Birthday bashes for 11 year olds

The Sunday before Will's actual birthday, we invited a few of his friends to meet us for an afternoon of laser tag and cake.  With a March birthday, you can't guarantee nice enough weather for outside parties so laser tag was just about our only option.  Will and a handful of boys from his class plus some friends from sports and his sister AND his cousins joined in the fun.  

A few weeks before the party, Will told me he wanted a cake from the grocery store.  Perhaps my hysterical sobbing frightened him into changing his mind.  Okay, I didn't sob but my "REALLY?  You want a grocery store cake?  Well maybe next year when you want to go to a Broncos game, you can see if the GROCERY STORE wants to take you" response helped him change his mind. He found a video online of someone cupcakes and filling them with sprinkles, which I was happy to whip up.  We didn't have many leftovers so I think it was a hit.  

Baby Boy Cousin thoroughly enjoying a sprinkle-filled cupcake.  

No one paying attention to the lady with the camera except the toddler.  

Getting ready to blow out the trick candles.  I guess I've used these too many times before because the birthday boy caught on pretty quickly.  

Cake and ice cream and 11 yr old humor.  

Yes, someone definitely liked his cupcake.  

A shot of the whole gang courtesy of the party co-host aunt. 

A rare sighting of the Bronco Baby Mom and the birthday boy together.  

Preschool cousin liked hers too!  

Another birthday party in the books.  Next up, Glenn's birthday!  I hope he picks a movie party instead. 

A letter to the birthday boy

I took this picture last month at the Louisville Slugger Museum.
He's holding a famous player's bat...I'll have to ask him which one.
He remembers stuff like that now.

Dear Will:

Yesterday you turned 10 years old.  A decade!  You've been on this planet for a decade.  Well, a decade and 38 1/2 weeks or something like that.  Your dad and I have marveled all month about the last ten years and how fast they've flown by.  its will!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Well, that's what I get for walking away from the computer for a few minutes.  We'll leave it in there for posterity.  Back to the birthday letter.

The baseball sign.  Your smile says, "is that all I'm getting?" 

For your birthday, you received a Harry Potter shirt that your sister picked out and a wand that lights up.  I found you a cool baseball sign for your wall and your grandparents sent you clothes and money from one side of the family and a case for your Kindle and a baseball glove from the other.  You got cool earphones from Aunt Vicky and Uncle Matt and Nerf stuff galore from the Nebraska relatives.  You celebrated with a bunch of friends, a sister and the baby cousins at a local arcade.  For two hours, you all ate some pizza and an ice cream cake (you didn't want me to bake!!) and played video games.  There was a lot of 'bro' and 'dude' and other tween-isms but we all survived. I even beat your dad at a marathon game of air hockey.

Why didn't I get pictures of the air hockey?!  Here are some tweens.  

And a 3-yr old.  3-yr olds can play video games too Bobo!  

Little sisters and little sisters of friend's even got in on the action. 

The highlight of your birthday?  You got your own phone.  We told you a few years ago that you couldn't have a phone until you were 10 and boy did that seem like a long way off when I told you that. Dad and I went shopping a few weeks ago and picked yours out.  We told you that it would probably be an old fashioned flip phone and we tried to keep your expectations low.  Your dad had a great idea to hid your phone in a box of cereal in the kitchen and we'd call the number when you were done opening all of your presents.  I couldn't last as long as he wanted to - the look on your face when you opened your last present was more than I could handle.  When you heard the new ringtone, your face lit up and you dove through the Cheerios looking for your present.  My next blog post will just be a list of everything you've texted me in the last 36 hours.  It'll be riveting.

A boy and his phone, a love story.

Will, you are a sweet kid.  While I was cleaning up the kitchen tonight, you and Reina were playing a game. I'm not sure of the details or the plot but your name was "Xavier."  You two have your moments but there's nobody she looks up to more than her big brother.  I hope you'll remember that.  Your cousins think you are pretty great, too.  Baby Cousin thinks you are pretty funny and Toddler Cousin wants to marry you.  No pressure there buddy.

She was delighted to wear your jacket at the wedding.  

 Will, you are less than enchanted with school at times but when you bring your report card home or when we work on math together at night, I see how sharp you are and how hard you are working.  You've already read 1,000,000 words this school year.  A million words!  That's amazing.  You just finished the sixth Harry Potter book and I've suggested a slight break before you tackle the last one. I'm not sure if you'll take that advice or not.  You and I are reading the Secret Garden together right now and while there aren't any wizards or wands in this one, you seem to like it so far.  You also read sports books and gave a report earlier in the month on Honus Wagner.  Not many other students would pick a player who's last game was almost 100 years ago.  When you aren't shooting hoops in the driveway, you are throwing a baseball up against the house in the backyard.  Soccer starts in a few weeks and baseball will overlap into the summer. It's always some season at the Pauley household.

Happy birthday big kid.  Double digits, I still can't quite wrap my mind around that.  You made me a mom a decade ago and I'm so very thankful for that.  I hope this year is a great one for you and I can't wait to see what happens.

