Another Year Older

We recently celebrated Matthew's seventh birthday (I can't believe my baby is seven!!) and I think he had a terrific twenty-four hours.

Geoff was able to take Matthew's actual birthday off as a vacation day, and that in itself was a real gift for Matthew, particularly given how many hours Geoff had been working in the previous few months.  Added bonus for Matthew:  he got to skip French class that day, seeing as how it was his birthday and his Dad was taking the day off.

The next real treat for Matthew was having lunch out with his best buddy.  We went to one of our favourite lunch places, a bakery near home, where the boys enjoyed crusty bun sandwiches and a (huge) dessert each!  Matthew was thrilled with the candle that I plunked into his dessert and we quietly sang him Happy Birthday.

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Buddies...goofing around for the camera.

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Yours truly...

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The birthday boy himself (pre-haircut!!), with his first celebratory candle

  

 After an afternoon of playing and getting a haircut, it was time for a family dinner, with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Matthew's restaurant of choice was Montana's, which is a surprisingly kid-friendly place to eat dinner.  Amongst the highlights of the dinner was when it was time to bring out the ice cream cake I'd brought from home, and the restaurant staff sang Matthew Happy Birthday...while he was standing on his chair, wearing a horned helmet of some type.  He loved it!

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The clan.

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Geoff and Matthew

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Beloved cousins.

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Matthew as a moose; and his Auntie Lib (my sister)

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Grandma with the grandkids

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I like this shot of Matthew with Grandpa

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Finally, time for his second dessert of the day, accompanied by the staff's 'Happy Birthday' rendition

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Matthew, with the horned hat thingee on his head...not sure what animal it's supposed to be!

As if the first two celebrations weren't enough, Matthew also had a friend party the next day.  I have to be honest in saying that I don't actually like planning kids' birthday parties - I don't feel very good at it and I am anxious before and during such parties.  After Matthew's birthday last year, I decided that I had had just about enough of planning 'big' parties.  So, in preparation for this year's birthday, Geoff and I told Matthew that we would like to plan a smaller event this year, with a maximum of three or four other kids (he chose four!).  As it turns out, Matthew thought it might be more fun, anyway, to have a smaller party; his view was that he finds it easy to be in a smaller group of people so that he can pay attention to everyone.  I thought that was an interesting self-observation.  It also turned out that he had a specific (and very good) idea as to what he'd like to do for his birthday...so he ended up developing the plan.

First up on the agenda was archery.  We gathered the kids together in the van (four boys, one girl)...

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...and headed to the archery place, where the kids received instructions and learned about the safety rules:

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For $8/child, the kids shot their bows and arrows for an hour, with a dedicated instructor included in that price.  I think they had a blast...and their arm muscles were totally exhausted by the end of the hour!

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At first, they shot arrows at targets and then, as they got a bit better at shooting, 'real' animals were brought out to practice on; and then finally, trios of balloons were fastened to each animal to give the kids a chance to pop the balloons with their arrows (all but one child was able to burst a balloon...they got so much better at it as the hour went on):

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This shot was taken just as Matthew popped one of the balloons...he was so excited that he started dancing around!

After the archery hour was done, we headed back to the house, where the kids simply played with each other, and Matthew opened gifts, while I popped some homemade pizzas into the oven.  

Rather than another birthday cake, Matthew asked for a chocolate fondue for his special dessert, and I think the kids really liked that, too.  I baked an angel food cake and some sugar cookies (which Matthew and I rolled and cut into rectangle shapes for ease of dipping into chocolate), and had an array of fresh fruit cut up for dipping into dark and white chocolate.  Yummm.

All in all, it was the easiest and least expensive birthday party I've done yet for Matthew.  We gave him one gift (two, I guess, if you count the $5 yoyo he'd been desperately hoping for): a 300-piece Snap Circuits set that I happened to see on sale on amazon on black Friday last November and that I paid just over $30 for (regular price around $80). 

I calculated that the party cost approximately $115 in total: $42 for archery (which included the instructor, and a free pass for each child for a future visit!); $22 for take-home gifts (sling-shot airplane; paddle-ball hand game); $50 for food (homemade pizzas with tons of leftovers; chocolate for fondue; fresh fruit; ingredients for baked goods). 

Best of all, Matthew had a great time!  

Finally, here are a few pictures I took of him on his birthday afternoon.  What a precious boy our Matthew is; I simply cannot imagine life without him!!

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Getting measured for height, and figuring out how much he's grown in the past year.

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My beautiful seven-year-old boy!!