12!

Today my baby turned 12!   When Jalen was a screaming newborn with reflux I never could imagine that he would one day be such an amazing young man with the funniest sense of humour.  You always know your babies are going to grow up, but can never actually imagine what their personality is going to be like, and with Jay we couldn't have asked for a kinder, funnier, cooler, and more helpful young man than he is today.

Jay loves that his birthday is always on the school holidays.  He is so devastated to know that next year is going to be the last year that his birthday is on the holidays though, because of the change in school terms in Tasmania in 2013.   We aren't into having big birthday parties for the boys every year.  Jay has only really had two bigger parties with his friends, and Harri has never had one so this year we told them both that they could have a combined party.  They both decided they wanted to have it at Treasure Island, so last week they both had some friends join them for a play and food.

Jay has the loveliest friends at school.  They are all so fun and also really polite.  We are so glad to know that next year he will have some good friends going to the same high school as him (high school!!! I can't believe my baby is going to be in high school!!!).

This morning Jay set his alarm to get up at 5.30am. He came into our room and I said 'don't you dare wake up Kobe - oh and happy birthday!'.  He laughed and then asked if he could go on the computer until everyone else woke up.  Finally at 6.30 am he got to open up his presents.

The best thing about having your birthday on school holidays is that it means you get to choose something fun to do for your birthday.  We were going to go to Crazy Golf like last year, but a few days ago we heard that Zone 3 had opened up in Launceston.  For years Jay had been saying how much he would love to do laser tag and had even asked us if we would take him to Hobart sometime, so he could try it.  As soon as Jay heard it was finally in Launceston and not far from home, he decided that we were definitely going there for his birthday instead.   We scheduled In Home Support with Di so we could leave Noah and also Kobe at home with her.

 The boys had fun playing a few arcade games before our game of laser tag. 

They were so excited and couldn't wait to get in and be briefed about what to do, and get the vests on to play.

 

Jay absolutely loved it, and so did the rest of us.  We paid for two games when we first arrived, but it was so much fun that we ended up paying for a third game after playing the first two.  It wasn't much more to play a third game which was good - it was only $8 a game, 2 games for $14 or 3 games for $17. The games are only short - they run for 15 minutes, but it's definitely worth the money and we will be going back for sure.  The boys are already begging us to take them back tomorrow, and asking if they can use their pocket money to go back and play again.  Harri still gets to choose something special to do because his birthday was on a school day, so we still get to go to Crazy Golf this week.  It's so nice having so many options in Launceston now of fun things to do with the boys, even if the weather isn't great.

During the week I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said he wanted 'Nan's sponge cake' as it's always his favourite.

Jay loves the show 'Glee' so one of his presents was Glee Karaoke for the Wii, which the boys had lots of fun playing during the day.  It didn't sound pretty! :)

Mum and Dad came to visit in the afternoon. Kobe was hanging out all day for them to arrive and kept saying 'Mama and Grandpa coming 'day!'.

The boys were begging us so much to let them use Jay's birthday money to go back to Zone 3 again tomorrow, that Grandma ended up taking them down again, to have a game with her! What a cool Grandma!

We then all went to the casino for tea.   The boys always get to choose what they have for tea on their birthdays, and without fail it's always Maccas but because Jay is 12 and it's an extra special birthday, we talked to him about how it would be fun to go somewhere special instead.  He kept saying a while ago that he wanted to go to the Prickly Cactus for tea, but the buffet desserts enticed him to go to the casino instead.

He cracks us up so much.  He has the funniest sense of humour and comes out with funny things all the time.  This was him at tea giving us a birthday speech- as you can hear and see we are all 'weirdos'! :) 

After tea we ventured out in the cold to take a few photos out near the fountains.  Kobe was more excited about the fountains than he was about tea!

We feel so blessed to have Jay as our eldest son.  I know he was sent to our family first because of his beautiful nature and caring personality. He makes us laugh every day, and cares so much for his little brothers.  He never complains with how much he has to help us, and always knows how to make us laugh.  He is the kind of kid that could never do enough to try to please you and therefore it's so easy being his Mum as you have no doubts that he is going to make good choices, and do the right thing, even when you aren't around.

We love you Jay and look forward to the next twelve years! We just hope they don't go as fast as the last twelve years did! :)