Nate had a great birthday. He started off by opening gifts from the immediate family. He's still on a Star Wars kick so that figured into lots of the presents. Sean decided to see what he could do to help Nate out with the opening of the presents.
In the afternoon we had a birthday party at the bowling alley of a nearby military base. Several of his friends joined him for a couple of hours of bowling, pizza and birthday cake. Nate did pretty well, all things considered. Everyone seemed to have a great time.
Mom made Nate a cake shaped like crossed light sabers, again with the Star Wars theme. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and he blew out the candles. One of the sabers was chocolate and the other vanilla so everyone was happy.
Last night we went to "Boo at the Zoo." Lots of different zoos hold a variation on this event and our local zoo is no exception. It's a chance for all the kids to dress up in their costumes the weekend before Halloween, come to the zoo to see the animals at night and collect a few treats. Mom and dad collected a few treats too!
Nate and Sean both chose a Star Wars theme -- no big surprise there -- and they became Clone Troopers for the evening. They were very specific Clone Troopers although I'll be darned if I can remember which ones. Here they wandered through a maze of haunted scarecrows, which weren't actually all that scary and that's just fine.
They weren't too frightened of the skeletons in the Small Mammal House either. Nate wanted to see the nocturnal animals, and the armadillos specifically. It's a bit difficult to get to Boo at the Zoo during rush hour on the subway so now that we know he's more interested in the animals than the trick-or-treating, we think we'll probably take him to the winter lights events instead. Those are a lot more manageable and easier to plan. Even so, we had a pretty good time.
