Ethan's 10th Birthday!

It's hard for all of us to believe, but Ethan is 10 years old.  He's said several times today, "I can't believe I'm ten now."  Neither can I.
We had a great time celebrating his special day yesterday.  For breakfast I made him his request of pancakes with bacon and ham slices.  We were up early enough for Casey to have breakfast with us before he went off for work and school.  We let him open 2 presents during breakfast.  One was a paperback book and the other was the Star wars lego dictionary.  That kept him busy during the morning while Josiah was doing school.  Ethan chose to do double work on Monday so he wouldn't have to do any on his birthday.  :>)
When Josiah was done with school they played some wii and then had some lunch.  Later that afternoon we headed into Fort Worth for some fun at Chuck E Cheese.  On our way we stopped at a place called Diva bakery.  I didn't bake him a cake so I thought it would be fun for him to pick out his own special cupcakes.  He chose some yummy looking red velvet cupcakes.  They had some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies that looked amazing, so we got three of those as well.  She gave the boys a sample of the cookie (which was huge) so we took the cookies and cupcakes for later.  Then as we were leaving she gave Ethan a giant cookie sandwich (2 BIG cookies with frosting in the middle) because it was his birthday.  So sweet!  (As a side note, they will even bake gluten free cupcakes if I request them...so I may be able to participate in the future...not that I need to, but I may want to.)
So, with our sweets in tow we drove on into Ft. Worth and they had a blast at Chuck E Cheese.  Now, normally this place rates right up there with having a migraine in my estimation of fun, but going on a weekday afternoon was awesome.  There was a very small party with really little ones and mostly adults and one other family there.  So, it was relatively quiet and easy to keep track of the boys.  We got drinks and enough tokens for the time we were there for about $25. Not too bad.
We finished up there about the time that Casey got out of class so we met him at Chili's for dinner.  It's one of Ethan's favorites and they just happened to have a kids eat free coupon for that night too.  Bonus.  They have decent selection of Gluten-Free options too, so that's a double bonus for me.  (Another side note - I hate going to eat places where the only GF option is grilled chicken with salad  - I can make that at home and it doesn't cost me $10+).  We had a great server too...makes a big difference!  At the end they brought out a giant hot lava sundae chocolate fudge mound of deliciousness.  I'm guessing that it was good by the way the boys (all three of them) attacked it...with some moaning and groaning involved.  Ha!  I did manage a bite or two of ice cream out of the middle.  Ethan had some HUGE eyes when they placed it in front of him.  It was awesome.
After dinner we took the boys to Half-priced Books, one of our favorite places.  They, of course, found some treasures there.  We came on home and Ethan opened the rest of his gifts.  Lego, lego, lego, monopoly!  It was great.  He was happy and thrilled with his day.  Before bedtime, my friend Stephanie brought him a little gift and some more cupcakes!  So, glad I didn't make him a cake!  After all the chocolate goodness from Chili's they were pretty stuffed, so we will save cupcakes and cookies for the following days.  It was a good day celebrating my firstborn.  Even Josiah declared it the best day ever.