Aaron is Seven!

Our sweet, snuggly baby turned seven on Tuesday!  He's still sweet and snuggly, but he's definitely not a baby anymore.  He wanted a Pokémon-themed birthday party at his favorite restaurant, Cheesie's Pub & Grub, which has pizza and grilled cheese and lots of free arcade games.

It's really more of a DePaul hangout, but Cheesie's made us feel right at home.

All set up and ready to party!

Let's get to the gaming.

In keeping with the theme, I also set up a Pokémon tracing/drawing station.  Jill liked it!

But the boys (including Chris!) mostly stuck to the gaming.

And maybe also a little Pokémon card trading.

Then it was time for pizza and grilled cheese.

And cake of course!

The birthday boy wanted to put in the candles himself.

He wanted to blow them out himself too...but he forgot about the fact that he has a little brother.

We love our Aaron.

After the party, he opened his presents at home (mostly Lego-, Pokémon, and Minecraft-themed).

And then we took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and went to Maggie Daley park downtown.

Things got a little rowdy.

But we still had a great time celebrating our boy.

And the celebration wasn't over yet.  The next day, Aaron got his first birthday present from us--tickets to the Northwestern v. Illini basketball game with Daddy.

He wore Northwestern colors, but decided to cheer for the Illini.

Two days later, on his actual birthday, he started with candles in his chocolate chip banana bread...

...and ended with candles in a skillet cookie at his other favorite restaurant: Crosby's Kitchen.  While we were sitting at dinner, I leaned over and whispered, "You know we love you like crazy, right?"  He just smiled, nodded his head, and said, "Yeah I know."  Don't ever forget it, buddy.  It'll never stop being true.