A Dozen Years of Edward

We had a great weekend last week, but today was Edward's birthday.  It is hard to believe we have enjoyed 12 years with him in our lives.  He is such a blessing...so full of life!

As is our family custom...we made all his favorite foods for meals.  I was so thankful that he likes things simple.  I was able to wake up quickly and set up his breakfast of Leia buns (I added whipped cream because the plate looked so sparse!) and blue milk.  I added some mixed fruit to balance out the meal.  He was happy to open his birthday cards from Gramma and Aunt Peggie also.  It was nice to have such and easy breakfast because we had a full day of running from several events throughout the day.

We earned some great prizes from our summer reading program, but had never had opportunity to use the tickets so off we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  This famous aquarium has been suggested to us MANY times from people all over the country.  When we started telling people we would be living in Monterey, the first response was almost ALWAYS to tell us to go to the aquarium!  We even thought it was funny that we heard about this place on random TV shows.  I was happy to have the free tickets because this place is EXPENSIVE ($40 for all ages 3 and older!)...especially for a big family like ours.   Today I only had to buy one ticket....because we had a surprise for Edward!

Just a block from the aquarium was another adventure more related to the Star Wars theme that started the morning!  Our wonderful library also helped us earn four passes to a mirror maze.  This maze had lasers to avoid as they raced to beat the best time of the day.  So...the older boys went there with Michael to enjoy this fun while I took the two younger ones to the aquarium.

Michael and Sean actually chose to go through a bank heist simulator designed to capture the bank robbers.  Their game ended quickly.  However, Henry and Edward went through the maze and could have stayed all day.  Turns out three hours was long enough as they were making it to the top on the leader board...even the employee was impressed!

THEN...one more event with our library just happened on this day...the library had their annual Star Wars party!  Michael left Zaira and I at the aquarium...plenty to see for us.  Then he grabbed one of Edward's friends to enjoy the party at the library.  They had story time...light saber making and watching the movie with snacks.  A great party that Edward was convinced they did for his benefit!

We all came back together to enjoy a steak dinner followed by a yummy (and easy) brownie cake!

I think we all had a great time!  Here are a few pictures from the aquarium also...I will probably have another blog post as we still have our family pass to the aquarium (yes...another gift from our library!) that we will use later in the year.  I think all of us will enjoy another look at this amazing place!