11-year old Birthday

So, Master S is now 11 --- this was a big milestone birthday for a few reasons,

1.  I am a mother of an 11-year old boy!?!

2.  I finished my first, totally on my own, quilt for him.

(it has taken me over 5 years to do this!!!)

3.  We had a 'hang out' not a 'party' at our house to celebrate his birthday.

 

 He loves it - I love it.  It is finally done!  I found an awesome gal through a friend to machine quilt it ... and she did a fabulous job. I have plans for more pillows, but I actually really like just the one for now.

 I love this picture of him -- he doesn't smile a full 'tooth' smile very often, especially when I have the camera out, but when he does it reminds me so much of his Dad!  He is such a good kid and is totally into some cool stuff right now ... outdoors, basketball, scouts, fishing (he caught one in the pond behind our neighbor's house yesterday), reading everything in sight, Mythbusters and anything that might have to do with science experiments, and especially explosions!

 He is officially a Boy Scout and I got to cut all his awards off his Cub Scout shirt and put them in a shadow box, for his birthday, to hang on his wall.  It was overwhelming to realize how much he has grown in the last three years, how much he has learned, and how much I'm already wishing time would slow down.

 I think his favorite thing is this over the door basketball hoop ... and despite the banging on the wall and floor that is causes, I'm thinking I'm going to like it too.  Judging by the emotional drama that has erupted around here, it is a good way to work out that extra emotion he seems to overflow with every now and then (or several times a day ...)

Last night we had a 'hang out' ... eleven, 11 year old boys, all from church!  We didn't even attempt to invite the neighborhood boys, as it easily would have put us at 20 boys ... there are so many boys that age!  We made pizza, played basketball, watched 'Wreck it Ralph', ate lots of junk, and had a  ping pong tournament.  So fun!  We have an awesome group of boys at church - all such great kids.  At one point I went downstairs to see how ping pong was going and they were all organized, couple refs, two boys on each side, playing doubles with a rotation all worked out ... are they really old enough to organize their own fun?!  J.D. and I didn't really have to do anything except provide the environment - love it!