Birthday Boy

This past Thursday we celebrated McKay's 11th birthday. 11! Before I know it, I'm going to have a teenager on my hands (and he'll be taller than me too before too much longer).

McKay told me he didn't have a preference for how his cake should be decorated (other than it be a chocolate cake), so I looked through some ideas and finally settled on a computer circuit board (a motherboard to be specific), since that has been one of McKay's interests lately. I copied a design I found online and even though the placement didn't quite turn out like it was supposed to and McKay informed me I was missing a couple of elements, he was quite happy with it.

He told us he wanted to put the candles on his cake himself and started putting them all really close together. Brian gave him a hard time about it, so McKay finally (reluctantly) spread them out a little more. He said he really wanted to blow them all out in one shot because he didn't think he'd ever managed that before. Even with them spread out, he managed to do it! His comment afterward was that it must be because of his trombone playing because he can blow out air for a lot longer than he needed to for the candles!

He opened presents after dinner.

He got several books (the kid loves to read!) and a couple of new Wii games.

We told him his "big" present was still on the UPS truck somewhere and scheduled to be delivered, but it hadn't shown up yet. I had to leave for a Relief Society meeting at 7:00, and when I got back home he the UPS man had come and gone and McKay was extremely excited about his other present. Brian picked out for him a real computer motherboard, along with a CPU and some RAM.

McKay has been wanting to put together a computer (with Brian's help) and had been researching motherboards and other parts online for the past week or so. He was going to try to use some of his saved money to buy some parts, so he was thrilled to get them for his birthday. Now he and his dad have been busy hooking everything together.

McKay is a great kid and we're so proud of all he does. He tries hard in school and is always wanting to learn new things. He is a super big brother to his sisters and watches out for them (even if they do manage to embarrass him at times). He is very courteous and respectful and sensitive to other's feelings. I love to watch him with Brian -- his dad is his hero and he would choose to spend all of his time with him if he could. He is still set on being a computer engineer like his dad when he grows up. Our "big baby" is growing up into a big, (mostly) responsible kid! (Now if only I could convince him that he really does like to take showers...) We love our McKay!