the allen's: My Little Monkey Is Eight!

Eight years ago this week, my precious little monkey, Ty, was born.

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been eight years. The Tool Man and I agree that we can’t fathom what our lives were like before becoming parents. Children are game-changers, that’s for sure!

Here’s a picture we took the night before Ty was born. We had no idea what was about to hit us! Ha ha.

And here’s a pic of the proud new dad introducing Ty to his family.

Kids look forward to their birthdays so much. I really wanted to make sure that Ty had a day that was worthy of all the anticipation, especially since we won’t be having his official birthday party for a couple of weeks.

The first thing I did was blow up dozens of balloons and spread them out on his bedroom floor after he went to sleep the night before his birthday. That way he would awaken to a sea of colorful fun on his birthday morning! Little did I know that Ty would find the balloons in the middle of the night. He came into our bedroom at 4:30 in the morning asking, “Why are there balloons all over my floor?” Even though it was 4:30 in the morning, I couldn’t help but be tickled that he got a kick out of his little surprise. (Thankfully, he returned to his bed to finish out the rest of the night.)

Ty’s next treat came at breakfast.

Birthday Pancakes!

I did something similar to this for his seventh birthday, and Ty requested that I do it again this year.

Not wanting anyone to feel left out, I cooked up a little girl pancake for my little girl. (I have to say that this is quite possibly the cutest little face I’ve ever seen…I’m speaking of Lucy, not the pancake, of course.)

I mentioned earlier that Ty’s official party won’t be for a couple of weeks. (I simply had too many cakes on the books to work a party in this week.) Ty was kind of bummed when I told him this, so I decided to have a mini surprise party for him at Fox’s for lunch. A couple of friends, a pizza, a cookie cake, and a present or two, and voila! Instant party.

For all of you who might freak out over this next picture, it’s just a glorified pellet gun.

Ty also received a pogo stick for his birthday! It didn’t take him long at all to get the hang of it. He’s had the best time bouncing on that thing.

You know I have an awesome cake planned for Ty’s big party, so I took the easy way out on this day and made him a pretty generic cookie cake.

If you can’t tell from this picture, Lucy really enjoyed her piece of cookie cake…or at least she really enjoyed the icing.

I think our little get-together satisfied Ty’s party itch for the time being.

Meanwhile, Ty and I are planning his big birthday party. After going back and forth on several ideas, he finally settled on a Wall-E theme. I’ve got some cute ideas for his party, and I can’t wait to share them with y’all.

Last but not least, here’s Ty’s picture at his exact birthday time, 2:11 p.m.