Birthday Boy

Luke will turn eight years old this Saturday. When I asked him how he wanted to celebrate he requested balloons and a cake and a big list of specific gift items (interestingly, none of which were toys unless you count the chemistry set), and oh yes, a trip to Knott’s Berry Farm. I told him I could afford the the trip to Knott’s or all the other stuff, but not both. He thought about it, and then reluctantly picked the cake-and-presents option.

When Steve asked Luke what he wanted and had heard the tale of woe, he said, “Of COURSE you can go to Knott’s too! Because I’m dripping with money and you can have anything you want!” Okay, that’s not what he said. I’m sure it was phrased more tactfully than that, but anyway the end result was that me and the kids and Steve AND his parents (dude, cut the umbilical cord already!!) spent yesterday at Knott’s together. And it wasn’t as awkward as I’d feared it was going to be, mostly because the kids had a blast and it’s hard to feel too awkward in the presence of kids who are having the time of their lives. Plus there were hardly any crowds or lines (we probably have the dismal economy to thank for that), so everyone got to do everything they wanted to do without much waiting.

This was the first time Luke and Elizabeth have been to Knott’s when both of them were too old for most of the Camp Snoopy kiddie rides. We did a brief camp walk-through for old times’ sake…

…and then moved on to the big kid stuff. Given the choice, I think Elizabeth would have spent the whole day just riding Jaguar over and over.

Luke had a similar affection for the Calico Mine ride.

I enjoyed communing with the local wildlife…

…and both kids had fun looking at all the old wagons and trains and such.

I’d say a fine time was had by all. And in one of the gift shops I found an item that was so perfect for Luke that it was worth the trip all by itself. It was a set of slotted “building cards” that could be used to create pirate-related structures — absolutely ideal for my budding architect/engineer/swashbuckler.

So today when I should have been catching up on a towering pile of chores, instead I spent the entire morning playing with Luke and the building cards. Check out the ship we made:

And now if you’ll excuse me, the mess around here is starting to impair my ability to walk from one end of the house to the other. I should probably do something about that…where did I leave my snow shovel….