11 Years Old!

 On Monday Oliver turned eleven years old! I had planned a two-day getaway in Pittsburgh for his birthday. We ended up being away for three nights. On Saturday morning I picked Nadia up from Camp Susque and Melinda and Ed picked up Ian, Oliver, and Xandir. That afternoon we began driving to the western part of Pennsylvania. Our first stop was a free Christian music festival in Brockway. The headline artists were supposed to be Katy Nichole and We are Messengers. We are Messengers backed out a couple of weeks before the event, but Consumed by Fire came in their place. We spent Sunday morning at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. We had to pay full price because they had left AZA in June. We spent the afternoon at the Bushy Run Battlefield and Fort Pitt before having dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse with Charlie and Nadine Beares. On Oliver's birthday we spent the day at Kennywood. Oliver rode one of the big rollercoasters two times. Unfortunately for Nadia and Ian, the biggest roller coaster was closed. Oliver forgot to pack his birthday t-shirt. Instead of a birthday cake, we splurged and got the kids each a large dish of Dippin' Dots. We ate dinner at Subway and then instead of driving home, we drove for four hours into Virginia so that we could spend five hours with my dad and say goodbye to Margie who passed away today. Yesterday, Xandir and Faith came over for five hours. The boys played the Nintedo Switch for a couple of those hours. All six of us played three rounds of Codenames.

Oliver received Gatorade powder from Nadia, money from Ian, Grandpa, and Pop Pop, and 8 puzzles, $11, a watch, 5 pounds of peach rings, and a bag of Fritos from Paul and me. Oliver used his money to buy a drone, a watch, a cotton candy machine, and the supplies for making cotton candy. He spent $20 more than he received, but he'll be earning money from doing Junior Ranger badges on our upcoming vacation.

Oliver had his physical today. He only received one injection because they were out of stock of Menactra. Today he weighed 72 pounds and 6 ounces (32nd percentile) and was 59.25" tall (84th percentile). His BMI was at the 5th percentile which means he's not technically underweight as they define underweight as less than the 5th percentile. Over the past year he gained 5 pounds plus 4 ounces and grew 2.5 inches. Fifth grade here we come!