Double Digits!

We have had at least one child who was in single digits for fourteen years, but that is no longer the case as Oliver turned ten years old today! Although Nadia is more of an extrovert than Ian, Oliver is the most extroverted member of our family. We have had a play date with the Schrecks around Ian's birthday, but he's never invited any friends to a birthday party. Since 2018 (except for 2020) we have celebrated his birthday by going on an overnight trip to Great Wolf Lodge. Nadia has invited at least two girls over for her birthday for the past seven birthday parties which have either been at a swimming pool or a sleepover at our house. Last year Oliver had two birthday outings with a total of four friends. 

This year for his tenth birthday he invited ten friends to go bowling for two hours. Nine of the ten we invited were planning to go, but yesterday Maddox came down with a stomach bug, and Xandir's mom came down with COVID. I had rented two lanes at a bowling alley for two hours, which meant up to twelve people were allowed to bowl. I hadn't brought any socks because I didn't think I'd be bowling so ten kids plus Paul bowled for two hours last night. We had a bit of a scare when we arrived at the bowling alley because the doors were locked. I called and stated that I had booked a birthday party from 5-7pm. The bowling alley didn't open for the general public until 6pm. Thankfully, after the employee made a phone call, he let us in. Whew! We brought in four large pizzas, a gallon of Hawaiian Punch, some bottles of water, pretzels, a pan of brownies, and a pan of Rice Krispie treats. Aunt Millie usually makes him a cake, but they have been on vacation in Tennessee for the past week. The entire pan of Rice Krispie treats was consumed in addition to 3.5 of the 4 pizzas and the whole gallon of punch. We brought home most of the pretzels and a little bit of the brownies. The paper products featured Baby Yoda (Grogu). Bumpers were used on one lane. Ian, Ean, Micah, Nadia, and Paul didn't use bumpers the first game, and Paul won on that side, and Nadia was in second place. Isaiah switched to the non-bumper lane for the second game, and Ian won the second game. Of the group that used bumpers, Karyss won the second game, and I can't recall if it was Westyn or Oliver who won the first game. It was definitely the most expensive birthday party that Paul and I have thrown over our 21 years of marriage, but compared to the parties that many others have, it was still a simple affair. Oliver received $20, a $25 gift card to Amazon, some candy, some chips, water balloons, and a gallon of iced tea from his friends. 

I let the boys stay at home yesterday morning when I went to get Nadia from Camp Susque. On the way back home we picked up donuts for today's breakfast. Since Oliver is the birthday boy, he gets to eat two of the six donuts. He'll have leftover pizza for lunch, and he requested grilled hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for dinner. We started watching the new movie "Luck" on Apple tv yesterday, and we're planning to finish watching that movie together as a family today. It's rare to find a movie that just came out that is rated G, but that is true for this one. We are ever so grateful that Oliver joined our family ten years ago, and I look forward to seeing how he will grow and develop in the years to come! 

Oliver's birthday celebration began on Wednesday evening when I took the boys to Knoebels. On Thursday he selected, and I bought two birthday balloons at Dollar Tree. On Friday night we attended Aunt Debbie's 70th birthday party. The bowling party yesterday was the second part of Oliver's celebration. Today he's opening his birthday gifts from his parents and also from my dad and Margie, eating his birthday donuts, and eating the food he requested for dinner. The last part of his celebration will be tomorrow when we have dinner at Bonanza. He also will have his ten-year-old doctor appointment tomorrow morning. Every child is a miracle, but when I was pregnant, many people referred to Nadia as a miracle considering how many years that we waited to become parents. Nadia's pregnancy was very smooth aside from the fact she came four weeks early and the delivery didn't go smoothly. Oliver's pregnancy was extremely precarious for both he and I once I reached about 21 weeks. I will never forget lying in the hospital and begging the doctors not to take him by c-section because at that point he was too early to be deemed "viable." They thought they needed to do so to save my life. Thankfully I didn't bleed to death, and Oliver stayed in the womb long enough that he could be cared for in a NICU after he was born. We love our ten-year-old very much!