Ethan is 10!

We give our kids a few birthday options.  I love it when they choose "Day of Fun with 1 Friend."  

Ethan's day of fun started with a trip to Monkey Joe's (tradition for these two).  I wanted decent pictures so I brought my big camera...without a memory card.  Oops!  Phone pictures are awful in a place like this...especially with my very old phone...but better than nothing.

Lunch was next.

 They had a good time together.  :)

 We came home and Ethan opened his present and then they played Pokemon for a good long time.

 Then we did cake.  :)

 Ethan decided he had enough candles to make quite the blaze.  ;)

 Board games and Mario Kart were the next items on the to do list.

 They went out to play but felt pretty crowded on the trampoline.

 That's why this was their big gift:  Unfortunately some parts were missing from the box, so it wasn't finished.

In the evening, I asked Ethan to take some birthday pictures.  He was a good sport.  I took a couple...these:

 and then looked down at the camera to check them out and realized the white balance was way off!  

  As I looked at the camera, Ethan yelped and told me the balloon had floated away.  It wasn't his fault.  He was holding the string securely, but it had come untied at the base of the balloon.  We went inside.  I was so very sad about it.  I had splurged on this balloon since I didn't like any of the little ones and had envisioned these wonderful fun photographs with it.  

 When I went inside and told Alan, he very sweetly bought me another balloon and we recommenced with the pictures.  

 I love them!  I love Ethan!  I love celebrating him!

Lastly, he had requested a Nerf war with our neighbors.  Even though it was blazing hot, they had a grand old time.  :)

Then we had another round of ice cream cake to cool off.  :)