Sweet Golden Sixteen!

Today we celebrated Henry's Golden birthday!  Never heard of that idea?  Neither had I until my sister-in-law introduced us to the concept a few years ago.  The idea is that you have a special birthday celebration the year you turn the same age as the date of your birthday.  For Henry, some would call his golden birthday an even bigger year as he turns 16 on the 16th in the year 2016!

I don't know if we made him feel golden but we did the best we could to let him know that we think he is pretty golden!  We actually celebrated his birthday for a month...mainly because we had to split up his birthday events into several days to get in all the fun along with moving.

March 16

Of course we started out his day with a very spicy breakfast to kick start the fun!

OK...maybe not!

Here have some coffee to kick start your day instead!

No...that still won't work...how about we pay him to get out of bed.  Great job, Gramma!

Later in the day Aunt Peggie, sent a great gift of family history and 8 two-dollar bills!  It made me think of my dad and his love of using these for everyday use.  Henry is a lot like his Grampa and I can see him using these for something special!  The notes in the card were about Irish customs for St. Patrick's day and a poem by a family member.

That night we took Henry out for wings at one of his favorite restaurants.  Then came home for dessert.  No cake today...but TWO desserts because we could not decide which was his favorite!  He has such a sweet tooth...he loves them all!




What makes Henry so awesome?

He loves his siblings and is not afraid to share the spot light with them.

He can be so geeky clever!

He still gets excited about little gifts!  But who wouldn't be excited about Doctor Who LEGOS!  And more LEGOS!

And Lovecraft!

March 18...Two days later, another gift came in the mail and he was so excited.  He loves wearing hats...not any hat...this hat!  His last one had seen better days so I surprised him with a new one!

But the birthday fun continued...we had more in store for him.  As nice as it is to spend time with family, we decided to plan a special day for him enjoying nature.  A kayaking trip on the ocean!  This was something Henry has wanted to do ever since we moved to the West Coast.  We knew he would love this excursion but the surf was so bad that it was cancelled multiple times!  We finally got the trip set up just before we moved.

Michael got to go along to secure pictures.

April 1

He ended the trip with a view over the edge of the pier.  And there was a baby seal being born with there!  An amazing end to a great adventure!

April 16

The family party was nice but we had to have some more fun with others.  A long way from his friends in Texas, but we managed to find a few friends to enjoy a party!  It turned out to be a going away party...geocaching thank you event...and surprise!  A birthday party for one of our favorite 16 year olds!

The day actually began with an epic geocaching adventure!  A multi-cache that led us through a jungle of vines and man eating bull nettle that was taller than we were!  It ended with us climbing trees and on to old bridge supports that were standing alone in the midst of it all.  But prizes galore once we reached the end!

Then we were off to place our own cache...Henry's choice...a nod to one of his favorite books from the Narnia series.  This door leading into Salinas was an obvious choice.

Then the surprise at the end of our geocaching fun.  Henry just thought we had invited all our friends over to say good-bye and do some caching fun hides.  I think he was surprised to find out they were there for him!  Maybe it had something to do with being a month late for the party!

 

I think Henry enjoyed himself!  Happy 16th to our 16 year old Golden child!