AN's in part 1

Part 2

"I'm not officially eight until Monday," DJ explained to Gabby and Leilani. "At first my party with my school friends was gonna be this weekend, and my family party was gonna be next weekend, but then we found out the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts are having a big campout this weekend so a lot of my school friends wouldn't have been able to come. Then Mommy had the idea to change weekends and now all my friends can come." His eyes sparkled with excitement. "Can you believe I get two parties?"

"I can believe it." Gabby smiled. "You're a very good boy, an excellent big brother, you work super hard at school and you're always eager to help anyone who needs it. I'd say that's worth two parties."

DJ blushed bright red and dipped his head but his proud smile was impossible to miss.

"Uncle Chin said you helped him reorganize the records room at headquarters," Leilani said. "He told me it would have taken twice as long if you weren't there."

"I had fun!" DJ said excitedly. "It was a lot like making sure books are in the right order in the library."

The door from the kitchen slid open and a second later Angie appeared and squealed, "DJ! Grandma Ang is here!"

The young boy began to vibrate with excitement immediately. "I can't wait for her to see my new surfboard! She's gonna be so surprised it's the Cubs."

"Then you better go get her and bring her out here to see it before Uncle Chin decides he likes it better than his own and goes for a ride," Leilani chuckled.

DJ took three steps towards the house then raced back and gave both women a tight hug.

"Thanks for coming to my party!"

DJ greeted Joseph, Elizabeth and Grandma Ang in the living room with hugs and kisses. Even though he was eager for his great grandmother to see his new surfboard, he waited patiently while she said hello to all the other guests and stopped to lavish some attention on both Cammie and Pumpkin. By the time she made it to the deck he was about to come out of his skin with excitement.

After showing it proudly to the early arriving guests DJ asked his father to help him cover the new surfboard with a sheet so he could enjoy a big reveal once Grandma Ang arrived. It was fairly apparent that the shape under the sheet was a surfboard but Grandma Ang gamely indulged in a few wrong guesses including a new baseball bat, a bookshelf, and a trampoline much to DJ's delight.

When he couldn't stand it a second longer he pulled off the sheet to reveal his new Cubs surfboard.

"Oh my!" Grandma Ang's hands flew to her mouth. "Our favorite team. That's PERFECT!"

DJ hopped up and down with excitement. "I knew you'd like it!"

"Well I think that's about the best surfboard I've ever seen," Grandma Ang said. "It will definitely go faster than all the other boards."

DJ sat down beside her. "Daddy said we can go surfing later and you can see how much better I've gotten since last time you watched me. I've been practicing really hard."

She wrapped him in a hug and kissed the top of his head. "I can't wait."

"Uncle Danny was just telling Grandma and me about your special birthday dinner the other night," Joseph said as DJ approached.

"Happy birf-day, DJ!" Angie squealed from her spot on Elizabeth's lap.

DJ's eyes lit up. "It was so fun. It was just the two of us. We had …" he searched his mind for the word he was looking for. "It's like a glass and it has ice and shrimp in it." He looked at Danny. "What's it called?"

"A shrimp cocktail," Danny supplied.

"Yes! A shrimp cocktail. And the tails were still on but Uncle Danny showed me how to eat them without getting any shell in my mouth."

Joseph shared a knowing look with Danny. It was clear the experienced dad had made DJ feel very grown up. "That's a very handy skill to have."

"And then we ordered all different kinds of the things you normally get before your real dinner," DJ continued happily. "We had chicken wings, cheese sticks, chips and pineapple salsa, onion rings, french fries, and nachos."

"How did you have any room left for your real dinner?" Elizabeth asked with a smile.

"We didn't." DJ giggled conspiratorially. "That was our whole dinner. Then we had ice cream for dessert."

Angie threw her arms in the air. "We having ouse cream wif da cake today!"

Elizabeth smiled. "It sounds like you boys had a lot of fun."

"We did." DJ beamed. "And Mommy said it was ok we didn't eat anything healthy 'cause it was a special occasion. Can we do the same thing next year, Uncle Danny?" he asked hopefully.

"You betcha." Danny smiled.

"There's a big wedding at the resort today so Jenna, Grace, and Kendra are all working. Cody, Jess, and Jadon got tickets to take the younger kids to a weekend long festival on the big island. So all of them will be coming to next weekend's party," Catherine explained as she finished piling DJ's gifts in the middle of the deck in preparation for opening. "Plus, since Kamekona is catering next weekend he and Esther are just coming to that one too."

