Packer had a birthday on Saturday! I can’t believe he is 8 years old! He is a fun and goofy kid. He gets something in his mind and he finds a way to make it happen…. anything from an art project idea to inviting his friends over to play right at 4:00 and they have to play a certain game a certain way or he will not be satisfied. It was fun to celebrate his life during the weekend. We had a cousin party on Friday night and a family day/ play whatever he wants on Saturday. It was fun. Now he gets to be in cub scouts and he gets to be baptized next Saturday. EXCITING to be 8 YEARS OLD!

these kids helped me make the cake and then played with the extra fondant for hours!

Packer took a lot of time deciding where each mine craft character should be on the cake!

Ben made a fun mine craft game – 4 teams, find your 20 blocks and build your structure first…

The kids seemed to have a lot of  fun searching for the blocks and even messing with the other teams.

The PIG TEAM tower

The Wolves

Presents from the cousins!

The older cousins still like to come and hang out – it’s pretty cool that they enjoy being with each other and with the cousins.

BIRTHDAY BOY

the finished product

singing to the birthday boy

Cake and Ice Cream

He was determined not to talk while eating his cake- no tricky cousins got to him this year.

Lalo even came with his bum leg!

Ben messing with him while he plays mine craft

mine craft on the tablet, on the big screen

On Saturday we had 9am soccer games so we waited until after the games to give Packer his presents from us: He had his heart set on one present and luckily we had it covered. He spied the XBOX game size gift and saved it for last – Yes it was MineCraft for Xbox, Yes he is obsessed.

and we had to get him a bike to balance out the computer nerdiness of this family:

By that night he was TIRED. EXHAUSTED. If it is 8pm his body just shuts down. Literally. On Thursday night he was up late and out of bed and fully collapsed twice before we got him back in bed. Tonight he came out of his room again in Zombie mode. He has to go to bed on time.

We love Packer. He is really growing up this year. Learning responsibility and developing his own personality. He still doesn’t mind being a loner but he also likes to be the silly man. He makes us smile often and we love him tons.

Ben’s Dad invited the Packer age cousins to help him put on a haunted garage this year! He had them dress up and come over the Saturday before to practice. Then on Monday night we got to come over and go through the Spookiness. It was a great family home evening activity. Packer LOVED being involved. He talked about this for the whole month. He hates SCARY so this was good for him to see behind the scenes. It was good for him to get the extra attention.