Alex's 11th Birthday

Today, Alex turned 11. Patrick got some muffins for breakfast and Alex got to play as many video games as he wanted. I even let him "control" who got to play with the iPad, although after his friends got here, he either played with the PS3 or he wasn't playing video games. He wanted to open presents this morning, so here he is with one of the World Cup Soccer jerseys that he got from his Aunt M. He wore it during the USA vs. Slovenia game, then he changed into the Spain jersey because he preferred its red color. He said he preferred Spain except for if they went head-to-head with the US.

I missed the USA game because I took Natalie to swim team practice. I took Eric with me to the playground, but after a few swings and slides, he wanted to go home. He loves to play at the playground, but Patrick reasoned that this little boy was plain tuckered out from his late bedtimes and early risings lately. Here he is at the pool (which was the start of Alex's party--more on that later). He wouldn't even look at me when I was trying to take a picture. I thought he looked cute in his goggles, especially since he was even wearing them while eating a snack.

With the goggles on, however, he let Patrick and me take him "swimming" across the pool. Basically, I wouldn't move forward unless he was kicking his legs so he could "swim" across the pool. Sometimes he would purposely stop kicking just so we would stop moving. At the steps he would pretend to "west" (rest) by putting his hands up to his face like he was sleeping. Totally off the subject of Alex's party but too cute!

After we spent a couple of hours at the pool, Alex wanted to go to his favorite ice cream shoppe (and ours), Brindles. Here he is just before he dripped quite a bit of his Dreamsicle ice cream all over his Spain jersey. He wasn't very cooperative with the photo, as usual. Patrick thought it was amusing that we brought 8 kids into the ice cream shoppe for ice cream. Besides Alex's three friends, he invited his friend's little sister, who is a good friend of Natalie's. He figured that Natalie wouldn't be bothering him if she had a playmate.

We let Alex be in charge of what he wanted to do at his party, so after ice cream, we came back home. We watched "Planet 51" then we had pizza for dinner. One of his friends (the one with the little sister) went home around 9PM. His friend doesn't like to sleep over at friend's houses because he doesn't get any sleep. Smart friend. :) Since the movie until now they've been playing on the PS3. It's seems like a perfect party for this 11-year-old!