Eight is GREAT!

Last year was declared "the year of no birthday celebrations" for the Courtrights as we struggled to handle all of the chaos with moving, remodeling, commuting, and changing schools. The kids' birthdays and even Jeff's big 50th were almost completely overlooked because we (I) just couldn't take anything else on. This year, I tried to make up for it a bit by making a bigger deal of the birthdays. We had a great birthday weekend celebrating Jeff's big day with the whole family, and then Connor's 8th birthday snuck up on us as it does every May. Connor decided he'd rather have gifts than a big party, but we had some little surprises planned for him. ;-)

Since Connor's big day fell on a Saturday, he decided to celebrate with his class at school on the Friday before. We picked up his favorite donuts and he was able to share them with his classmates during snack time that day. Connor LOVES his donuts!!

Connor and the donut princess getting donuts for his class.

2 dozen donuts and a BIG smile!

For weeks leading up to his birthday, Connor kept asking what we were doing to do and what we were going to get him. We kept saying that we don't make a big deal out of birthdays and not to expect much. ;-)

On his actual birthday, we all headed to Kaitlynn's soccer game and afterwards we asked Connor to choose somewhere he'd like to eat for his birthday lunch. He chose Rainforest Cafe in Katy Mills. After lunch, we (reluctantly) agreed to walk over to the cookie place in the mall so that Connor could have a birthday cookie. His heart was really set on one of those Double Doozie cookies, but they were sold out.

"Connor," I told him, "they are sold out of the Double Doozies. So how about this cookie instead?"

Connor's surprise cookie cake

I wish I'd captured his reaction on video! His eyes got HUGE and he was so excited to see that we had ordered him his very own cookie cake! So much fun!! And let me tell you, those Nestle cookie cakes are UH-mazing!

We went straight home to enjoy cookie cake and let Connor open up his presents. He was having a great day!

The big smile didn't fade all day!

Pile of presents

Connor loved having a stack of gifts to open since we didn't throw him a party. He got some Legos, video game stuff, and lots of cool golf things. But the biggest present was a little treat that we had arranged for him as a surprise. For months, Connor has been asking for a WAC playdate so that he could play with his friends Benjamin, Brady, Timothy, and Tanner. Those boys all love spending time together but it's just usually too hard to get together during the school year. As one of Connor's surprise gifts, we arranged some WAC play time at JumpStreet followed by pizza and cake with his buddies. Oh, how overjoyed Connor was!

Connor and his buddies at JumpStreet.

Kaitlynn and Lily enjoyed their time together, too.

I heard multiple times over his birthday weekend, "This is the best birthday EVER!" Mission accomplished! :-)