Garrett's Birthday

The tradition, for our family, on birthdays is to let the birthday boy or girl choose everything that is done on their special day.

As you know from the last post, this past Saturday was Garrett's birthday.

So, he chose mocha-banana-chocolate-chip muffins to start his day. Bronwyn was happy to get up a little early to take care of the breakfast.
We then goofed around the house for a little while.

Then it was lunch time and Garrett got to pick his favorite place to eat lunch. Garrett has now lived in Brasil longer than he lived in the United States. In many ways he is more Brasilian than American. We live in a great city for restaurants. We are the churrasco(Brasilian bar-b-que) capital of the world. We also have incredible pizza places.

So, what did Garrett, this churrasco loving, soccer playing, portuguese speaking boy choose for his birthday meal? Outback Steakhouse. That's right, Outback.

He's a sucker for good chicken tenders. Always has been. He also likes to watch soccer while we eat and Outback has 2-3 tv's just for sports.

We then went home for a little soccer with our brother and.....................
.............present time.

He got a new soccer ball, soccer cleats (called chuteiras), a soccer magazine and a cell phone.
God has blessed us with kids that care for each other and that are givers. They each (including Anderson) receive allowance for chores that they do around the house. When it's someone's birthday they are all good about using their own money to buy something for that family member.

Anderson gave Garrett a piece of chocolate called "batom" which means lipstick. It's literally a roll of chocolate that looks like lipstick.
Bronwyn and Ansley gave him the "We are Marshall" DVD.

The French have a deep (yet absolutely insane) love for Jerry Lewis. I don't get it. In the same way, the Brazilians love Mr. Bean. Our kids also think he is hilarious. So, Carys bought Garrett a Mr. Bean movie.
Garrett had asked that his cake be "Mammy's chocolate cake." Mammy is my grandmother. She is 92 and is a great cook. Her chocolate cake has become a staple for birthdays in our house. It's Garrett's favorite cake.
We didn't have any candles so we had to put a used Tweety Bird candle on the top.

Garrett wasn't thrilled and tried, but failed, to take it off the cake.

Before we could eat though we had a prayer for the birthday boy. Garrett asked Ansley to do a prayer in one of her voices. Ansley is our gifted, creative child. She happily obliged by doing a special prayer in a nerd voice which was followed by a British voice. She's the family cut up and she keeps us in stitches.
And the cake, as usual, was awesome. After present and cake time we watched "We are Marshall" together. If you've never seen it I would recommend it. It's a true story of the tragedy of what happened to the Marshall University football program in 1970.

Finally, Garrett asked if I would play "set up" with him. "Set up" is a game Garrett has LOVED since he was 2-3 years old. It's basically setting army guys up and having a war. I'm not sure where the name came from. When your 12 year old asks you to play "set up" with him, you jump at it. Time goes by so fast and I know "set up" days are numbered. We had a great time.

It took us a long time to set it up - hence the name.He won. I've never beaten him at the game. He had a hidden grenade launcher that I could never find. It's serious business.
Carys and Anderson saw how much fun we had and when we were done, they had their own game.
I think the general approved.
It was a full day and was just too much to ask of some people to stay awake through the entire thing. We're pretty sure Garrett enjoyed his birthday because he said, "This is the best birthday I've ever had!" at least three times on Saturday.