An Out of this World Birthday

For Leo's 8th birthday we did a Star Wars theme. Our guy is so thoughtful and gave such care to the guest list. He selected kids that he knew would play well together and he even said that we needed to invite 4 girls because 3 girls don't get along well together. I am telling you who ever marries this young man is going to be a lucky girl. We started off the party by playing Star Wars Bingo. 

Ken then showed up with the galactic pizza and yoda soda (a mixture of sprite, limeade and lime sherbert - did you know that lime sherbert is very hard to find. I ended up using rainbow sherbert which meant our drink was orange instead of green, but the kids could have cared less).

The rain clouds started coming in, so I asked the kids if they wanted cake. We were only able to light 4 out of the 8 candles, but we still got the song in before the rain drops started to fall. 

The cake was designed by Leo himself. 

He requested a vanilla and chocolate cake so I decided to make him a checkerboard cake. It is super easy to make. I didn't have cookie cutters so I just cut a template with wax paper and cut it with a knife.  

Ken got this picture of the kids huddling under the play equipment during the brief rainstorm.

 After the sugar we needed to burn off some extra energy so we broke out the homemade Jedi light sabers. We made 18 of these out of pool noodles and duct tape. I had to keep the neighborhood kids away from these for the past 2 weeks so I knew these would be a hit. The object of the game is to protect your red cup while at the same time trying to knock off the other kid's. Once your cup drops you are out of the game. 

It turns out wacking each other with pool noodles is a complete hit with 8 year olds. 

The last two standing were siblings Leo and Midge.

As should be the birthday boy was the victorious victor.

I thought this was a sweet shot of them trying to help the littler kids.

We held the party at this great park that is shaped like a bowl. Nobody knows about this park and it makes it great because we had the whole park to ourselves. 

They decided to chase after the birthday boy in order to give him his birthday spankings.

 Unfortunately they couldn't catch him.

Leo has wonderful friends and he was blessed with many wonderful gifts. When we got home he locked himself in my room. We put up a card table and he started going through his gifts and organizing them. He turned to me and my sweet boy said, "Mom I have too many toys now!"

I think the whole gang had a wonderful time. 

Angel or Devil?

What could possibly be wrong with this sweet little boy? Look at how peacefully he is sleeping. How adorable he is. One would look at this and think there couldn't possibly be anything wrong.

 But if one was to step back a little bit further one would see that this sweet little boy

 is not actually sleeping in his bed. In reality he has climbed up to the top of his sister's bunk 

bed. He has climbed up a ladder with 2 missing rungs taken out for the sole purpose of 

deterring him from doing this very thing. Oh this boy!

All Comer's Meet

One of the most amazing things about living in our area is the fact that it is Track Town USA. Having married a runner I have inherited a love of everything track, and the fact that I am the mom of some amazing runners means that this is a big part of our world. This past week the Olympic Trials for Track were held at Hayward Field. During the middle of the trials they held an all comer's meet for the kids. I insisted that the kids get a picture in front of the double decker bus. They should just be happy I didn't make them all crowd into the red phone booth, because I definitely considered it. The weather has been pretty goofy here. Thus that is why Midge is wrapped in a blanket. That and the fact she didn't listen to mom when she said to bring a jacket. 

 There were a lot of people there but it was neat to see the track and all of the extras they 

brought in for the trials. The little kids got to do the 60 meter dash first and they had them 

grouped by age in the stands. 

 Huck ran first. He held on to Midge's hand and fell down 1/2 way, 

but he got right back up and kept running to the finish line. To be honest I think he 

wasn't quite sure what to make of the entire thing.

 Little Miss was a fire cracker. As soon as they said go she took off. She kept looking to her right and spotted the fastest runner and crossed over next to her and ran neck and neck until the last few steps she turned on the turbos and beat her. I think it comes from all those races with her older siblings. 

 Leo ran the 400 meters. It was a little hard to see my little guy all alone on the great big track. 

He was amazing and set a personal record of 1:30 and got 4th place. He was the youngest 

because he had just turned 8 and did a fantastic job. 

 Midge is in the pink T-shirt. She got 2nd place and is still learning a lot about pacing. She needed to go out faster in the first 100 meters and we think she could have easily gotten 1st since she has run times recently faster than her 1:21 time. Midge has a tendency to get very anxious before meets. She is so talented and we are trying to teach her ways to work through these panic attacks and channel her anxiety to help her in the race. Sometimes she lets her nerves get the better of her and she stresses herself out. It is a learning process and we are trying to work through it. I think that if she can stick with it and master this she will learn a life skill that will help her in the long run and other aspects in life. In the meantime she is teaching Ken and I patience and the boundaries of when we need to push her and when we need to loosen up and give her more freedom. It is a balancing act. The thing we have come to realize the most is she thrives on positive reinforcement. This might seem obvious, but it isn't always easy to give a child your love and attention when they are screaming at you because they are so nervous. As a parent you have to dismiss what they are saying or at least understand the root of where it is steaming from. From my point of view it isn't always easy because Midge becomes very dependent upon me personally to reassure her and give her 100% of my attention. This isn't always feasible when I also need to give our other 3 children reinforcement and attention. As I said before it is a balancing act, but I am proud of the kids and what they were able to accomplish that day. 

 After the meet we headed over to the Fan area. Each kid got a free T-shirt and were able to play around with some of the hands on activities.