Happy Birthday Jacob!

Last Saturday we had a special day celebrating Jacob's golden birthday (8 years old on the 8th). He awoke to gold coins (chocolate of course) and a golden balloon. I would have kept the gold thee going with Golden Grahams cereal, but he did have his request as you can see!

We had said last year that it we were done with birthday parties for awhile, but that didn't fly well when we told him. And the guilt of moving him from his friends set in, so we gave in - a bit. We would go to Legoland in Schaumburg, but he could only have 3 friends. So, that was the plan. But, just before leaving, Jacob got a phone call from Fraser, his best friend in England. I didn't want to eaves drop (yeah right!), but I could hear a lot of "What?", "What?" which led to Jacob breaking out his British accent in order to communicate clearly. It was even funnier when Aiden got on the phone and couldn't understand his friend Rory. "What are you talking like?" said Aiden. "I'm talking like me!" said Rory. "No your not, you sound like Charlie and Lola!" How easy they forget!

Once that conversation was over, the doorbell started ringing and soon enough we had a houseful of excited boys. One, whom had been up since 5 am! (not even one of ours!) We packed in the car and headed to Legoland. It was very exciting to be at an indoor Legoland! The Dragon ride was first on the list - rumored to be a roller coast, but in reality went about 2 miles an hour and reminded me of "It's a small world" at Disney. But, the boys loved it.

We explored a mini-lego Chicago, played with a bit of lego before going on another small ride. I thought it was much more exciting, but the boys choose to go on the Dragon ride, again. After lunch and a 3D movie, we decided we had done it all. All except the Bob the Builder movie, which Jeb was desperate to see. So, Tom took the 5 boys and I went to see Bob. It was only 10 minutes, but a lot can happen in 10 minutes. I took one look at the boys and knew something had happened - no one was smiling and everyone looked scared. Tom explained that while on the Dragon ride he heard the man in charge yell, "Don't touch the lego." Then he heard it again, praying this was directed at the load of 4 year olds 2 cars behind. And then the ride stopped, the lights went on, and the man in charge came through saying, "I'm gonna get those kids!" Tom was praying even harder that it wasn't the ones he was in charge of. But, a few seconds later, he saw 4 boys being ushered out of the ride. Two crying, two looking scared to death. So, yes, you can get kicked off from a slow moving, somewhat boring ride. You just have to really work at it.

In the end, it turned out to be a great time, we just don't speak of that incident when referring to the birthday. We came home to both sets of grandparents, presents and cake. Oh yes, I did this one myself with no directions. A bit lopsided, but you get the picture.

Happy Birthday Jacob...hope it was as memorable to you as it was to us. Don't worry, we'll remind you of it every year for the next 50!

Building Lego cars before testing and racing them.


My masterpiece before it was cut into!

Happy 8th buddy!