"12"

It's that time of the year. No, I'm not talking about Christmas....not yet. First, we have birthdays and birthday parties. Patrick turned 12 two weeks ago. He got a new PS3 game that morning, so he wanted to stay home during the day to play that. We all went to the movies together after Jeff got home from work. We had his birthday party with friends the following weekend. We invited three of Patrick's friends to go with us to Chuck E Cheese. We took our "singing bus" so the kids could watch movies and play games on the trip there and back. Before our trip back home, Patrick opened his gifts and we had cake on the bus. I think the boys enjoyed the bus as much as they did Chuck E Cheese.

It felt so strange to me to do Patrick's birthday party without Carter. Other than Carter's first birthday party, this is the first one that was not celebrated together since Carter was born. I have always done them together since they are so close in age and their birthdays are only 2 weeks apart, but I have always said that as soon as one of them wanted them separate that I would do it This year, Carter asked for his own party. It surprised me how upset Patrick was about it....he is still hoping that Carter will decide to do them together again after this year. We'll see!

Happy 12th birthday Patrick. We love you!!