7

Jonah just turned 7. (Side note: When did I get old enough to have a 7-year old?) Jonah approaches his birthdays with the enthusiasm and joy of an Oprah Winfrey show audience getting a new gold-plated cashmere rice cooker. We have been talking about it for months. He has written lists of all the gifts he wants and told us months ago that his birthday would be at Chuck E. Cheese. So needless to say, it's been a week of celebration.

I do want to say this about Jonah. We make jokes about him on this blog about how tough he can be and how exhausting. But he truly is amazing. I am proud to have him as my oldest son. He is smart, creative and ambitious. He is loving and affectionate. He is driven (see above: exhausting) but I think he will be successful in whatever he tries. He is a good sport. We have him in piano, violin, baseball and karate and he (rarely) complains. He is amazing with Noel and Lila. Noel and he are think as thieves and Lila thinks  that Jonah is the greatest thing that ever happened. He is musical and artistic and athletic and creative and a genius.

Jonah's latest obsession is Mario, so there was a definitely a theme at the birthday. We had a Mario cake:

And many Mario themed gifts. Like...a Mario game!

Side note: This game is AWESOME! It is like the old school Mario. I am quite good at it, too.

And a Mario bag. Evidently the messenger bag is the way to go. Jonah has been insisting for months that he needs a messenger bag. I guess it is what the cool kids do.

Not pictured: a Mario T-Shirt and a Mario poster. And a Mario curling iron and Mario gold-plate cashmere rice cooker. I think every single gift had Mario on it. 

Amy made his favorite dinner: chicken and rice. Thanks for smiling nice, Jonah. Thanks. 

And we did indeed go to Chuck E. Cheese. We were understandable scared. But here's the thing about Chuck E. Cheese: it kind of rules. When you show up, they have your table all set up for you. They give you a party host who takes your food order, hands out the tokens and tells the kids how much time they have to play games. Then when it is time for the birthday celebration they gather your kids up. They cut the cake and serve it. And at the end, they clean everything up!! The only thing that could make that better would be if someone did all that for me and I WASN'T at Chuck E. Cheese!

Jonah played lots of games with his friends and won lots of tickets and traded those tickets for lots of junky trinkets.

Jonah even got an awesome crown that had tokens inside. Also, now Chuck E. just comes out and dances around. There is no longer that whole creepy band thing. Remember these guys? With that creepy space dog? And cheerleader monkey? And evil gorilla? WHO THOUGHT KIDS WOULD LIKE THEM? Are they bears? Are they gophers? WHAT ARE THEY?!?!

Jonah also got stuck in a booth full of tickets that flew around and he could grab as many as he could catch in 30 seconds. It was like one of those booth's full of dollar bills, except instead of getting to trade those dollar bills for exciting goods and services, you get to trade them for plastic snakes and Chinese finger traps. (Is that offensive? Do we call them Asian Finger Traps?)

The picture doesn't do it justice. It was super awesome. 

So happy birthday, Jonah. May you have many more years of tokens, singing mice and ticket-whirlwinds.