So Fine Number Nine for Elliot

 Believe it or not, this guy is now 9!

Elliot's birthday was on one of the last school days before the break, so they had a celebration day with lots of crafts and activities. The best one was where they made parachutes for Santa. It was totally up Elliot's alley. 

For his birthday this year, he wanted to take his friends James and Kelton (and his Uncle Blake!) to Defy.

Fighting for dominance. I was so excited to watch Blake fight these 9-year-olds, and he did not disappoint! 

I love watching Elliot become increasingly daring. 

Elliot contemplating his next daring exploit, while Annie happily poses for the camera

After Defy, we headed back to the house for pizza and cake. It should be noted that this party came with a document labeled "Elliot the Great's Birthday Party Planning," which included a detailed schedule and a cross sectional diorama of his cake. 

Elliot at 9 years old is a fun guy to be around. He is so smart and creative. He loves making stuff, like this shadow puppet box:

Elliot is in the gifted program at school this year. He says he likes it "because I can use the bathroom without asking, and there are lots of kinds of rubik's cubes there." Their latest project involves programming Lego robots in Scratch, which is quite possibly the most Elliot-suited project they could have come up with. Well, maybe they could have incorporated hot glue somehow to capture that part of his essence as well. 

We gave him a laminator for his birthday. He had been asking for one for months. He laminated a chess board, white boards for acronymania, and dry erase "roll a creature" boards. 

He has finally made the transition to full blown chapter books. His gateway series was the Warrior cats series, and now he is branching out a bit. He still likes a good book of random facts. 

He loves board games- the more complicated, the better. Lately his two favorites are Dicemasters and Magic the Gathering. I'm the only one in the house that knows how to play, and we are both perpetually frustrated that I have to do things other than play games with him all day.

His other favorite activity: stealing my phone and drawing on pictures. 

He has a surprisingly high tolerance for hot sauce given how wimpy his parents are. 

He is still a very independent person. He gets himself up and ready for school by himself, including walking to the bus stop in the dark. He's learning how to cook a few things on his own.

To end this post in the same way he ends most of his school papers, "Now you know all about Elliot."