Elizabeth smiled as she added another present to the pile. "It looks like you have everything meticulously planned out as always."

"Like a well-oiled machine." Steve kissed his wife's cheek. "As always."

Catherine smiled softly. "I'm happy we have so many friends and family that want to celebrate with, DJ."

Steve looked at his wife and as always knew immediately what she was thinking. That it was hard to remember what life was like without DJ as part of the family.

He dropped an arm across her shoulders. "We're very lucky."

DJ's eyes widened as he opened Kono's present. He lifted a jar out of the box and looked at it with awe. "This is the same kind of special wax you use on your surfboard," he said.

"That's right. My auntie makes it and it's a secret family recipe."

"Wow. Thank you." DJ had watched Kono wax her surfboard many times and was always enthralled by the special blue jar of wax she used. "This will really help me take care of my new board."

Kono smiled at his obvious happiness. "There's another box," she said.

He lifted the lid and gasped. "A new surf bag." He pulled the bag out and held it up. "Just like yours!"

"That's right," Kono said. "You're gonna need that for when you come surfing with me someplace other than your own backyard."

"Really?!" DJ looked hopefully at his parents. "Can I go, please? I'll be good and listen to Aunt Kono. I promise."

"Of course you can go," Steve said which caused DJ to clap with excitement and Angie to follow suit even though she had no idea what she was clapping about.

"Our present kind of goes along with Kono's," Chin said as he pointed to Leilani then handed DJ a smaller box. "We hope you like it."

DJ opened the box and pulled out three tickets. Before he even attempted to read what was written on them the colorful picture of a large wave gave him a hint.

"We got tickets for the National Surf Championships next month," Chin said. "I know how you love watching the super big wave videos, I figured you might want to get a look at them close up."

"I do!" DJ could hardly contain his excitement. He crossed the deck and hugged Chin, Leilani and Kono in turn. "Thank you!"

"You are more than welcome," Kono said.

That night as he lay in bed drifting to sleep after several stories, DJ smiled as his eyes fluttered open. He had gotten an idea and threw back his covers and began to pad down the hall on tiptoe so as not to wake his sister.

After tapping softly on the partially closed door, he saw his mother's smiling face when it opened all the way.

"Hey, sweetheart, do you need something?" DJ rarely got up after bedtime anymore.

"I had an idea and I wanted to ask you about something before I went to sleep."

Catherine moved to the bed and sat, patting the mattress and he hopped up. Looking between her and Steve, who was sitting against the headboard, he said, "I love my surfboard. My present is awesome and I was so happy I got to talk to our California family and our New Jersey family today. It was so fun and I can't believe I get to have another party next weekend. But I was thinking..."

"What, buddy?" Steve asked.

"You know how we pass on our clothes that don't fit and stuff? Could we do that with my old surfboard? I saw some guys dropping boards off at the SurfRider program when me and Jacob were there that time over Christmas helping Auntie Kono and Casey."

Steve and Catherine beamed and she wrapped DJ into a hug. "That is a great idea, my generous boy. Daddy and I are very proud of you."

"We can do it?"

"I'll ask Auntie Kono first thing tomorrow when we can drop it off and you can come with me, how's that sound?" Steve said.

DJ nodded happily. "That sounds really awesome. Thanks, Daddy."

Steve slid off the bed and offered a hand. "Then that's what we'll do. Now how about you get some sleep. You've had a big day. Donating your old surfboard is a great idea, buddy. Like Mommy said, we're proud you thought of it."

As he walked down the hall to his room, where he'd snuggle into his comfy bed with his special new sheets, the brand new almost eight year old squeezed his dad's hand and smiled.

# End. Thanks for reading!

Find all our stories (in chronological order!) on our website: marirealmcroll dot wixsite dot com backslash real-mcroll

Or in the McRoll in the REAL World community here on fanfiction dot net Find us on Tumblr: mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com

You can join our mailing list by emailing us realmcroll at yahoo dot com with: Add me, please! in the subject line. Or just drop us a line to say hi! We love hearing from our readers.

And find me on Twitter asking your opinions on all things McRoll in the REAL World! at Mari21763 and add #REALMcRoller