That time we played hooky and went to the Broncos Super Bowl parade

Our house has been full of germs and overdue work projects for the last several weeks and as a result, my blogging time has been severely diminished.  There's also been a lot of football highlight shows to watch and now it's college basketball time and oh yea, kids have homework and house cleaning has to be done from time to time.  So yes, it's been a wee bit busy.  But let's back up to eight days ago when I did something I've never done before and took the kids out of school for a non-illness related reason and we headed to Denver to meet up with Pop-Pop and catch the Broncos Super Bowl parade. 

The Broncos last Super Bowl parade was in 1999. At the time I was 26, swingingly-single, no kiddos and had a boss who said "go to the parade!  You are only young once!" or something like that.  I didn't go to the parade and instead saved my vacation days for something that I don't even remember now.  So in 2016, 40-something me said "who knows when this chance will come again" and I didn't have anything on my calendar that I couldn't miss and the kids hadn't missed too many days from being sick so off we went.  

I'll spare you the gory details about how we almost ended up watching the parade from Pop-pop's living room because traffic was ridiculous and the line for the park-n-ride bus was a good 2-hours long and I started to panic and thought "WHAT HAVE I DONE TAKING THE KIDS OUT OF SCHOOL FOR THIS?"  Suffice it to say, both Pop-Pop and I said more than a few times, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We were determined to make it there and thanks to some kind strangers and their brilliant idea to find another park-n-ride that wasn't a two hour wait and their willingness to patiently explain the other park-n-ride's location to the weird lady from Wyoming, we made it to the parade.  

Even a construction site near the parade site got into the spirit.  Omaha indeed.  

I forgot the fancy zoom on my camera as the owner of Broncos, the Lombardi Trophy and the Super Bowl MVP Von Miller went by on the first firetruck.  We were about 10 people deep from the front of the parade but we could still see everything so clearly.  It was such a fun experience.  

More trophy and defensive player Demarcus Ware and #18 himself.  

Will turned to me later and said "Peyton Manning looked right at us!" 

Wide receivers Emmanual Sanders and Demaryius Thomas.  Lots of smiles.  

A bunch of rowdy defensive stars.  

The Broncos' quarterback of the future unless contract talks break down and some other team grabs him and we end up with RG3 or somebody like that.  

A float full of crazy fans including Broncos Darth Vader and whatever those two fluffy guys are called.  Kids, I won't object if I see you up there someday.  

Look at Pop-pop with that big almost 9-year old on his shoulders.  

So the parade was terrific.  After the floats went by, we had some lunch and then headed back on the bus towards our car and then home.  I'm so glad we did it - who knows when the next Super Bowl parade will be (2017!) and we'll all be able to go.  Sidenote - within a few days, three of the four of us developed bad colds, sinus infections, bronchial junk and a double ear infection but it was still WORTH IT!

Halloween's not quite over with yet

Sure, Christmas lights are popping up all over the neighborhood and Vicky and I are emailing Thanksgiving recipes back and forth, but on this blog it's still Halloween. I was entertaining Baby Cousin with pictures on my phone and realized that I didn't post the rest of the pictures from the kids' Halloween party at school.  So Happy Halloween!  Again!  

Reina and the donut game.  Will is at the end of the line next to another stormtrooper.  I discovered at this festival that Reina isn't a big fan of games that involve a competition and you can see the reluctance in her face.  I'm thinking, 'hey you get a donut!'  She liked the individual games much more and that's where we spent the rest of the carnival.  Will hung out in the Haunted House which was a classroom converted into a giant cardboard maze.  I say, 'more donuts!' 

The art room was transformed into a pumpkin carving center but instead of carving knives, the kids brandished sharpies.  Reina's pumpkin was transformed into a kitty.  Naturally.  

Little Ms. I-don't-like-competition joined in for the cake walk and won this giant platter of marshmallow treats made with some cereal that wasn't rice krispies.  Fruity pebbles? Whatever they were was delicious!  

Will won a liter of grape soda in the ring toss.  

While I was helping with their Halloween parties later that month, I found Will's self portrait on the wall outside of his classroom. I  think he nailed it.  

Fourth of July Weekend

It's Sunday night, about 9:15 and our glorious holiday weekend is coming to a close.  We all had Friday off and it's just been a really nice weekend.  We didn't have any ambitious travel plans, we don't like camping this weekend with 3/4's of the population who also have the same idea, baseball takes the holiday weekend off, so it was just us and a long list of 'maybe-we-should-work-on's...." at our disposal.  Friday was a mix of regular chores and a bunch of garden stuff.  Okay, that sentence was just as boring to type as it was to read.  Will and Glenn did go see Jurassic World (have I written about how I took Will a few weeks ago but covered his eyes during the scary parts? Glenn didn't do the same thing.)  While the boys went to the movies, Reina and I finally rented Annie - the version that came out last year.  She's been listening to the soundtrack for months so she was prepared for a sing-along.  It's almost more fun to watch HER watch movies like that.  She's all in.  

