Birthdays- it's a Wrap (mostly)!

Well, we survived the July celebrations!  Kaden had a blast on his big day.  We had out of town company, 2 sets, one family and one-like-family, visit that week, so it made for quite a big party!  My exhaustion and lack of planning kept things pretty simple.

I just noticed the baby in the pic above, checking out the ice cream :)  Also note the great cake. The funny thing is that Kaden told JimDad and I that he didn't want any cake, just a 'big ice cream sundae in a fancy cup'.   Then when Grandma asked him, did he want her to make him a cake?  He said, "yes please" and went on to describe it...

Also, the red marks on his cheek/arm aren't wounds- just flash tattoos.

Here's some pics of our visiting friends.  Only two photos, but they capture the crazy fun pretty well, I think.

There's no photos from Jim's fortieth day, but I think it was pretty good.  He and I got out in the am for a nice walk through the woods at a local park, then a VBS program, lunch with the parentals, and he headed off to golf.  Kaden and I had a lot of small surprises for him, but no big gift.

We're not really in a position to celebrate properly, so instead we hatched a great plan:  40-2-40 !

We've got about 15 months until I turn forty, so Jim and I decided to stretch out both our celebrations in the year between.  We're coming up with 40 different ways to celebrate, big and small.  Almost like a mid-life bucket list.  If we're lucky, we'll come up with the cash to do some of them (white water rafting!) and if not, we'll still have some creative things to remember (state park trips!).  

Birthday Blues

July is a busy place around here.  We've made it through America's bday, and Nana's bday - though it probably wasn't the best day she had, since we were on the road for 11 hours and 2 people were sick.  Next up- the boys (bdays, not sickness).

The entire 23 person crew!

Kaden has been trying to claim his birthday since the day after Nana's.  We keep putting him off, and then this week I realized his actual day is next week- and I had nothing.  Nothing.  Well, besides a full ideas board on Pinterest, but we know how often that translates to reality (I think the precise ratio is 78 pin ideas = 1 real life activity).  Then tonight, I realized we have 6 days, or maybe 5 depending on when we celebrate, but I work 3 of those days, and family's coming into town, and... well.  It was time to plan over dinner.

Kaden working up the courage to jump!

And what does the boy have his heart on?  A pinata.  Like last year.  Last year, dear friends, I planned ahead by about 2 months, and Uncle Steve spent *weeks* creating two themed pinatas.  (And after a quick search, I realized that I never posted about EITHER of his birthday parties last year.  Sigh. Luckily, Google keeps my photos accessible!

First, take a look at "The Black Bamboo."  Steve looked up plans for a model of the ship Black Pearl from the newer Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  Then, using his CAD skillz, tweaked the scale and print out actual blueprints... then with his fiance, constructed this beauty out of cardboard and bamboo and sisal.

And mailed it to us in FL, where we had a fun filled Pirate Party, that included a treasure hunt where kids found their goodie bags, a 'walk the plank' game that involved water guns, an amazingly cute Publix cake, and the pinata of course!  It was so fun, for the kids and the parents and the teens who came to help!

Then we traveled to PA, for a superhero party. It involved homemade costumes, and pin-the-mask-on-the-superhero, and a SECOND pinata that Uncle Steve made and mailed to PA.

So at dinner tonite, when I told Kaden that this year's party would be more low key, he asked if he could please just have a pinata.  "I think I can do that, buddy, but it won't be as good as Uncle Steve's."  He was okay with that... "but you can make it a Robin superhero pinata, right"  Um, no.

Part  of the issue is that he has requested a "lego batman and robin" party- but the lego b&r stuff is super expensive.  ALSO not very popular, like Superman (on clearance at Target!).  Off to Pinterest I went. There are a lot of cool examples, but I have two problems... 1) no time and 2) I don't want to encourage kids to bash in a cute head like this:



or to beat up on a superhero, like this:

 .  And then there was a nifty TNT version, but I don't want to glorify bombs, either!  I know, I'm making this too complicated.  Yes, I know Target sells Pinatas for $12 or so.  But that *almost* feels like cheating to me.  But if you see me in the store the night before the party, you'll know.

In the meantime, JimDad turns 40 at the end of this month, and I got no ideas for that either.  Birthday blues, indeed.

the things this kid says

After church this weekend, we were telling Kaden he wasn't really behaving well the entire service, and he had to work on that.  He said "I don't want to be quiet or still"  So Nana says, should we call up Fr Stan so you could talk to him about it?  And Kaden says, "Well, if you take me back to Florida, I'll behave at church!"   

