Within A Blink of Her Eyes It Changes

Yesterday was Riley's birthday.  He's nine.  It's kind of weird to think that nine years ago he was just a tiny little baby.  But at the same time.  It's wonderful.   I love that he is growing up and becoming somebody who is kind and loving (unless he doesn't get enough sleep.  Then he's not very nice to anybody).  He is a smart little boy, and he knows it.  I love that he knows it.  He's confident.  Unfortunately, he isn't fearless.  He would probably do more active things if he weren't so afraid of getting hurt.  He won't play soccer, he won't play basketball, and I think he would really enjoy those things, but he said he didn't want to compete.  I told him he should just play and have fun playing and not worry about the competition part of it.  It's rec league.  They have to take everybody.  Oh, well.  Let's focus on his awesomeness:  Smart, cute, kind, and silly.  He's the whole package ladies! ;)

Speaking of ladies, apparently he does have girls that have crushes on him at school.  One girl wrote in his birthday book:  "Dear Riley, You can chase me as much as you want. Your BEST Friend EVER!"  How cute is that?  I guess he and a few boys in his class like to chase the girls at recess.  Some things never change.

We couldn't find a marble cake mix in the stores (we went to two different ones), so Riley chose a lemon cake with chocolate frosting and Fall m&ms.  It was yummy.

I asked Kurtis if he wanted to do the video or the camera.  Even though this picture is pretty crappy, I still think it looks cool from an artistic standpoint.  Riley wasn't very cooperative about getting a good picture and holding still.  I'm not sure he is very comfortable in the spotlight, so he acts all weird when he is the center of attention.

He's pretty bug-eyed here (on purpose), but at least he is having fun.  Nine is fine! :)

This is as close as we get to a decent picture of him on his big day.  Awesome.

Opening presents and cards.  I love this picture of Bonnie.  She's so beautiful.

Here he is, reading his letter from Great-Grandma Sharp.  I miss that lady.

 

From his parents, he got a computer game that is only online, so I took the cake mix box, put a picture of the game inside, and wrapped it.  It's called Minecraft.  He was pretty dang excited.  But unfortunately, I don't think he was surprised because Zach wouldn't shut up that morning and kept asking if we had bought it or not.  It's hard to keep a secret when you have to keep telling somebody to stop asking if Riley can use his birthday money to buy the thing they want.  I was hoping he would be more excited.  Instead, it was more like, yep.  I knew I was going to get this.  No big deal.  :P

This is his present from Grandma Bonnie.  She got him a dart gun.  What's so cool about this one is that the darts stick to you because they have Velcro on the tips.  Awesome!  Oh, and see that cute girl in the background of this picture?  That's Lili.  She's Michael's girlfriend.  I finally got to meet her, and she is fabulous.  I like her.  Michael showed me a picture of her a long time ago on his phone so it was really small and her hair was dark and short, so when she came in with her hair long and red, I was a little thrown off.  That's not how I had pictured her in my head.  But all girls change their hair all the time, so I shouldn't have been surprised.  Riley wanted her to come back everyday, so I guess he liked her, too. :)

He had a pretty freaking great day.  I took some video, but I haven't uploaded it yet.  Maybe I will make a short movie out of it!  I like movie maker.  It's fun.  I'll post it when I do.