Today was family birthday celebration day. It started out like this. Trying to get the kid out of bed as it approaches noon. Sonic is of no help.
Opening some gifts. The orthodontist recommended a Waterpik to make flossing easier. We will see how this goes. And Quinn loves weird cube shape things.
Mae joined in on the celebrations today. Quinn requested Hot Pot for dinner and it was delicious. And then another day, another cake. German Chocolate. Happy Birthday Quinn!
Quinn’s birthday fell on Saturday this year so we took Quinn and his best buddies out to celebrate. This year Quinn wanted to do a Men in Black Virtual Reality experience
It was the 4 teens and 2 dads. Getting geared up and ready to go into the room. They had a blast.
The teens.
It was about an hour drive each way and they chatted and laughed the whole way there. They thought this meme was outrageously funny and took turns trying to read it without laughing…they couldn’t.
We had lunch and headed home for cake. I purchased this “famous” birthday cake from Milkbar in NYC and it arrived in perfect condition and it was delicious.
Quinn did not give us one single gift idea for his birthday but money is always a good gift. But I had to give it to him in a creative way.
When I gave the gift to Quinn, I asked the boys what they thought was inside. They said boxes in boxes in boxes. They were right but didn’t know it yet. Although they guessed that there was a singular item, like one cashew, in the final box. So much fun!
Happy Birthday to the best kid ever with great friends. We love you Quinn!
We kicked off the birthday celebrations on October 8. Friday after school I took Quinn and 4 friends to the mall for Fro-Yo.
Not sure what’s going on but here they are.
They all had a little bit of spending money and Quinn bought himself a cowboy hat. I think it looks great on him! Such a fun time for these teens.
Quinn has had braces for almost 4 years. We were originally told it would be 2 – 3 years but Quinn was not diligent in wearing the headgear or rubber bands so the extended time was a bit self-inflicted.
Don and I talked about it and we agreed it was enough. So on his last visit I told the orthodontist that we were done. Although not quite as perfect as the ortho would have liked, they were close enough.
Here is is the day he got his braces back in 4th grade.
The much hated head gear that he had to wear at night for a year or more.
It’s difficult getting after school appointments with the orthodontist unless scheduled months in advance, so I pulled Quinn out of school in the morning so that we could get these things out before his birthday.
He’s so happy to have them out. He has permanent retainers that are attached in the back on both upper and bottom teeth and he will wear a plastic retainer at night. And he is still working on the open mouth smile after years of doing the closed lip smile.
Such a handsome dude!
Don and I scored Hamilton tickets as a joint birthday celebration to ourselves. We’ve seen the original production on Disney and are huge fans. Mae was kind enough to watch Quinn for the night so we could enjoy an overnighter in Hollywood.
Our room wasn’t quite ready so we had a glass of champagne to start the celebration!
The view from our room. I might have cropped out the 101 and some other not-so-beautiful scenery.
Seems like a fitting spot for Lin-Manuel’s star.
We had a fantastic dinner on the rooftop of our hotel. There is a pop-up Yakitori (Japanese skewers) restaurant and it was just right. My handsome guy.
Sunset view from the roof top.
This is where it all went down. The cast was amazing and the audience brought such great energy. We are still talking about it.
Sunday morning we walked to the Hollywood Farmers Market and picked up some goodies. And then to Santa Monica for lunch. View from our table.
Our seafood platter to start off the meal. So good.
We loved our evening away and Mae and Quinn enjoyed their 24 hours together too!
So, this happened.
On the way home from TKD the other day, Quinn told Don that he was having a hard time seeing the white board in school. I was able to get him an eye appointment the next day and sure enough, he needs glasses. The glasses have a very small correction, but enough for him to see distance better. When he puts the glasses on, he says the graphics are much better and he can now see in HD. Teen speak.
Quinn tried on a bunch of different frames and he kept coming back to this one because it was the most comfortable. Funny that it’s the same brand and almost the same frame that Don wears. Like father, like son.
Quinn is pretty pleased with wearing glasses. He told me this funny school lunch story. Quinn was having lunch with 2 friends, Logan who wears glasses and Elias who does not. Another kid, who also wears glasses, sat down at the table with them. So, 3 with glasses and 1 no glasses. Logan turned to Elias and said “Hey 2 eyes”. LOL.
Quinn has a new group of friends that have formed. He’s known all the kids since 1st grade but they seem to be forming some new friendships. He got a text to meet them at the mall on a Sunday afternoon. We are working on giving Quinn more opportunities for independence and thought this would be good. It turned out to be Quinn and a handful of girls…and he had fun. He texted to be picked up and this is where we found him.
Deep thoughts at the dentist.
We got a rock and roll start to the week. It wasn’t a very big one but it was only 3 miles from us. The house shook for a good 10-15 seconds. Wow! My biggest shake yet.
Quinn did this pencil sketch on a post it note of his buddy Elias. His dad sent it to me. It does such a great job of capturing him. They were talking about Native Americans in Social Studies and the corn grinder they used. Somehow hilarious to 13 year old boys.
Did you know they make PPE gear for musicians? Quinn is starting up private lessons again and he needed this gear for the lesson. At school they just go outside.
On Sunday we drove up to Santa Barbara for the first time in a year or so. There’s an ocean side restaurant where we like to stop for lunch. You can’t tell but the ocean is on the other side of those hedges.
Every Sunday there is an outdoor art sale. We were looking for a wind spinner sculpture for our yard but we weren’t able to find any. But a lovely afternoon.
Celebrating our special guy. Don requested hot dogs for his birthday lunch so we went to our local Dog Haus.
Opening gifts before dinner. I forget what they were laughing about.
We had made 5:30 reservations at one of our favorite restaurants but we were so stuffed from our lunch that we changed it to a different restaurant at a later time. A nice lake view restaurant. Don got a complimentary Birthday Creme Brûlée.
Quinn ordered a Banana Split and it was taking forever. We had no idea that it would be so huge. Quinn polished most of it off.
Quinn likes to create stop motion videos. This is one he created while we were in Mendocino this summer.
