Miles turns 12!

 Well, I can hardly believe it, but we have a 12 year old in the house! Miles is one of the best kids out there, hands down. I realize he's not perfect, and won't always get every choice right, but it's hard to envision that these days. He's good to his core. 

We didn't do a friend party this year, since we don't have a lot of friends readily available since moving. But we did invite the older Fogle boys over for pizza night on Friday and Miles chose the movie. Percy Jackson I think? Staying up later with friends and popcorn is always a good idea. 

The next day was his actual birthday (Saturday), and he didn't complain one bit when we had to do chores. I thought maybe I'd excuse him from the typical labors, but he said, "Just because it's my birthday doesn't mean I don't need to work and help." And he proceeded to clean 2 bathrooms. Then Richie had arranged with neighbors to process some chickens. We have the plucker, so Jeff and Sylvia brought some of their roosters over. Miles never complained that we were slaughtering chickens on his birthday. In fact, he was the biggest helper out of everyone. 

That night, Richie and I took Miles out on a date, just the 3 of us, like it was once upon a time. We took him to JC Penny to get him some new duds. He needed new church clothes, but we decided to get him some really nice stuff, seeing as he's now a deacon and it passing the sacrament.  

Then the 3 of us went to a fancy restaurant in Nampa, called Brick 29. At least it's fancy for us. :) Miles is just at that age where ordering off kid's menus etc, is old hat and he's trying to learn how to order properly from a grown up menu. We ate delicious food, chatted, he got a special creme brule dessert on the house, and then we returned home. I think he felt special.

On Sunday he requested Sweet and Sour Chicken for dinner, and then I made him a giant smores cake. He opened a couple of presents and went to bed contented.  We sure love our Miles boy!