Happy Ninth Birthday

Wesley celebrated his ninth birthday yesterday!  I thought the day was pretty low key, but I think it was just the right pace for Wesley.

I woke him up by singing "Happy Birthday" to him. "Say how old I am, Mom. Say it!" he begged. 

He enjoyed his birthday breakfast of rainbow pancakes.

I cannot bring myself to eat any of these. Logically, I know they are just regular pancakes with food coloring, but they look a bit too much like playdough for my taste

During breakfast, Ryan complained about going to school, stating that since it was Wesley's birthday they should be able to stay home.

"But I want to go to school today," Wesley insisted. "Going to school on your birthday is awesome!"

Apparently the whole class sang to him and the other boy that shares Wesley's birthday, as well the entire lunchroom singing to them during lunch.

Wesley opted to forgo a big party this year, and just invited two of his classmates, and his cousin over for a birthday backyard camp out. No big fancy dinner, or birthday cake either, Wesley wanted to cook hotdogs and 'smores over the firepit. That's my kind of birthday party!

The birthday dinner spread

Deluxe accommodations for the boys

My s'more looks like it's mad at me

Everything went really smoothly, which is easy for me to say, because Duane handled it all, while I did the grocery shopping and then went to our room to read.  Duane even slept outside in a reclining chair so he would be readily available for the kids if they needed him

They didn't need him. They went out to the tent around 10:30, but didn't actually try to go to sleep until about 1:00 in the morning. They were busy doing "night raids" in the yard. And they were up at 6:40 this morning!!!!!

We did donut kabobs for breakfast. I was both impressed and horrified by how much food the six kids (Wesley and his guests, plus Ryan and Sho) put away. 40 Timbits, a plate of bacon, strawberries and some leftover rainbow pancakes disappeared in a flash. It was like a school of piranhas!

The morning was spent playing video games and packing up to go home. Luckily, Wesley's lack of sleep crankiness didn't really hit until everyone was leaving. As I type this, he is sitting locked in his room (of his own accord), listening to his new iPod. I don't think those earbuds have come out in almost 2 hours. Between the lack of sleep and the new tunes, it's like he morphed from an 8 year old to a surly teenager overnight.   I have a feeling he'll revert back to his toddler years and take a nap later today though. 

It was the perfect celebration for him.

Bedtime Fort

This is how we have found Ryan when we go to bed the past couple of nights.

 What? You don't see him? Well, let me pull the covers aside just a bit....

And the kid actually sleeps like that! Of course, it means it's pretty easy for him to make his bed in the morning too.

Breakfast Reading

Since school started I have banned television in the morning before school. I noticed last year that the boys were more likely to be wound up and hyper if they watched tv while eating their breakfast, so I just took it out of the equation. The up side of this is that fact the boys will often do some reading before leaving for school.

The downside, is that they inevitably want to read the same book. This morning we had a big fight break out over who got to read the new Captain Underpants first. It's still better than tv, right? Right?

Ryan's Soccer Team

Ryan had his first soccer practice of the season the other night. We've had to wait a couple of weeks because Ryan's coach is in the reserves. Let me tell you, it was pure torture for Ryan to watch Wesley practice every week. He was chomping at the bit to get out there.

We know we lucked out with Wesley's team this year, but we lucked out with Ryan's just as much. Ryan has three classmates on his team, which means we have tons of parent friends on the sidelines and practice is fun for everyone.

Speaking of soccer fun for everyone, tonight was a scrimmage practice for Wesley's team. It's not a real practice and it's not required, but whoever can show up does and they scrimmage each other. Wesley's awesome coach allowed Ryan to play as long as he could keep up with the bigger kids and we "signed off" in case of any injury. Ryan did get knocked around a few times, but each time he got back up. He came to sidelines and cried for a minute or two on two separate occasions, but then he willingly went back in and continued to play hard. The assistant coach called him, "the toughest youngster in the world."

The other great thing about the scrimmage practice was the confidence it brought out in Wesley. For the past couple of years Wesley has been really good at being near the ball, but not really going after it. Tonight I saw him make contact with the ball more than I ever have before. He smiled and laughed and you could just see him becoming more comfortable. He even scored his first goal tonight!

As we were leaving the field Wesley called to the coach, "If you are doing this next week, I will so be there! Soccer is the only sport for me!" 

Like I said, we've got a great season ahead.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama.

I did not get a little teary dropping the kids off on the first day of school, only to remember that one of by BFFs is dropping her little girl off for college this week! And there's no way that realization made my drop off a bit easier.

I am not tempted to insist that my friend's daughter take a selfie on the first day of her college classes for her "first day of school" picture for her mom to post on Facebook.

