Happy 14th Birthday to Graham!!

Okay, belated posting by now.  Graham's birthday was last month in May.  Can't believe he is now 14 years old.  Yikes! This kid here, in the photo below - to Bobby's left:

Awww, look at all of us here.  This was right before moving to Abu Dhabi while in Broken Arrow, OK.  We celebrated Graham's birthday at our neighbor's home since we had sold the house and moved everything to storage. Graham turned 4 years old and Charlie is just under 2 years old.

And here they are now - Cheeky monkeys!!

Graham still loves to play with Legos and insisted on this one. So we figured it was best it came from Charlie:

The next day...

I guess you can build Legos while laying down on the floor too??! 

As per Graham's request, we made steak medallions for him (on the grill but in a hot skillet pan!).  And I guess the lobster is for Charlie and me.  He he...!

Selfie with Charlie :-)

And also as per Graham's request, apple pie for his birthday rather than cake cake:

Happy Birthday, Graham! 

There was still one other gift - from my and Bobby  It took the boys forever to find it even in this one small enclosed area.  After a few more hint... Charlie finally found it for Graham!!

Look what my phone did.  It put a really nice background to Graham's photo! And yes, it's a donut squishmellow.  Graham has decided to call it BDonut instead - which stands for Big Donut. Too funny!!

Clever but also scary at the same time.  AI (Artificial Intelligence) has access to all of my photos!!

These days, when you don't find Graham on his computer playing video games, he will be doing this instead - on his VR (Virtual Reality) headset:

He does get into his photography sometimes:

He managed to capture this rabbit on the digital camera in our yard:

And the photo of this poppy turned out really nice, I thought!

Graham keeps coming up to me, especially when he has his shoes on and telling me that he's almost as tall as me.  Well, this is what I have to say to that as I stick my tongue out to his selfie :-P

He just had his physical this past week and he's now at about 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 127lbs. He's definitely gaining on me! 

During his physical examination, we also had him get his HPV vaccine. Seems that it's not just a vaccination for girls:

Graham invited some friends to play at the beach in our neighborhood.  I'm so glad they were able to attend and make Graham feel special, even a week after his actual birthday.  I attempted to make the cupcake pull-apart turtle cake again.  I probably should have just bought frosting rather than try and make it.  Or... perhaps actually use the mixer and not just use the whisk.  Lesson learned!

So glad I had made some banana bread too.  And as that was still warm, it was definitely more of a hit than the turtle "cake".  Ha!

See... I know there's the potential in me to make one for Graham just like I did on his very first birthday:

I guess as I get older, I just run out of patience.  LOL!!

Graham is definitely growing up to be his own person.  He actually made dinner for us tonight!  Well, technically he used the leftovers tonight, but he cooked the pasta spot on!

Everyone had Happy Plates.  Yay for Graham! :-D

Graham also loves making easy out-of-the-box recipes:

He still needs to listen better though, but gosh - who doesn't these days. Ha ha!

His grades were actually quite acceptable this year.  I'm so proud of him! He had a lot less Missing Assignments this year compared to when he was in 6th Grade. Hope he continues to pull his weight when he's in 8th Grade, as I'm sure all the teachers are prepping them for high school.  He is definitely getting somewhere :-D