The Birthday Boys

I think the twins had a fun birthday. Ian got quite a bit of his debt forgiven as his main present and Ethan picked out a present & a play station game. Both of the twins got several presents also. James said that he and I are a balance between mercy and justice, because if it were up to him he would have just gotten Ian birthday presents the same as Ethan. I told him that I would have been much more inclined to be more merciful if Ian had even tried to pay off ANY of his debt throughout the year. I even offered to pay him a dollar for every AR point that he earned, but he didn't earn any AR points. Ethan, on the other hand, worked hard to pay off his debt (which was significantly lower than Ian's). Ian owed me nearly $200 (things he had stolen, destroyed, or lost, such as library books that I had to pay for). He understood before his birthday that he needed to pay off his debt (or at least make an effort!) if he wanted to be able to pick out his present and movie/game. Apparently he decided that he'd rather have debt forgiven because he didn't try. He will have the remainder of his debt paid off for Christmas (and yes, he's getting presents too, lest you all think I'm the meanest mom in the whole world, but considering the total spent on each child Ian's will be significantly higher than everyone else's because of the amount of debt he's being forgiven). Some of the boys have helped to pay off some of Ian's debt also, which I think is wonderful but which Ian doesn't seem to appreciate or grasp the significance of it and how it is like the Atonement. He is still learning and growing. He has come a long way, even within just the past year. But he still has a long way to go. Hopefully after his debt is forgiven on Christmas he will work hard not to pile up debt again. I am impressed with Ethan because he was very nice about sharing his present & play station game with Ian.

I made books for each of the twins and also the movies that I posted on my blog, on dvds. They also received their Webelos uniform items along with their monster trucks. They had their first night of Webelos on their birthday and I got to come with them because their leader was out of town. There are 10 Webelos now and quite a rowdy bunch. Hopefully they don't make their leader retire!