B's Birthday!

Yesterday our youngest turned nine, and I feel oooooold. :)

B ordered bacon and pancakes for his birthday breakfast, so I got up early and made him his special request. Just before leaving for church, he opened his gift from Keith and myself: Indiana Jones Legos. J also gave him a small Lego kit. At church he made ice cream as part of his Sunday School class, and at the beginning of the second service, our family went forward to light the candles for the second Sunday in Advent.

After church, we drove to the San Diego Zoo where we met my parents and my brother with his two kids. We had cheeseburgers and fries near the front of the zoo. The skies were very cloudy with the promise of rain, but fortunately it held off until well after we left. B's preference was to see the monkeys and the turtles, and peacocks seemed to follow us wherever we went.


Years and years ago my mother bought the birthday cake hat seen in B's photo above. Wherever we are when we celebrate a family birthday, the birthday person must wear the hat IN PUBLIC. Keith has long been plotting the demise of said hat but has not yet been successful. B, however, is the only family member who wears the hat with pride. Last year he received a free book at the Natural History Museum for wearing it, and this year he received nine kisses from a special Zoo puppet besides the shout-outs on the zoo bus (see below).

The older boys, my dad, and my brother took turns pushing my wheelchair, so it worked out well enough. Keith's sister, Karen, works at the zoo as a bus tour guide, so we were able to board a bus and take a 40-minute tour around the zoo which gave us a look at 70% of the grounds. Karen also told everyone on the top level to wish the boy with the birthday cake hat a happy birthday, both as we pulled out at the start of the tour and again as we pulled in at the end. It was a bit cold on the bus, but we really enjoyed the tour -- Karen is an excellent guide.

My parents left around 4 PM while my brother and his two kids stayed with us while we visited the meerkats and otters in the Children's Zoo before heading to the gift shops where E and T bought B a stuffed hamster, much like ones that J and T, own as their gift to him. He also spent the money from my brother in purchasing a stuffed bush baby that we christened Jabberwocky (Jabbers for short) on the way home.

At home we enjoyed pizza, B's request for dinner -- one of those take-home-and-bake pizzas from Costco. And for dessert B requested cherry vanilla ice cream with peppermint JoJos (oreo-like cookies from Trader Joe's) rather than cake. We celebrated while watching the third Librarian movie starring ER's Noah Wylie. So B had a lovely birthday and had a wonderful time.

So, Happy Birthday, B! We love our comical boy!