Birthday fun

Cam had his big birthday party today - We had a TON of fun. The theme was a Wii bowling party. The kids had a chance to play bowling on two different TVs - one in the "man cave/basement" and the other in my reading room/living room. I borrowed a second Wii from a student.

By the way -- We had 15 kids total at the house. 15. That's a lot of kids. Well, there was a little baby. If we include her we had 16. Some parents dropped the kids off, others hung out and enjoyed the fun. We are friends with really cool parents... Or my kid is friends with kids who have really cool parents. Either way, it was fun.

In the end, most kids ended up playing in the backyard - which was my main goal. I just wanted a chance to let the kids run around and have fun. The only crying: two of the kids just didn't want to go home. Other than that, there was a lot of laughing, running and dodge ball/bubble chasing.

I make a point to not accept gifts at Cam's parties - He already has SO many toys. It feels good to have a lot of fun and not require parents to bring stuff. What's really cool is how many kids brought handmade cards and drawings. I got video of Cam going through all of this cards after everyone went home. He thanked each and every kid as if it was as special as a toy. I think friendships are more important than the toy. And if you visited my house, you'd see how Cam already has everything a kid ever wanted.

Speaking of everything a kid ever wanted: Cam got an iPod Nano for his birthday. It's one that I won in a video contest. I bought a REALLY great skin to keep it from breaking from the brute force of a six year old. Check out iFrogz. I was really impressed with what we got. I also got a cool one called Audiowrapz for Jordan. I highly recommend it!

We had a really great birthday week for Mr. Cam. On his birthday, we had special birthday doughnuts and I even surprised him at school at lunchtime. He's been begging me to eat with him, so he was really excited. We took him out to dinner and he loved all of the really cool things he got from his family. Along with the iPod, he got some awesome outdoors gear to help with all of our hikes and explorations. He's feeling very special and I'm so glad to see him excited and happy.

Big party

Wow. I've always invited a few more kids to Cam's birthday party than I should -- since we rarely have every person accept the invitation. But this year -- ummm. It's going to be a packed house. We have 10 kids - including some siblings. That means I will have 12 or so kids running around the house. PLEASE PLEASE be sunny outside! Add the the parents and this is going to be a zoo.

I like zoo parties to be honest. I hope we just have fun running around. That's my favorite kind of party. But I'm starting to think that I need a second Wii so no one gets upset because they can't play.

I also have some outside bowling games. And I'm thinking of buying inexpensive balls for each kid again this year because we had SO much fun playing grown up vs. kid dodge ball.

I think this year is going to be a blast!

Holidays together

Cam and Jordan have been a lot more "together" these days. Sure, it's mostly because they're stuck with each other while we all hang out for the holidays. But they're also just playing together more. They're also fighting and arguing and bothering each other. But that's all part of being siblings. I just think it's cool to see them coming together and sharing their attention with each other. They chase, they hide, they scream, they giggle. It's fun to watch.

Right before school let out, I helped out with the holiday party at Cam's school. The teacher made it a craft-themed party. I decided to make "crafty" food. I mixed a bunch of frosting different colors so kids could decorate cookies. I also brought bagels and raisins for the non-sweets kids (those actually exist). It was fun to watch the concoctions they came up with. The kids had fun playing and eating at the same time.

Big roller day

I'm out of town but I had to mention that Cameron had a big day today. This morning he got a chance to go to a rollerskating rink for a birthday party. He's NEVER skated before and to be honest, his Dad and I figured it would be a disaster. You know, because Cam is always SO careful about his physical safety. But Randy prepped Cam by letting him know that he'll fall down and get up A LOT and that it will be super fun. Apparently that worked because Cam LOVED it. He loved it so much that he decided that he wants his own pair of skates. I'm so proud of him and I'm so glad he had a ton of fun.

I'm back home tomorrow... I'll get to sneak into Cam's room and give him a kiss while he's sleeping.

Yeah, it's silly

But we're going to have a High School Musical 2 party this Friday. How silly is that? We're kind of excited anyway. Having friends over (young and old) sounds like fun and a great way to warm up into our big school year.

The trick: Getting the house cleaned up. I have a feeling that's not really going to happen. I'm swamped preparing for another semester.

Plus, Cam is going to work with us this week and that cuts into my productive time. He starts Tae Kwon Do tonight -- he had an introductory session on Monday. He seems interested. Our goal: to help him learn self-calming skills. I hope it helps!

When Cam got back from his grandparents, he announced that he takes showers now. I had NO idea how much faster bed time can be with a shower instead of a bath. I'm almost considering getting Jordan to take showers!! SUPER fast! No one told me that!

Party guy

1. Birthday guy, 2. The crazy crowd, 3. Dodgeball sillies, 4. The cake!!

Man did we have fun at Cam's birthday party. My goal was to have fun and I think we really did it. It was cold outside and I was worried the kids would feel too cold to stay outside. So I bought board games and crayons to keep them busy inside. It turned out that it can be cold outside... But if the sun is shining, the kids will play nomatter what. I bought bouncy balls for each kid to shoot hoops in the back yard. Instead, the party turned into a battle of dodge ball: Grown ups versus the kids. It was awesome.

As the craziness was winding down, Cam walks up to me and asks if it's cake time. The party boy asks.. The party boy gets. The cake was yummy. Even the parents had fun. It was a blast. I'm so happy the kids had fun, I had fun.

Why don't I sound stressed about it? I bought a ton of food from the grocery store and I was lucky enough to have two students come by to help. They are wonderful, fantastic and so dang sweet. They actually helped shoot video! So I could savor the moment, juggle other details. Randy took pictures. It was wonderful. Thanks Matt and Nikki!

Cam had fun. He told me that his favorite part was the dodge ball and getting a Transformer. His awesome friend Camryn actually brought him back a High School Musical baseball hat and a wall hanging. It's so cool. He's wearing the hat all around the house. The wall hanging is right over his bed.

To add to the silliness, the Easter bunny arrived the next day with gifts of new Disney underwear and a Little Einsteins toy. Sugar, sugar and more sugar. Cam was begging for sugar for hours. It was kind of silly. But I figured Halloween and Easter are two days where you're allowed to go nutty with the chocolate.