Year of the Pocketknife

Andrew turned 9 this past week! He is such a character. See if you can guess what his favorite present was this year:

Kind of scary, I know. Liam also got a pocketknife when he turned 9, so I guess that is now the traditional age in our family to receive one. It has been funny to see how differently they use them. Liam was always very careful and has almost always kept his in its case in his sock drawer (a place we suggested to keep it out of the hands of wee brothers). Andrew, on the other hand, carries his with him whenever he can, and uses it whenever he can! He has found several good whittling sticks in the yard already, and likes to speculate as to what types of different tasks he can now accomplish with this great multi-tool.

Per Andrew's request, we had dinner at IHOP. He wasn't afraid to tell the waiter, "It's my birthday, and I know what happens on your birthday at IHOP." So he had this dessert after dinner:


Then it was home for birthday cake to share with everyone. We actually almost forgot about it, and everyone was being crazy (yes, that sometimes happens at our house--whose idea was it anyway, to give the 3 oldest boys swords for birthdays and Halloween?!) so I was tempted to send everyone to bed without cake. I decided that probably wouldn't earn me any Mom of the Year awards, so I grumpily herded everyone together. Andrew had received the last two books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and you can see that he could hardly tear himself away, even to blow out the candles:

Eating cake made everyone happier, and I sent them to bed with a guilt-free conscience knowing we had a picture of him with his 9th birthday cake.