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Micah’s Birthday

This kid had the audacity to turn 13 yesterday… As was expected, I was a bit of a hot mess about the whole affair.

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Here’s his “last day to be 12” photo. He ran out of fingers a couple years ago, so taking a page out of Shane’s book, he borrowed a couple of feet from the cat to make 12.

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But, not too old to choose Lucky Charms for his birthday breakfast.

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He got his happy birthday facetime call first thing and got to open his gift from Gramma and Skip while they watched…

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He’s had a boom box on his list this year. You might remember that 2 years ago, it was a Walkman. The obsession with 80s audio continues. Gramma found this one and it seems to fit the bill. Looks totally retro, plays and records tapes but also has radio AND a USB port so he could use some modern tech with it, as well.

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So, he spent the morning taking advantage of the birthday allowances of not having to do his weekend chores and lifted time limits on video games… all while listening to the radio or one tape or another on the boom box that followed him from room to room. At one point, he expressed frustration about wanting to record a certain song off the radio, but he didn’t start it in time, AND they were talking over the beginning of the song! Dave and I laughed really hard over that.

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Eventually, we headed out to play some mini golf, and Micah got to enjoy riding shotgun. (Small kids… We have to go for the age limits rather than weight requirements.)

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Micah’s godmother, Amy, and her kids joined us, as did my dad, Shane and Leslie.

Enjoy gratuitous golfing photos:

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JQUB3399IMG_7010 IMG_7011Shane, in particular, seemed to have an uncanny ability to get his ball wedged down in some crazy crevice or through some tiny space in the edge of the course.

Then we returned back home to eat some birthday dinner (Red Robin take out), open presents, play some Scattergories, and have cupcakes.

Enjoy gratuitous gift-opening pictures:

IMG_7016 IMG_7018IMG_7022 IMG_7024IMG_7027 IMG_7028IMG_7031 IMG_7032In summary, he received a lot of what was on his list… new joy cons for his switch, a new mario game, money, a nintendo gift card. Layla also passed along her 49ers jersey (grudgingly) because it’s really too small for her and he had one on his list, and the latest Dog Man book. We also gave him a Costco pack of tape, which will probably be the most well-used of all his gifts, even if he thought it was silly. There’s another couple little things that should be here tomorrow – Amazon didn’t come through in time.

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As usual, Layla made his birthday cake this year – cupcakes this time, so as to avoid the whole blowing your nasty germs all over the cake we’re all going to eat scenario. Thanks for the awareness, covid. He requested white cake, purple frosting, and Skittles.

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This cracks me up. Shane was heading out and I wanted to grab a picture really quick… They were horsing around and I wound up catching Shane with the hugest, cheesy smile – I can NEVER get him to smile in pictures! HA!

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So there you go… My last one has become a teenager. I’m not handling it particularly well. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a super-cool teenager and I very much like him just how he is right now. But man. They’re all so OLD! I keep feeling like it’s nearly over – this parenting gig. Not that you ever stop, but still. There are phases of parenting, and a lot of them have already been left behind and you can’t go back. That part makes me sad.

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