This Boy's Life

There's been another gap in my blogging so I thought I'd pop in today with a little update. The past week or so has been mostly about the boy and two very big events in his life - his 9th birthday and his summer vacation.

July 5th was Jonas's 9th birthday. He and I spent the day together at Chuckie Cheese and then we had a special birthday dinner with Steve. And by special, I mean Kraft Dinner, Jonas's all-time favourite. I didn't ever try to sneak in any veggies!

"Kraft Dinner DOES NOT go with vegetables, Mom!"

This past Sunday was his birthday party. All his Grandparents were there, along with his Aunt, Uncles, cousin and his best friends. We tricked him and told him we were having his party at the local beach. What we actually did was surprise him at a local indoor amusement park with bowling, go-karting, rock climbing, roller coaster, bouncy castle and arcarde. All the kids seemed to love it!

Strategizing with Leah

That's clearly a violation, but everyone was having such a great time together
that nobody even noticed!

Blowing out the candles

After the party, Jonas went home with his Aunt Anne and Uncle Michael. He and his cousin Aidan were very excited about having a sleepover together and by all reports, it was a blast. They hit the beach on the way home and had one of Uncle Michael's special breakfast feasts.

Playing at the beach with Aidan and Uncle Michael

He's spending the rest of the week with his Grandma and Grandpa Blanchard. Meanwhile, Steve and I have the house to ourselves and are trying to use the time to sort through the miriad of stuff that has collected over the year. We're going to meet them all at Sandbanks Provincial Park on Saturday morning and then he'll come home with us for a couple of weeks before he heads off again with his Nana.

So, next week is really week one of Summer vacation for us. His big buddy Aaron is going to babysit in the mornings and we're hoping that he's going to go to camp in the afternoons. Cross your fingers for us!

Cheers!

p.s. - extra special thanks to my sister-in-law Anne for the amazing pictures!