Happy Birthday, Skylar! (Oops! I mean Ben)

Today, we woke up and immediately started thinking about how to make today special for our big 6-year-old, Skylar, who shall now be called Ben. He got to choose all three meals: chocolate chip pancakes with Lil’ Smokies for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and biscuits and gravy for dinner. After we ate our pancake breakfast, we tried to get as much school and work done as we could before our predetermined stopping time of 12:30. We ate lunch and headed to Freeport where the LL Bean campus is. We’d heard there was lots of stuff to do and see and while not the perfect birthday spot for a kindergartener, it seemed like there would be some things of interest to Sky. We’d heard there was a rock climbing wall and a trout pond for fishing, both of which “Ben” was excited about.

We parked and headed in to the retail store and saw lots of hunting gear immediately. We strolled out of that section and found the “aquarium” that we’d heard was part of the store. It was really just a big fish tank that had a couple kinds of salmon and trout in it. The highlight of it was a big bubble that the kids could go in and see what fish see. We cruised from the tank to the trout pond and very sadly, there was no fishing. Just look at the trout in the pond. Not too exciting. We went through the camping section. The boys looked at knives.

Then we saw the bull moose exhibit; in 2006, someone found the two moose dead with antlers entwined and they were preserved and displayed at the store. They were huge! There were a lot of other stuffed animal exhibits such as white tailed deer, raccoons, foxes, porcupines, beavers, opposums, ducks, chukars, wolf and bear. We went quickly through the clothing, but while stylish and or comfy-looking, it was all a little too pricey for us. We looked at the pet products and chose a new collar for Heidi, orange in color, and made by Ruff Wear, which is a company in Bend, OR. Isn’t that crazy? Spencer thought it was funny there was a line of dog chew toys that were different scents like chocolate and mint for the dogs’ breath. We also took pictures with the "Boot Mobile" and a second(!) Giant Boot.

We went from that building to the home store building. From there, we went to the bike and ski building and we asked about the climbing wall and an employee told us that it had been donated to the YMCA nearly 10 years ago!!! Another bust. We left that store and went over to an outlet mall and peeked in at the LL Bean Outlet, but didn’t find any great deals and by then Sky/Ben was pretty shopped out. So we went to a fancy toy store in the mall and he looked and looked and looked. He got all kinds of suggestions for how to spend his birthday money from all the rest of the kids, but we reminded him that he had really been wanting to replace his camera that has been broken for about the last month. He really wanted to get something, and I felt like we should too since we’d been there so long and touched everything; I felt obligated. :O) So, he picked out a little tiny grow skeleton. You put it in water and he expands to 5X his size. At least Ben didn’t have to leave empty-handed after all that.

From there, we went back to the retail store building and had special drinks at the coffee shop. We talked about what kind of birthday dessert Ben wanted for after his dinner. There was an ad in a Maine magazine for whoopie pies and at first he said yes, but then he said he wanted chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream so we went to our Google apps to search for a local grocery. There didn’t appear to be one in Freeport so we decided to drive over to one of the communities within 15 miles where there was a Hannaford’s grocery and a Walmart. At Hannaford’s Skylar was able to pick out a chocolate cake and we had the man behind the bakery counter put on a spider ring which was something he was stuck on really wanting. There was a Redbox kiosk in the store and most of the kids have been wanting to watch the new Pirates movie (Claymation-type), but when Sky was given the power to choose, he chose The Lorax.

We had a power cord to return to Walmart that we’d bought for Bri’s laptop since it didn’t have the right adapter tip. We also needed to find a new 12-volt USB charger for Tom, the GPS. Brock called Rand McNally customer service today and let them know about our bad power cord that came with the device. The rep said that Tom’s illness (ie. corrupted files) could be caused by having an inadequate power supply. He said the device draws 2 amps and our power cord that we have been using was designed for use with my phone and was only 1 amp. So, we found a new 2 amp plug to try with Tom and we’re hopeful that will be the end of his chronic illness.

Also at Walmart, Ben picked out a present for himself with money we’d set aside from Grams & Gramps and Gramma BJ, which had been earmarked for his birthday. He found a little HD video camera that also takes still pics and a little case to protect it and a memory card, all within his budget. He was so excited! Thank you very much! We will post a little happy birthday video that was shot with his new camera very soon.

When we got home, Ben opened up the rest of his presents from the immediate family, watched an awesome Happy Birthday Song text video from Bend family and started the Lorax while I made biscuits and gravy. We ate dinner while we watched and Brock half-watched and half finished up the work he skipped while we were in town, and then we paused the movie for cake and ice cream. When the movie finished and the kids all finally got into bed, it was very late here, I think after 10:30. Probably not Skylar’s ideal birthday, but I think he went to bed happy, which makes me happy. Hard to believe our baby is 6!