Double Digits...

It's been a crazy, busy, fun-filled week that started with the birthday of our third child and oldest son, Buck. Monday, March 1st was Buck's 10th birthday. Such a milestone for a child - double digits.  

Our sweet Buck is a child who has always loved his birthday. Not the gifts, so much, or what we do, but rather just the fact that this one day of the year belongs to him. Knowing how much "his" day means to him, we've always tried to make it special. 

Along with loving his day, he loves to be surprised on his day. This year, for his birthday, he really wanted to go see the Harlem Globetrotters, who were going to be in town March 5th and 6th. He made this request back before Christmas, when he first saw that they would be here around his birthday.  

We purchased the tickets about a month before his birthday, but we kept it a secret.  As his day approached, we pretended that we had completely forgotten. "We're so sorry, but we've been running crazy lately and forgot to get the tickets. We're so sorry," we told him.

He hung his head, only briefly, before forgiving us as only he can. "It's okay. They'll come to town another time. Maybe we can go next year."

We felt a little bad letting him down, but knew that it would make the surprise even better in the end.  Our tickets were for Friday night, the only night this past week that we had no other obligations - very rare for us lately. We picked Audra up from her basketball practice and told the kids we were taking them out to dinner. After dinner, as we parked and walked towards the arena, the kids wondered where we were headed. We stopped and handed Buck an envelope containing the Globetrotter tickets.  He opened it and here's what it looked like:

 

Pure joy! Buck read the ticket information and literally jumped into his dad's arms. We did it - a complete surprise and a very happy 10 year old boy.  Little Colton was completely caught off guard (notice his face in the first photo) and kept asking, "What does this mean? What are the Harlem Globetrotters and what state are they from?"  

Once inside the arena, sitting in our very excellent seats, the kids were thrilled.  Buck, Colton, Sierra and Audra were thoroughly entertained.  It was a fun night, a great memory for the kids and a wonderful surprise for a very special boy!

Happy double-digit birthday, Buck!