This weekend we officially celebrated Carter’s 8th birthday with a party at a bounce place in town. I tell you, those places have it down to a science, and it was exactly what Carter had wanted. He loves bouncers almost more than anything—except Lego Star Wars, which was the theme. ;)
I am so happy he enjoyed his party as much as he did. :) It also was a special treat that his Grandma & Gramps, plus his Aunt & Uncle, and cousins were there to celebrate.
The weather is warming, the final school bell’s rung, and it feels like summer. Our school has a half-day for last day, and the kids asked to host a little pool party to celebrate and enjoy the long afternoon shifting into summertime habits. This means late nights and calm mornings, lazy afternoons on the beach, wild boardwalk rides, countless hours swimming, cook outs with friends, leafy garden salads, homemade iced tea with lime and ice cold popsicles for the kids. To ensure I was able to monitor the action, we kept it manageable, with only a few 5-7 year olds and a few more 10-11 year olds, and it was amazing to see kids of such a wide age range playing so happily. Later that day some of us grown ups got in the spa and enjoyed BBQ ribs under the lights. Unfortunately I missed the photo of the magnum champagne geyser… too busy grabbing towels. Happy Summer!
cheated a little this time—made Heidi pretend to get more food because Baby L ogling
the plate and her noises were so funny to me
{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Inspired by SouleMama.
Carter’s SIXTH birthday fell on a Sunday this year, and, since it’s the last time for years he’ll have the chance to have a party on his birthday, we went ahead and had the Sunday party. I spent the afternoon before hunting and gathering all the supplies and said I’d like to go to bed that day with the living room ready for the party so the next morning would be easy. Ha. I like to say things like that just to make myself laugh, because there is something in my genetics that prevents me from being really ready for anything more than at the last moment.
Soooo, the morning of the party, there I was, baking the cake, which I meant to do that morning because one of the best things about homemade cake is that it’s fresh. Thankfully, at 8:30—2 hours before I expected it—the bouncy house guy came to drop off the jumper. Instantly the kids had something to do other than ask me how long until the party or ask to eat candy from, the pinata. Yay!
Carter wanted his theme for his birthday to be… birthday. I floated Angry Birds or Star Wars (I really wanted to make an Angry Birds cake!), but nope, birthday. :)
Ready or not in the morning, by midday we were all in party mode, and ready to go. For small kids’ parties, I think 2 hours is PLENTY of time to have them running amok, so the party pretty much consisted of playing all over the place—bouncing a lot, but also making trains in the boys’ room, taking out whatever toys they wanted, and eating pizza and cake, then whacking a pinata.
Build up their appetites.
Fill ‘em with cheese and sugar.
Let ‘em whack things. Give ‘em more sugar to take home, plus some items Carter decided his friends all truly needed, like whoopie cushions and glow sticks.
Then send ‘em packing. That’s how I roll. I’m sure the sugar rush and whoopie cushions were endless fun for both guests and parents all. day. long. :)
I also think there is some kid circle of hell that involves being forced to pretend to care one iota about the gift opening part of a birthday—for anyone that is not the birthday kid, that is. I mean, really, how awful is that? Even at Bun’s parties we’ve thus far put off opening anything until after the party. Then the child is not forced to tear through the presents at some crazy speed, barely able to register what they received, much less play with it for a moment before they must open the next one. So, we do it at a slower pace. Carter opened a couple of presents right after the majority of the guests left, and played with them for most of the afternoon.
For months he’d been aching for the Shark Ship (if you have kids who watch TV beyond the no-commercial channels, you have seen this advertised heavily in the preholiday push). He was so happy to take her for a spin… and let that shark munch away on all the ‘guys’ in the boat, which is also pretty cool, since it can be made into more than 2 dozen different configurations. He pretty much opened this, and the Squid Sub, and that was all he wanted to play with all afternoon. In the hot tub, of course.
These poor sailors pretty much exist to be eaten, extracted from the shark’s belly, and then eaten again. It’s a rough life, being on the seas.
Fact: sound effects are KEY.
I hope Carter remembers his 6th birthday as a special, fun day. No party can come close to bringing anyone the joy having him in our family has brought to us, of course. ♥
I love the idea of the highly organized, theme meal. One day I hope I’ll be organized enough to do a back to school celebration for the kids, remember to plan for Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day… all those things that seem just out of my grasp so far.
However, I decided, as the first of October began to loom, that I wanted to celebrate... something or another. I love the summer, but I also love fall for different reasons. The light changes, but in a way I really like. Some of the more florid colors fade away, but others come right in to replace it. Typically it’s not rained enough—or at all—to make the hills turn green, but the leaves turn yellow and red in response to shorter days. I don’t love the darkest winter, but I love the turn of fall.
