9 years old

This Saturday we celebrate that our Ryder is NINE years old.  
On Friday Night, Kit made a special smoked chicken dinner that Ryder loved and we watched the Voice:

Nine feels so old!

 Eden made him  "cake" with her playdough set.
She kept referring to the decorations as "Made with fondant"

 The next morning, we had time doing our traditions of doughnuts and pictures with his one-year-old name birthday banner:

The special presents that he opened were a Warriors basketball hoop for his room, a new baseball bat,  and basketball shoes from his Grandi and Monkey Papa, 

 He was born at 9:42 to at 9:42am we took this picture...
What a difference 9 years makes!

While Ryder was at baseball, Eden worked on a special card/booklet for his brithday:

 Our family...

He headed to baseball where two of the sweet mamas that have become dear friends of mine gave him this:

He was OVER THE MOON with excitement!

He and Kit spent time together putting it together...

Per Ryder's request, we went to one of our favorite Mexaican food spots:

 He loved feeling celebrated!

 Sometimes he has these looks were he seems so OLD!

 Gosh I love this kid...

After dinner we headed home to work on more Legos and watch Star Wars IV.
It was such a good, low key day with our big nine year old.
Soon they will have their big backpacking weekend away, but for now, the celebration was so good...

This is the last birthday of single digits and I just can't believe how fast each year is going...
It feels like only yesterday that this was our life:

 

The saying is so true:
"The days are long but the years are short..."