Day 437 - Birthday follow-up (Picture blog)

     As mentioned in the last blog post I finally have an update about Evan's birthday.  On Thursday Evan, Nolan, Cristy and myself celebrated at the house.  We opened gifts, had ice cream and then ate dinner at Evan's favorite restaurant (Del Taco).  The gift that I hoped he would enjoy was his laser tag set.  For starters it's just fun to play, but I also thought it might help with leg strength and stamina playing something he enjoys.

Wolfing down some tacos.

His own laser tag set.

     Yesterday my family had the pleasure of hosting many of Evan and Nolan's friends at Andretti's Speedway.  We were a bit unsure what to expect because leading up to the party the communication between the event coordinator at Andretti's and Cristy had been spotty at best.  Once we arrived things seemed to fall into place.  I feel like they did a good job of helping keep things moving and overall I was happy with how it all turned out.

     From the moment we walked in the door, until we left, the kids had their dials turned to 11.  This was my second time celebrating a child's birthday party at Andretti's and I've come to the conclusion that this place is kid catnip.  I lost count of the number of laps the kids spent sprinting around the party room.  I wasn't complaining though, anything to wear them down a bit.

     We want to say THANK YOU to everyone who was able to come out and help make the day special for both boys.  I hope all the kids left a little fuller and a little more tired.  I spent the majority of the day chasing Nolan around the arcade and that alone was probably worth a few thousand steps on my FitBit.  Evan told me his favorite part of the day was redeeming his tickets for a Pikachu doll.

     Evan's health is fairly stable at the moment.  PT is on-going and we're planning on pulling the Vori in a couple weeks.  His lips have several large splits in them because of some of the drugs he's on.  Traditional lip remedies, like Chapstick, are frowned upon because they have ingredients that trap germs.  We have a balm prescribed by the doctors, but it's not very effective.  With fall coming we'll need to get creative on better ways to prevent this from happening.

Nolan the unicorn.

     Wrapping up with some more photos from the past few days.  Thanks again to all the children and families for their friendship and making the day so special.  I sincerely hope everyone enjoyed themselves as much as we did.