It seems like just yesterday we had Landon’s baptism after his 8th birthday, and now we’re already celebrating his 9th birthday! He is growing up to be such a smart, kind, helpful boy.
For his birthday party, we celebrated the Saturday before with a spy birthday party.
He invited two friends from school (Luke and Carson), two friends from church (Sam and Vance, who couldn’t come), and one from the neighborhood (Alex). I was lucky and found a great website with a ton of birthday ideas, so it made the planning pretty easy. We had a folder for each kid, and they were put through various tasks to go through spy training. They included message decoding, shooting practice (nerf gun at target), bomb diffusing (popping balloons), laser maneuvering (moving through a room full of yarn motion detector “lasers), bomb passing (like hot potato), and memory with the spy gear. Once they passed off everything, they had cake and ice cream. While they were eating, an envelope arrived on the doorstep with a clue in it, and a recording from the head of the NSA (Shane) saying that their loot bags had been stolen and they had to catch the criminal by following the clues before the bomb went off. They had fun following the clues, using their decoding skills the acquired earlier, to find their goodie bags.
Monday, on his actual birthday, we had Kelly over for dinner, and had our own little family party in the backyard. We roasted hot dogs over our firepit, and ate it with a delicious watermelon.
We even got to eat outside on our new patio table – well, new to us.
Landon got a rocket-shaped projection alarm clock and quarters for the national monuments from Grandma and Grandpa Morris.
He got this fun book and game from Grandma and Grandpa Malan plus some money, and some money from Uncle Kelly. From us, he got a tin can robot, and origami book, and the Lego book, which the boys are looking at in this last picture while making funny faces.
At nine years old, Landon is so fun to have around. He loves to read, and has started the Harry Potter series. He likes to read the Warriors books too. He works hard in school and likes reading and math, but isn’t a fan of spelling, even though he is a good speller. He likes to ride his bike outside, and he also loves to draw. His new favorite thing to draw are flattos, basically flattened minions. He has even made a whole flattos card game that is kind of like Pokemon cards. He is an awesome big brother, and he takes great care of Asher, plays with Davis, and watches out for James. He gets a bit annoyed by them sometimes when they are being especially loud or annoying, but nothing more than any other brother. He is a rule-follower, and tries to make sure everyone in the house follows the rules. He loves our family, and still says he wants to be a dad when he grows up, although he’s also had a scientist that studies space. We love our Landon!
