Happy 9th Birthday, Stefan!!!

Our firstborn is NINE!!!

We have been staying at GiGi's place - this morning was donut day.  How did they know Stefan would want a donut first thing in the morning?!?  No kidding, this WAS the way I first saw him on his birthday morning!

We had a nice birthday breakfast with GiGi - complete with...

&

He was pretty excited for...

He has been begging for over a year.

I found this one on a run through Saikaya with Gina & Eileen.  The Keikyu line runs by our hood - the Blue Sky Train is just one of the trains on the Keikyu line.  Other than the boys getting excited and pointing it out when passing, being blue and just outright cool, there is nothing significant about it.  But it is COOL!  The other "inside joke" is that the station sign is for "Kamiooka" - the "oo" is a looooooooooong "oh" sound - hold it like you are making a statement.  That is how the train conductor announces it as you come up to it.  That's because it IS pronounced that way.  But we all find it funny, nonetheless.  Turns out, Japanese make fun of it too!

Since Stefan was having a surprise party later that day (the surprise was Mary Ann's wedding - and the surprise was on them!  They never knew it was his birthday), we headed over to the hotel where my parents were staying for some swim time.  Grammie and Pop took the boys swimming, Eric and I went to buy him pants and some lunch.  It was a good division of labor.  And, the effort paid off in...

a much needed nap for Ian...  made him a bit more agreeable for the rest of the afternoon.