11

That's right, Colin turned 11. I can't believe it. Where does the time go??? It was another busy day but Dan was able to take Colin, Matthew and two friends to see the new Harry Potter movie (they said it was awesome). I was home putting the finishing touches on the cake and getting dinner ready. I managed to handle to cake just fine but I didn't have the grill ready to go in time so we had to throw the hamburgers in the broiler at the last minute. We took this opportunity to open some gifts. Colin wasn't upset at all when I told him that he had to stop playing XBox!He opened the gift from Emma first. It was just what he asked for; a North Face jacket. He even posed for me!
He also got the obligatory set of clothes.
And some new earbuds for his iPod shuffle.
We bought enough time and dinner was ready to go. Colin really likes to say "cheese bacon" for no particular reason at any time so we decided on bacon cheeseburgers. He opted for a side of bacon as well.
What comes after dinner? Cake of course. Sarah loves to watch Cake Boss so she wanted to try and make a multi-level cake. We really don't have the proper pans but we improvised and used a 9" cake pan, an 8" cake pan and a cupcake tin. Fun, huh?
We sang a very off key version of Happy Birthday, he made a wish and...
blew out the candles. Happy Birthday!!!

To put a twist on a crazy day, Dan's Mom was having everyone over for dinner because it is her birthday and because MD is going back to Afghanistan next week. We didn't find out about it until later this afternoon and of course had our own dinner plans but wanted to say goodbye to MD so we left Colin and his friend home to watch a movie, took Sarah and Matthew to their friends and headed over to 'the party' that was just about over when we arrived. We were able to get in some good conversation in that short time and made it back to find Colin asleep on the couch under his new 'comfy-cozy', or as Matthew called it, an invisibility cloak since it matches the couches quite well. When he woke up he was a bit upset because he said today felt like a regular day. Now I felt bad and then that made him feel worse because he didn't want me to feel bad. Ugh. I can only do my best. I love you Colin. xoxoxoxoxo