Sean Turns 11. The Secret Birthday Party Surprise.

Birthday Season for The Circus begins September 4th and runs all the way until April 28th.  And then we get the summer off.

For every month from September until April we have one or more birthdays in our immediate home and/or a major holiday.

Yesterday we kicked off Birthday Season with a bang with Sean's 11th birthday and the fact that I keep forgetting to take pictures of stuff is a testament to how busy I am lately.  (Hello math class.  You make me tired.)

So yesterday Sean got out of doing chores because that's a rule at our house.  No chores on your birthday.  And another rule is Mom and Dad check you out of school and take you to lunch for some quality time.  But we only do this for the elementary kids.  It gets trickier in middle school because missing a little school is missing an entire class.  I've come up with a plan for that and will cover it tomorrow when I talk about Brynn's birthday (which is today).

So anyway, I went and checked Sean out of school five minutes before his scheduled lunch.  He comes sauntering down the hall and looks at me with a grin on his face.  "I forgot about this part," he said.

And then he chose Chinese food because that boy loves orange chicken.  Plus, also (have any of you read Junie B. Jones?  She's ruined me with "plus, also") he got not one, but two special fortune cookies that were dipped in chocolate, and one was also dipped in crushed oreo.  Totally spoiled.

After lunch we swung by a store to pick up fun napkins and a treat for his class and then I dropped him back off at school and I headed back to finish out my work day.

The reason Sean forgot about the traditional birthday lunch is because he was so preoccupied with what his birthday party would be.  The Man and I planned it for him (usually they get to pick) and we wouldn't tell him what it was.  He was so curious and so excited to find out what we had up our sleeves for him.

After school his friends showed up, we fed them pizza (what he asked to have for dinner) and the minion cake I made.

And then... "Hey Sean, it's time to head out to the front yard."

He and his friends spilled out of the house and looked expectantly around... and nothing.

"What's going on?" he asks.

"Just wait a second," he's told.

The kids slowly walk to the curb and look up and down the street wondering what was happening.

And then at the end of the street a truck appears and sirens start to wail and lights start to flash.

And his friend cries out, "they got you an ambulance!"

And I laugh, "Yeah, Sean, we got you an ambulance, isn't that cool?"

And he looks at me with a bewildered look and then gazes intently back at the truck at the end of the street.

And then he sees it.

The giant trailer behind the truck.

And the excitement and disbelief kick in.

Because, ladies and gentlemen, Sean has the coolest parents ever.

And we booked time with...

the Gamin' Truck.

If you know Sean, you know he's addicted to video games.  It's all he talks about.  It's all he asks for.  When we asked what he wanted for his birthday, but not video game stuff, he came up blank.  We usually limit the amount of time he plays and we don't buy him video game stuff for holidays anymore (he's so obsessed...) but when we found a groupon deal for the Gamin' Truck we knew it would be the perfect surprise for his birthday party.

And so we booked it.

And for an hour the kids sat outside in a trailer decked out with video game chairs, big screen tv's and game consoles and played multiple player games with each other.

And my house stayed clean.

Let it be known that Sean's 11th birthday was a giant success in his eyes.

And that's all that matters.

For information on Gamin' Rides go here.  I was not asked to write this post, I received nothing for doing so, it's simply how it fell together for Sean's birthday and it really was a lot of fun for him and his friends.