November 12, 2010

In keeping with tradition, we took Samuel to Pirate Island Pizza for his birthday dinner Friday night.  He had been talking about it for weeks.  He totally remembered the entrance that scared him a bit last year, and was even more scared this year.  He ran right through, and luckily we were there early enough that we didn’t have to wait.  But Sam stood there with his ears covered tight and wouldn’t even talk to the hostess when she tried to give him some pirate gold.  As soon as we were back in the dining room and arcade, Sam was totally fine.  Goober.  Our pirate greeted us at our table, and Sam was very happy to tell him that he was grown up now and turning four.  While we waited for our drinks, we got balloon animals.  And while we waited for our food we played some games and earned some tickets.  Owen loved ski ball and Dance Dance Revolution.  (He told me he wants to play DDR with his buddies Ben and Ethan, and see if they could ever be as awesome as their mommys were at it.)  Samuel loved anything that involved racing.  After dinner, we went back to finish using our pirate gold tokens, and used our tickets to collect the loot.  All Sam wanted were the toy soldiers, so he got 9 of them.  We made it back to the table for a little pirate rendition of Happy Birthday and a free ice cream sundae. 

On our way home, we stopped at Toys R Us so Samuel could spend his birthday Birthday Bucks that Geoffrey the Giraffe sent him.  He wanted a dragon so bad, but good ol’ Walmart bought the rights to the Dragon movie, so Sam had to ”settle” for another monster truck . . . his 11th.  By the time we got home, it was close to 8 and Owen was past done.  I took him up to bed, with a whisper to Erik, “If he doesn’t say anything, let’s not worry about doing presents for Sam tonight like we planned.”  I came back from putting O down to find Erik and Sam smirking at me.  “Sam, what were you going to ask Mom?”  “Mom, can I open my presents that you’re hiding in Daddy’s room now?!”  Fiiiiiine.   He made a decent haul.  It was so cute to see how excited and happy he was about each thing he opened.  Sam had spent the last several months talking about what he wanted for his birthday, and he had poured over catalogs and toy aisles soooo many times telling me he was going to get this and going to get that all on his birthday.  He had cut out pictures that he stuck to the fridge or hid under his pillow and kissed goodnight.  So I was a bit worried he would be disappointed when NONE of those things came his way.  But I was really proud of how gracious and pleased Samuel was about everything.  Such a sweet kid.  Erik and I let Sam stay up way too late as we both snuggled on the sofa watching our little Samuel enjoy his birthday goodness.  It had been a dang good day!

For real, he is the cutest.  This picture is my new favorite.  Love him.