Beau's Two-Week Birthday Celebration

Beau turned 12 in November. Since his birthday falls near Thanksgiving, it's always a battle to squeeze in a celebration.

We began on Monday morning, the day before his actual birthday, with a surprise visit from the neighbors to have a "last day of 11" breakfast.

We did the surprise breakfast the day before his birthday because Aunt Carrie and Uncle John arrived that night from CA and we didn't want to disturb them on Tuesday.
But we did have present-opening at Tuesday's breakfast (because Tuesday is a busy, busy day here, and breakfast is the only time we're all together).

He got a bit of loot that he was hoping for, plus some useful items that he's been in need of.

It wasn't until last weekend (12/7) that we had a party. We took a pack of 11- and 12-year-old boys into the North End (the Italian neighborhood of Boston) for pizza. We chose a place that had a big variety sold by the slice, so each boy could chose his own topping; also at this place, a "slice" is a quarter of a pie (seriously!), so we only needed to buy one "slice" per kid. This picture shows only half a slice!

Once fortified, we walked through a light snow to the North End ice rink



and went skating.


Back at home, we finally had a proper birthday cake and wrapped up a celebration that was spread out over nearly two weeks.