its great to be eight

Happy Birthday Matthew! Look how grown up you are!
Matt has been so excited to turn eight! What an exciting year.

Since we knew we would be having a big event for Matt's baptism that coming weekend, we just had a small party with just the 5 of us on his birthday. It fell on Monday which is laundry day so it made for a very busy day. He was happy to play all day while I raced around changing loads of laundry, wrapping presents, planning treasure hunts and making cake.We knew we were getting him a new bike this year but we really couldn't buy one early with no where to hide it. So we picked one out earlier and on the day of his birthday I told Steve to stop after work and just pick it up. I had a treasure hunt all planned out and we planned to have the bike at the end of it.

Steve generally gets home at about 5:00. Well when 6:15 rolled by and Steve finally got home - with no bike, I might add - I was a bit frazzled. He had gotten a late call at work and then had tried 3 different Walmarts and they were all out of the bike we wanted. We still had one more we could try but at this point we were all starving. So we went ahead with the treasure hunt and just ended it with a note that said "Let's go buy your NEW BIKE!" Not nearly as exciting as the real thing but it was the best we could do at this late hour.
We loaded up and went to the Golden Corral (Matt's favorite) for dinner. It was actually very fun and tasty too. The kids were so well behaved and loved getting to pick whatever they wanted to eat. Like handful after handful of gummy worms!

After dinner we drove out to another Walmart and lucky day, they had the bike! Matt was very excited. When we got home it was already too dark to ride it. But he has gotten plenty of riding in since! (I still need to get a picture!) He totally loves it!

We love you Matt. We are so happy you are eight and that we get to celebrate with you!