John & Gill Went Up a Hill: laser tag

today was my nephew justin's 9th birthday. he had a party at the local ice skating rink, that also has laser tag. johnny loves justin. he is like a big brother to john. needless to say, john was very excited about justin's party.

kyle and i decided to run some errands before the party, so we left the house 3 hours before the party started. big mistake. every time we stopped at a store we heard, "is this where justin's party is?" and all john wanted to do was to hold his gift. we would get to a store and he would say, "but i don't want to leave his gift." we were finally done with our errands and on our way to the ice rink when john says "mommy, why is justin a different color than me?" on a side note, justin's mom is from peru and justin's skin tone is a little bit darker than johnny's. i asked daddy if he heard what johnny said. and we had him repeat his question. he repeated it and said, "his skin is darker than mine." we explained to him that justin's mommy has darker skin than his mommy and that's why justin's skin is darker. john replied "but i want to be the same as justin." we explained to him that the color of your skin doesn't make anyone different. i hope it registered. i just can't believe we had this conversation with him today. he is only 4.

john & justin at the turtle back zoo

after our heavy conversation, we headed to the ice rink for justin's party. john was a little shy at first, because all the other kids were much bigger than him. after we ate some pizza, we headed downstairs for laser tag. we got all the big kids set up with their laser tag gear (and some of the parents too). we finally convince john to try it out. he was super excited.

ready to kick some butt!

he went out with daddy at first. he was a little leery and went a little slow. but after awhile, he was running around and shooting people. next he went with aunt betty, but they both had to have green vests. i joined them shortly after that. as i was walking around trying to find my little man i heard behind me "i think that was my mommy." and then i got shot! he giggled. he had so much fun and so did all the other kids (of all sizes).