Happy Birthday, Charlie! (7/31)

This kid is 12!  Where did the time go? And he's starting to get a bit chubby recently - too much sugar! He was a chubby baby to begin with:

Somehow Charlie doesn't look very much like his baby photo. Looks at those cheeks!

I had taken my car for a tire rotation and while waiting, we decided to head over to this clay-painting place next door.  Early birthday present for Charlie. Ya, I guess we do spoil them :-P

I was busy with work, so Charlie had to make his own cake. A bit messy with the icing, but I thought he did a pretty good job making the cake out of the box and baking!

My little stinker!

Some friends came over for some cake and then, on another day, Charlie invited a couple of his buddies for a sleepover.  Ya, dinner at Golden Corral. That's what he really wanted!

Birthday card (and $12 cash!) from Grandma and Pop-pop:

And he really wanted one of these sound "thingy" things for his computer gaming.  Kids these days!

It finally occurred to me that I did not end up buying a shirt that Charlie wanted for his birthday. So we headed out to the mall just a couple of weekends ago.  Not only did we get the shirt, but Crocs were on sale.  Buy 2, get 2 free!

And here's the shirt that he desperately wanted.  It is cute :-)

It did shrink though after one wash and one round in the dryer.  I'm guessing it will only last until the end of this year!

Here's Charlie's painted llama.  Finally remembered to pick that up too! Although, to be fair, we somehow never got the phone call that said it was ready for pick-up:

Charlie is in 7th Grade and right off the bat, there was a test to memorize the 50 States.  He was not happy with the pressure and so that's still something we need him to learn about himself. Hopefully as he matures, he will understand that everything needs to be taken in strides and there's no need to get emotional about it.  Of course, by the end of it all, he did score 100% on this test!  It would have been nice without the tears and moaning and groaning prior.  Ha!  

Still loves fishing although I think he does spend more time playing video games in the basement. Something about if he competes in some gaming tournament, he can win money?! I don't know about this one. Anyway, he should just stick to fishing when it comes to earning money. Hopefully it's something he can start doing (teaching younger kids to fish) next summer!

Happy Birthday, Charlie! We love you!!