Happy Birthday Bubbie

Justice is 11!

You'd think this was the most important birthday of his life, the way he carried on about it over the past few months.  He doesn't normally get over-excited about his birthday, but this year was different.  I think mostly it was because he was moving out of Cub Scouts and into the 11-year old Scouts that made him feel like this was a big one.  A few days before his birthday I took him to get his portrait taken in his little blue Cub Scout shirt, and it would be the last time he ever wears it.  

Joe takes Justice and one friend on an Incredible Pizza exodus every year on his birthday.  I went twice and we even threw Justice a huge birthday party there once.  It's his favorite place to go, EVER.  Then I weaseled out of future outings by turning it into a "boys day out".  I can't stand Incredible Pizza, it's incredibly LOUD and DARK.  And it's not like Chuck E. Cheese where you can get a table and camp out there the whole day, they don't let you loiter.  Eat and go hit the games.  I don't want to hit the games.  Ever.  

So this year Justice wanted to take his friend Will, and The Coach decided that Jack was old enough to hang out with them, too.  You may be thinking, "Of course he's old enough, you've never taken him before?"  We are talking about Jack here, the most unsociable 4 year old on the planet.  He doesn't enjoy being around people.  At all.  So up until this year, he always opted out and wanted to stay home with me.  

And precisely 45 minutes after they arrived, Jack was ready to go home.  He said he was done playing games, finished eating, and didn't want to do anything else other than go home.  That wasn't going to work, because this exodus is typically about five hours long.  I have no idea how The Coach kept him entertained and from throwing a gigantic tantrum for that long, but kudos to him because they stayed the entire time and Jack did NOT throw a fit.  He was not a happy camper when they got home, but he made it none the less.  

When The Coach is responsible for taking the pictures, I expect to get none.  But this time, I actually got a couple.  Of course the birthday boy isn't in any of them, but what do you do...

A little mini-golf.

Oh wait, I can see the front of Justice's new "Sweet Brown" shirt in the background around 1 o'clock in this picture.  Great job, babe.

Yes, I bought Justice a Sweet Brown "Ain't Nobody Got Time For That" T-shirt for his birthday,  much to The Coaches dismay.  I happened to see the Sweet Brown clip on Facebook and thought it was pretty funny.  I was trying to tell The Coach about it one evening and Justice suddenly and completely out of nowhere started to do the best Sweet Brown impression I've ever heard.  I absolutely died laughing.  But then suddenly I was like...

"HEY, where did you hear that???"

followed by 

"And how is it that you've COMPLETELY MEMORIZED IT?"

Seems as if my boy watched it on somebody's phone back in October during football.  That was a LONG time before Sweet Brown hit Facebook!  He has great memorization skills with things that he likes, so he only needed to watch it twice before he had it down pat and was consistently entertaining his friends with it at school.

Such a proud Mom.  Sigh.

While Justice was at IP, I made his cake.  I totally lucked out this year, because he wanted it made entirely out of Rice Krispie Treats.  This boy LOVES Rice Krispie Treats.  I make them more often now than any other baked good, and they are so easy.  And in the grand scheme of things, they are much better for you than some of the other sweet options out there that I used to bake all the time.  

Anyhow, he plows through the Rice Krispie Treats.  

This is a typical Justice size portion.  And he's looking at me like "what's the problem here?"

That's a lot of Rice Krispie Treats.  

It took five boxes of Rice Krispies (or if you live in MY house, that would be the generic store bought version, every single time) and ten bags of marshmallows.  

I'd like to say I came up with this idea all on my own, but as I was quick to point out on my Facebook post about it, I would be such a loser without Pinterest.  I saw something like this on Pinterest and ran with it.  Justice loves gum, and I needed something to decorate it since we weren't using any frosting.  I ordered him a gumball bank and a giant case of gumball refills. 

The finished product.  I was really, really happy with the way it turned out.  

 And thankfully, so was Justice.

He normally doesn't ask for much of anything for his birthday, he is a very good kid with regards to not being greedy.  I think it's mostly because Christmas wasn't that long ago, and I go nuts buying presents, and he really isn't over that yet.  This year, he only asked for a new pair of sneakers.  A specific pair of running shoes that I would normally never buy him because they were over 80 bucks.  Yeah, not spending 80 bucks on kids shoes.  Not ever.  Unless it's the ONLY thing you have asked for on your birthday.  Then I'm happy that you aren't greedy and you generally get what you want.  He also got some other random odds and ends, including his new favorite t-shirt.  He also got a really cool tool- thingie for his paracord addiction, but I'm going to post about that in another post.  Jackson gifted him some new Skylander figures, and as tradition dictates, Shandi loaded him down with junk food that I never ever buy.  Sugar and trans-fat overload, and it's only once a year so it's fine by me.  The concept of fried chicken and waffles potato chips is lost on me, but apparently Justice thinks they are awesome.  

Happy Birthday sweet boy.