommy and Daddy

8. What is your favorite scripture story? Moroni and the Title of Liberty

9. What is your favorite song? Shake it Off

10. What is your favorite animal? Killer Whale

11. What is your favorite book? "I Survived" series

12. Who is your best friend? Tyler and Marcus

13. Where is your favorite place to go? An Ice cream store

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play baseball

15. What is your favorite drink? Root Beet

16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

17. What do you like to do with Mommy? Play games but not Nerf Wars because she doesn't like them

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Crepes

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Ham Potato Soup and Meat Rolls

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Navy Seal

Presents and Cake

Grandma Sue asked Jared if he wanted her to give him his birthday money or go on a scavenger hunt to find it.  He of course chose the scavenger hunt and she planned a great search for him.  He loved it.

It was a fun busy day and a week later I may be recovered from the first 2 weeks of the month.

*I was totally set to skip soccer because there were so many other things going on but Lydia's coach asked Mark if he would mind filling in since he was unavailable and Mark said sure.  I was less than pleased with this situation.  It all worked out fine and it was nice of Mark but it made everything so much more rushed.