It seemed right to say goodbye to summer and hello to autumn as the world struggles to decide whether it’s time to change over once and for all.
Goodbye, Hello Menu
Cannellini and Kale Soup
Tomato Pie
Roasted Corn Salad
Creamy Scalloped Potatoes
Roasted Marinated Filet
Caramel Sundaes*
Sangria
Cider & Oktoberfest Beer
*these were going to be Caramel Apple Sundaes, but by dessert time I just didn’t feel like hollowing apples. They’d have been so cute, though, like the classic fall treat, but with ice cream. Oh well, maybe another day soon…
I was too me to remember to take photos of all the yummy food, but I did remember a few.
I know it sounds weird, but try the Tomato Pie. I adapted my recipe a little, making it single crust, using mozzarella and cheddar, and adding one egg yolk because I worried about it setting with the juicy tomatoes. It was so good I ate it for breakfast the past two mornings. Trust me, if you like tomatoes, this is something else!
We pulled out out little bounce house for hyper kids, and enjoyed an outside fire afterwards. Welcome, fall. I like you just fine.
We had a fun, low key, relaxing Forth… the whole weekend, really. It was pretty hot, which meant either sitting in the shade or splashing in water. Mostly the water was in our yard, but on Monday we went probably a whole 5 miles to visit with friends and sit in their shade and splash in their water.
This photo of Bun cracks me up. She stayed in the water from 2-11.
She even ate in the pool.
Cole changed into his swim suit 4-5 times that afternoon, but during breaks from the pool he enjoyed the most fun place to sit and watch TV ever. This ball pit is great, especially in someone else’s house. I’d have balls spread the four winds if I tried to have something like that because I don’t like futile acts like putting away the same toys over and over, and I forget that they even should be put away. The easels at preschool are the same – I like them being THERE. Plus, how boring would it be to go to other places and have all the same stuff you already were tired of at home?
We stayed in the water until well after dark, and were “treated” to some fireworks courtesy of neighbors who’re total pyros. People shoot off illegal fireworks all over the place here, which makes one wonder why municipalities don’t just have shows like they do where I grew up. Seriously, which is more dangerous and causes more expense in the way of police having to go through the motions of finger wagging and patrolling to figure out where that bigass firework 75 feet in the air came from… or that one… or the other 5000. Stupid! The cops don’t even seem that into it when they do catch a cul de sac in the act of putting on a DIY show. “You can’t do that… I have to tell you that.”
Ah well, it was very convenient to just look up out of the pool and see pretty colors in the sky. :)
Saturday comes early for most moms. A Saturday that is a child’s 5th birthday, wherein you’re hosting a party at home comes darn early. The day before Carter had fallen asleep at an odd, unexpected time, and had one of those naps… the funky kind when you wake at dusk and are completely disoriented, unsure if it’s the next morning or not. He work and walked over to me rubbing his eyes, saying, “Is it my birthday now?!?” I felt so bad when I had to answer that it was still the day before.
The next morning when it was his big day, Carter was up earlier than usual, just in time for a healthy breakfast of cake batter.
When it’s your FIFTH birthday, or any birthday, there is no such thing as too early to lick cake batter off the beater.
Even though to party was not scheduled until noon, I ordered the bounce house to arrive nice and early. Hey, you get it all day for the same price and it’s special! Plus, it kept the kids out of my hair while I tidied up and finished making the cake/cupcakes. Win-win!
Carter and his brother and sister spent the better part of 8 hours bouncing and sliding. Seriously, they barely even took breaks to eat or go to the bathroom.
I thought this was a funny moment at the party – four boys all playing with the Barbie house Bunny kindly brought out for some girls to play with.
Carter had a specific request for his cake this year: chocolate with chocolate chips, chocolate frosting, and M&Ms—plus a “5” candle. Done, done, done, done, & done.
It was really yummy for chocoholics. Though Carter insisted, “If you don’t like chocolate, don’t eat my cake,” I also made vanilla cupcakes with Halloween funfetti frosting. :)
Then it was time for Carter’s 3rd wish (bounce house, cake being numbers 1 & 2): pinata!
Whack!
Whack! Whack! Whack!
WHACK!!! (Good thing I made Bunny wait until all the other kids had their chance at bat because she nailed it and sent the candy flying!)
We waited until most of the guests went home, then Carter tore into the presents…
…often with some helping hands.
Then, it was back out to the bouncy to burn off cake and candy.
The kids had to be shooed out of the bounce house when the driver came to pick it up at about 5:30, a full 8 hours after it arrived.
I hope Carter enjoyed his birthday and felt like a star that day. We love him so much.