On Saturday morning, Glenn and I ran a long run to get ready for a race that we have coming up at the beginning of August.  By the time we were done with that, the dogs were exhausted but the kiddos were already whining about nothing to do.  They've been wanting to do a lemonade stand so that's what I suggested and it actually kept them busy the rest of the morning.  They made $4 before they even poured a glass of lemonade thanks to our nice neighbors.  I think the key to a successful business is to be stunningly attractive.  

The morning's total haul was about $15.00.  Not bad considering many of the products were consumed by the sellers.  Teamwork! 

Saturday afternoon we headed over to Aunt Vicky and Uncle Matt's house for what is becoming our Fourth of July tradition.  Their house is just a few blocks from the city's fireworks show so we get great seats without all the parking headaches, and the food is amazing too.  

And have I mentioned the company?  It's delightful! 

Baby Cousin is getting so big!  That's a nerf dart in her sweet little hands.  She wants to join in the big kid fun. 

A rare moment of sitting still (for Reina).

Friends and a camouflaged Reina.

 Earlier in the day, Glenn and the kids drove out to the fireworks stand and bought a bag of stuff that may or may not be legal to shoot off in town.  Our Fourth of July philosophy is to carefully straddle the line of "wow!!" and "let's not get a fine..." I can safely say that we made through it another year without anyone getting a citation but it was darn close. 

Giant pink sword that shoots out sparklers at an alarming rate?  Yes please!

There is a price to pay.

Giant gray sword ditto ditto ditto!

We're saving this one for graduation.  It's a Harry Potter style duel with Grandma.  Of course it is! 

Oh goodness.  Events that precede a trip to the ER with Dad casually watching in the background. And Mom taking the picture.  But luckily no one had to go to the ER. 

After last night's festivities, we all came home exhausted and went to sleep.  Will woke me up a few hours later with a bad stomachache and he and I were up for a couple of hours.  I think it was a combination of too much sun and too many treats and he's on the mend today.  The late night hangout did put a damper on our Sunday plans, as did an afternoon of rain, but some of us made it to church, took a quick trip to the library and got caught up on chores.  Oh and we watched soccer - jumping on the bandwagon.  It was a great weekend. 

A week later....a Star Wars birthday

This time last Friday night, Glenn and I were recovering from the trauma that is having ten seven-yr old BOYS over to your house for a two hour birthday party.  From the moment Will's friends and classmates arrived, it was pure chaos and we were in no way prepared for the level of energy in the house with that many seven yr old boy brains working together.  Truthfully, I wasn't as prepared for the party as I should've been.  Work has been pretty crazy during the last few weeks, we've had all sorts of kid activities and we've been running four different ways.  But, I planned a few activities, ordered some pizza and made lightsabers out of pretzels and candy melts. 


The partygoers paused long enough to take a bite out of their lightsabers and/or whack each other with them.

For the record, Will had invited his whole class - fourteen kids all together, plus a few other boys from school and friends.  None of his female classmates joined in the festivities and after witnessing the party for ten minutes, I completely understood why.  Even brave little Reina hung back and stayed out of the craziness. The party was during dinnertime and we started off with pizza and a big feast laid out on a Star Wars tablecloth.  The each took a bite of pizza, a swig of soda and then they were off and running.  I hadn't planned any outside activities but we quickly sent them that way even though it was a little chilly.  They ran and ran and ran and ran around the front yard.  Someone would come in crying from time to time and the parent in charge inside would patch things up.  The 'outside' parent kept kids within the confine of the yard and rescued footballs from the top of the tree.  Finally, everyone was cold enough to come back inside and they took a few more bites of pizza before it was time for cake and ice cream.  The two hour party felt like it lasted two days but the most important part was that Will had a great time.  He kicked off the next year with fun friends and a happy celebration.  And nobody ended up bleeding.  For very long. 

Weekend highlights and a blast from the past

We had another busy weekend! Do I ever start a post with the words, "It was a quiet and boring weekend at the Pauley household?" Oh well, maybe this winter. On Saturday, we crammed in the Race for the Cure (Lucy), six hours at work (Glenn), canning (Lucy and Vicky), two birthday parties (Will and Reina) and two dunks in the pond at the Children's Garden (Will). We had to leave the first birthday party slightly early because someone waded into the koi poind and was chest deep in pond water. That someone was pretty excited to drive home naked. Here's a blurry example of my first experience with canning. Vicky and I tried canning peaches for the first time with mixed results. It's fun but I still have a lot to learn. We're trying green beans and pickles later this month. Should be interesting...

I was looking at the Race for Cure website today to see if I could find race times from previous years so that I could compare this year's time (competitive much, Lucy?). I didn't find the race results but did find this picture of a familiar toddler and a familiar aunt running last year's race. Will looks bored but he had a good time talking to us. Vicky was the trooper and pushed the stroller the whole time so that I could focus on staying upright. Neither one of us attempted to push the kids in the stroller this year. Between both of them, it's about 65+ pounds of kid. No thanks!