My Baby is now ELEVEN!

A few weeks ago we celebrated Alex's ELEVENTH birthday.  It was a week into his middle school career which began at the ripe old age of ten.  Fortunately, Alex has always been a kid who seems more "mature" than his age.  He started kindergarten at age four, and is one of the youngest in his class.  When he was a toddler and began talking, he pretty much started speaking in sentences right away.  And now every year seems to fly by faster than the previous one.  Alex is becoming such a gentleman.  He is kind, calm, stoic, tough, dependable, and an avid reader. He loves sports....LOVES them.  ESPN is by far his favorite channel, except maybe the soccer channel.  He constantly has a ball around him...or finds something to use as a ball. He loves math and science....give him a project or experiment to do and he is all over it! Writing, well, he is more like his Mom on that one!

For birthdays our kids get to pick dinner for the night, and what cake they want. Alex has been allergic to eggs since he was 15 months old.  He still reacts even when the egg is baked into something, so he has always had homemade cakes.  This year he wanted a strawberry cake with 1/2 chocolate and 1/2 cream cheese icing, all from scratch.  He also decided to eat at Ruby Tuesdays (we have never eaten there but he went with my Mom and liked their mashed potatoes). SO, after a busy school day, and soccer practice, we loaded up the family and went to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner.  We made videos about what we love about Alex.  My favorite was Ben's video, who only said he is NICE, but you could tell by the look on Ben's face how much more he wanted to say off camera....you could see how much he LOVES his brother, adores him, and thinks he is wonderful.  Because he is.  Alex thinks about others, and is always ready to help a friend. He shares what he has with others, and reaches out to those in need.  He is patient with us, and is a leader in our house.  He is strong in so many ways, and i am so proud of him and the man he is becoming!

Happy birthday to my sweet Alex!

Our dinner selection

William and his biggest boy

Waiting on a table

Alex and Florie

The cake

Present time!

Florie showing William how to work the video camera

Yes, more Legos!

and his favorite gift....an Argentina soccer jersey!