Happy Birthday, Zack!

On the morning of September 12th when he woke up, Zack was still my Baby Boy. Sometime during the day, he grew up ... a lot. By the end of all the festivities, he announced that I could no longer call him "Baby Boy." Maybe "Little Big Guy," but the jury's still out on that one.

As with all kid-birthdays in our house, the birthday person gets to say when presents get opened. We opened presents at 6:15am.

Coolest present... UNC football uniform.

Train 'em young. It partners well with Jimmy's favorite lullabies to sing, "Jesus Loves Me" and "Hark the Sound."

Big present... portable DVD player.

He wanted an iTouch. I'm still amazed at what life looks like for the youngest child.

We re-evaluated his list. A DVD player seemed like a MUCH better option for the hours he spends waiting for his siblings to finish their activities.

It came complete with his favorite DVD of all time: Tom & Jerry in The Fast and the Furry.

Oh yeah... his birthday was also Noah's Ark Day at school

(aka... Mom Stayed Up All Night for Two Nights

Making a Zebra Costume Day... Why do I do these things?!)

Since special snack was in honor of Noah's Ark,

we took birthday cupcakes for dessert at lunch. They were yummy!!!

After school we took some of our buddies from school

and Zane to Adventure Landing. Kelsey wasn't with us.

She was on the 9th grade field to Washington, DC.

There really should be a picture of Zack here, but of course, right after I got this shot of Zane, the batteries in the digital camera died. There are some nicely blurry shots on my Facebook that I took with my BlackBerry.

We left Adventure Landing and went to school where we tailgated with our buddies, the Blaises, before the home football game.

Zack was wrestling with his buddy, Stephen, and they rolled over a fire ant hill. Ouch! Stephen seemed fine, but Zack got a whole lotta bites.

Benadryl.

We went home right after halftime, once all our friends were reunited with their parents.
Zack was SO SLEEPY!

It was kindergarten-2nd grade's Night with the Knights.
They were handing out free megaphones.
I'd still like to have a word with the person who had THAT idea!

We concluded the birthday festivities on Sunday evening with our family birthday celebration.
Gramma, in a stroke of genius, had Omaha Steaks deliver Zack's family birthday dinner to our house. She ususally takes us out for birthday dinners, but this summer when allergy testing revealed Zack's allergies to tree nuts and shellfish, Gramma decided we'd better play it safe and not go to any of the tree-nut-and-shellfish-serving places we usually go to for birthdays.

In this picture, Zack's blowing out the candles on his Target birthday cake.

This cake is the Omaha Steaks Triple Chocolate birthday cake.
Kelsey and I really enjoyed it. It was oh-my-goodness awesome!

I highly recommend at-home birthdays where all you have to do is stick stuff on the grill and wait for it to cook. We had a great visit with Gramma and Zack LOVED his birthday dinner, delcaring it the best birthday dinner ever!!!

Thanks, Gramma!!!

We are blessed that sweet Zacky is part of our family. He is a child of grace in so many ways. The story is long and involved as he arrived in our lives after one of the most difficult seasons of spiritual testing we've ever faced.

The easiest way to summarize the blessing is to tell is his actual birth date. September 12, 2001. The Day After. As I sat there, holding this precious baby in a world that had been turned upside down the day before, I grieved for the loss of lives and innocence, but I rejoiced in the gift of God's goodness and grace. The world would go on. It still belonged to Him. Revelation 4:11.

Happy Birthday, Zacky!!! We love you!!!