Little A turns ELEVEN.

We still call him little A, even though he's getting so tall. Recently he came home with holes in his shoes and wet socks. I didn't have time to go out that night for new shoes, so I found a pair of my Nike low-tops and told him to try them on. They fit him perfectly! We have the same size feet, people.
I love our Adren. He is such a mix of getting older and more mature, yet is still happy and content to play and do little kid things. He is getting more independent and ready to take on more responsibility, yet is still the biggest teaser. He's learning how to bake and cook more things- yet still needs to be reminded to clean up the mess. It reminds me of that Britney Spears song~ Not a girl, not yet a woman....

Ready to go downstairs and see the goods.

All the kids get sooooo excited for a Birthday!

 Jon checked him out of school and they went together to pick out a bike. How cool is that??? He loves it.

 The cake! (cookie)

I was in full-blown Shingles mode this day. Not my favorite. Jon was able to take care of everything I just couldn't. He ran out and got some gifts, his cookie-cake, and you know what? It all works out just fine.
For his party, I thought it'd be fun to go ice blocking. The best place is Rock Canyon Park. He invited quite a few kids, and we got the invites out. When I called the park to make sure we were fine doing that, I learned they don't allow that anymore. So we were still holding a party kind of out of the way, for nuthin'. Oh, well. I came up with games to take advantage of that awesome hill.

We made paper airplanes and practiced flying them down. Some really soared!

 There is plenty of running space for all kinds of fun games like cops and robbers (there were skulls in the bank to steal) Flag football, a water balloon toss etc. I brought the big orange cooler full of cold kool-aid, but it was such a warm day, those boys were sweaty and had that drained in no time! Of course we finished with silly string!

 

I really could not have done that without Jon helping me so much. Even looking at these pictures brings back the memory of that stabbing pain. Those shingles!
That night we lit and cut into the big cookie, which worked out real nice since Adren isn't a big fan of cake. He was so busy playing night games outside with neighbor kids we had to really drag him in for some quick singing and he was back out playing in no time.

He fell into bed tired and happy. We love Adren!