I am not mildly annoyed that my mom STILL makes better chocolate chip cookies than I do! :-)

Duane did not have to tell me not to smother my friend's daughter who just moved to town to go to college and remind me that she'll call if she needs us. I couldn't be THAT excited that she's here. 

Up, Up and Away

We had a fantastic evening at a community picnic with Grandma and Grandpa P. and Aunt Paula. Ok, so it wasn't really our neighborhood and you could probably argue that we crashed the picnic, but we had such a great time!

There was a hot air balloon there giving tethered rides. I have wanted to go up in a hot air balloon for ages, so you know i got in line!

Wesley didn't want to go up, but Ryan, Duane and I took a ride

 

 

See? There's my hand and ring (and Grandma and Grandpa on the ground). Proof I went up!

 

Duane had to lift me out of the basket because I was wearing a skirt. He's a gentleman like that.

Ryan's  out

 

Here comes the big man.

Duane did a lot of assisting with the balloon - helping people in and out of the basket and adding weight so the basket would stay down. While he worked, the boys and I walked around a bit.

A friendly little toad

Ryan just HAD to touch the toad. Repeatedly.

Wesley found the courage to go up in the balloon later in the evening. He headed up with Grandma and Grandpa and wound up loving it!

Looking a little tentative

But if you look real closely here, you can see Wesley's big grin!

It was so much fun!  Duane even helped put the balloon back in the truck.

And I can finally check a hot air balloon ride off my bucket list. It counts if it was tethered, doesn't it?

When the Stars Align

Every now and then the stars align and we have a Saturday that is not full or soccer, or classes, or gatherings with friends, or really much of anything. I am usually guilty of seeing these holes in our calendar and immediately trying to fill them - with classes, or dinner guests, or something that robs of the day of it's relaxing openness and possibilities.

Today was one of those days, but I managed to keep my inner planner in check and we had a fun, spontaneous day with just our family of four.

Ryan woke me up earlier than I would have liked, but I took advantage of that time to make cinnamon rolls (from a can, don't be too impressed) for breakfast. After breakfast (around 9:00), I decided to go work in the "garden" out front of our house. I didn't do that because I wanted to, I hate working in the yard, but the front of the house was looking overgrown and a little embarrassing, so I slapped on the gardening gloves and did an hour's worth of work. Duane even joined me - but he did much more work than I did.

We came inside to find the boys behaving really well and playing nicely together, which is nothing short of a miracle, so after lunch we decided to take them on a surprise outing to Glow Putt.  I was worried it would be really crowded there with birthday parties and families trying to beat the heat, but it wasn't bad at all.

Unlike when we attempted to play putt-putt at Magic Mountain, Wesley really enjoyed himself. He listened to Duane's helpful hints and got progressively better through the course.  In fact, both boys did such a great job and were having so much fun that we decided to extend the outing a little bit and got a little frozen treat afterwards.

Again, they behaved really well at the Italian ice place, so we decided to push our luck and do something else as a family. Guess we're gluttons for punishment. We went to a shopping center we don't usually go to and braved the crowds to take the boys into the LEGO store. Oh my goodness ! They were enthralled! At one point Ryan said, "We really need to come here once every day!"  Wesley found a $250 LEGO set that he wants and that's what he's decided to save his money for  - at least that's what he's decided to save up for this week.

On our way out of the shopping center we swung into a candy store and let the kids each pick out a small bag of candy. Wesley (my purist) went for malt balls. Ryan (the daredevil) went for a combination of rock candy, candy sour bananas and something else weird. We even let them eat some of their candy in the car, which again, I don't really like them to do.

Our final stop of the spontaneous outing was at the dog shelter. We told the boys we were NOT getting a dog, but we all had fun looking. Ryan liked a dog with "neon" blue eyes.  Wesley fell in love with a little pit bull puppy that was 8 weeks old. "When we get a dog, we need to get a puppy," he explained. "That way it can grow up with cats and no how to be nice to them."  I liked a little mix puppy (10 months old) and Duane was silent on the matter. :-)

We came home to cool off from the heat and kick back for a little while, but we're getting ready to go out again. Pizza night for the W. family.  I don't know about the boys, but I love it when the stars, and attitudes, align so we can have days like this.

How Do You Spell "Tricked?"

I was reading over one of the multitudes of papers that came home from school this week and discovered that Ryan will get to experience the joy of spelling tests this year.

"Hey, Ryan," I called. "Starting next week you are going to have spelling words to learn and a test every Friday."

"What?! How come? I didn't sign up for that!"

I chucked, "It's part of being in first grade, son."

To which Ryan responded with a growl. Guess he didn't read the fine print.