***
Another time at church, he waved at a cross from a distance, during the processional at the end of mass.  Stop waving, I said.  
"I'm really praying, " he said, "because inside the cross is heaven, and Uncle Steve is in heaven, so I'm saying hi to Uncle Steve and it's praying."

***
One day, Kaden and Nana were talking, and Kaden said something about Nana living with him when he was a lot older.  Nana said, well I might not be here.  Kaden:  You mean because you'll be dead?
Nana: Well, yes.  Hopefully not soon, but someday, and we don't know when.  Kaden:  Well, that's okay too, because then you'll be in heaven, and so you'll live in our hearts with us.


***
Kaden, one morning:  Hey Dad, you better comb your hair better.  Today you're getting married!
Jimdad:  really?  to who?
Kaden:  Mom.  So you better look nice.

***
me:  why are you opening the truck window?
Kaden:  Well, you never heard a lightening bug before, right?  So you're going to hear one tonight.  Pay attention, though, they're fast.

***
One time, we were "practicing" accents and I tried out a wee burr.  Kaden yells out, "OH MY! Now we're talking SCOTTAMISH"

***
Me:  Kaden, will you come out here when you're done crying please?
Kaden:  I'll NEVER be done crying!

***
We were wondering aloud how a family down in FL was- and the teen girl was Kaden's babysitter.  He says, "Oh yeah, her and Ken."  No, her brother is Wills.  "I know Wills, but I'm not talking about her brother.  I'm talking about her friend."  Her boyfriend? His name isn't Ken.  "I know that, but he looks like a Ken doll, so I call him Ken."

***
Kade:  When can I go to Disney again?
Me:  Maybe when you're 16.
Kade:  I don't want to WORK there, I want to go PLAY there!!

He's quotable, even when he doesn't mean to be!

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's 1,000 Superheros!

This past weekend, we had one of our most fun days ever.  Well, the boys did!  I would certainly prefer a later wake up time, but that's race life I suppose.

There was a Superhero 5K and Kids Fun Run, about 40 minutes away.  Kaden was all in.

We didn't pre-register (I have a lot of ideas but rarely commit in advance!).  So we showed up by 7:30 am- and then had two hours between registering and race start.  Thankfully, there was a good bit to do!

Kaden had fun trying his spidey-strength out.  And of course, we were checking out everyone's outfits. There was no official count, but we saw ONE adult Robin (guy), two adult "Robin Girls", and one wee Robin.  Yes, we were counting.

 Every single Robin came with a Batman.  The life of a sidekick, I suppose.  In the photo above, check out their socks- with capes!

Our guy started running around as soon as he got his number- and cape.  That's right, part of the kid racer's goodie bag was an actual cape.  Genius.

Above, you can see a bit of the outfits.  Most involved t shirts.  Some involved masks.  Some were full blown costumes (The Incredibles with muscles, for instance).

There was also this huge inflatable obstacle course.  Kaden was begging to go on, even though I wasn't sure he was big/old enough.  I finally let him, though- and WHAM- he flew through it.  I'm not sure, in the pic above, if he can even see through his mask.  But below, look at Spidey climb!

Usually, he was racing against a bigger kid, who would finish and run off before he came down the slide.  But since he didn't see it, he claimed victory every time.

Below, he's getting warmed up.  By posing, not stretching.  Apparently, that's how superheroes roll.

Have you seen anything cuter than this?  The youngest boy division lining up for their race.  It was 40 yards, I think.  Notice - Kaden is standing next to Robin.

Unfortunately, when they took off, I failed to get a good photo.  Between all that red and blue, and actually cheering, I only have photos of the sky or other people's kids!  He did really well- and earned another race ribbon.

On the way home, we passed an Amish buggy.  I still get a kick out of seeing them.  (But visiting Chocolate World is wearing thin!)

We headed home and took a much deserved nap- then headed up to 'the cousins' for a pig roast. Never mind that his grandparents and aunts and uncles live up there too- it's always referred to as 'the cousins'. Kaden had a blast.  Swimming in Uncle Dave's pool...

Roasting marshmallows on the fire...

He didn't actually eat though, until we started to leave around 8:30 pm.  Then he claimed he was hungry, so we grabbed some fruit and a quick pork sandwich.  Made him happy enough to fall asleep on the way home, but not before seeing the moon rise over the river.

Good days, my friends.  Tiring, but good.