back to school and happy birthday to max!

today was a big day! most importantly, today is max's birthday! and he's very happy to now be in double digits. he's really been looking forward to today, even if it was also the first day of school..here's a little recap of our day.

up and at 'em early this morning. and not really thrilled about having the old first-day-o-school picture taken. it does seem to me that they'd be more than used to this by now. i needed one of my sophomore and my freshman, didn't i? yes, i did.

and my 4th grader too.

we joined the smith delegation at their bus stop. spencer was even there for the fun. max was good with going back to school. aly was more or less beside herself. cracked me up. when the bus drove up she said, "oh! my heart!". no drama there.

the birthday boy made a beeline up the bus steps. i'm thinking i'll have to get on the bus before him next year to be able to get a picture of him.

shawn's a good sport. he just went ahead and smiled. i'm sure he knew it was pointless to fight it.

this has nothing to do with birthdays or school starting. it's just the weirdest mushroom/fungus/whatever it is that i've seen. and it's growing right outside of our house.

max got lots of birthday wishes today from family and friends. this is him smiling when my dad (his poppy) called to sing his gloom and doom birthday song to him.

his whole family celebration will be another day so he wanted to save his homemade cake til then. the walmart ladies provided this one, bless their hearts.

he was happy with this card. it played the star wars theme, so we couldn't go wrong with it.

kathy and spencer dropped by with a little birthday wish and a "singing telegram" which, sadly, i missed. =)

no birthday is complete without some spankins. pop's will come another day. the big brothers took care of it for now.

everyone made it through the day just fine. greg and i took lunch to max at school and ate with him. blake and luke had a good day. luke's first day of high school did a number on him. he had a headache by the time he got home. a lot of "new" and a lot of people and a lot to absorb. tomorrow will be even better. and the next day and the next. he's doing fine now - advil and chocolate cake can work wonders.