The Main Event

My biggest boy is 8-years-old.  How did that happen?  How is it that through his first year of life I felt like I was constantly holding my breath and then all of a sudden he's 8?! 

He came bounding into our room at 7am Saturday morning ready to great the world in his 8-year-old style.  We were less thrilled as we had been up in the night with each of our 4 kids at least once that night.  Pukes from Logan, diarrhea from Seth and bathroom breaks from both Lucy and Max (which usually don't require adult supervision but when other kids are up with pukes and diarrhea it's wise to check on all bathroom happenings in the night.  

We said a groggy Happy Birthday and then excused him from the room.  

He spent most of the day with his dad running errands (stuff dad had to get ready for his trip to Toronto the next day) and visiting Great Grandma where he got $8 in coins for his birthday - which he has since spent on Pokemon cards and sticky frogs.  

The rest of us stayed home to get things ready for his birthday party that evening and to get better...hopefully.  

Max had decided he wanted to play games in the gym at the church for his birthday and have pizza...so I decided we should make it an Olympics theme.  

We started with each kid choosing their country and making a flag

We ended up with 4 Japan's (I think because the flag is so easy - but Lucy was disappointed because she wanted to be Japan and wear a kimono , and have chop sticks in her hair...), Mexico , Canada, USA, Australia, and Malta.  

Next we had the parade of athletes for our Opening Ceremonies, led by the host country (Mexico).  It even included a torch.  

Then it was time for the games:

Long jump

Javelin

Discuss (frisbee toss), and a cross- country ski relay race:

Which ended in a tie between Lucy and Millie.

We then awarded medals for each event.  

Gold - Twix bar

Silver - York Peppermint Patties and

Bronze - Reese peanut butter cups

Everybody got one of each medal...but I think they were all excited about the bronze!  

Then it was time for pizza and powerade in the Olympics Village.  

Dodgeball, presents, and cupcakes:

Max got two Lego sets, Jenga, a toys r us gift card, an adventure book (made by Lucy), and scriptures and Book of Mormon posters from Mom and Dad.  He carried his scriptures around for a while, which I was pretty pleased about .  

He also go not his scriptures out first thing Sunday morning and took them to school Monday and Tuesday to use for independent reading time .  

I can't tell you how thrilling it is that he has absolutely no issue with taking scriptures to school and reading them .  I love that kid.  

I can't wait until his baptism next Friday.  It's going to be awesome.  He's getting baptized along with two other kids from primary.  He's been excited for this day since Lucy was baptized and has asked his cousin Cy to baptize him.  Can't wait to write about that one.  

In the meantime, I will say this about Max:

He's epic.  He has boundless energy, loves to play, and is pretty much good at everything.  But gets super frustrated when he isn't perfect at something on the first try.  He loves climbing and jumping and dancing but hates being the center of attention.  I have to get special permission (and pretty much have to beg) to take his picture and share it with anyone.  He loves reading and loves setting goals so he can break them.  Progress reports and charts work really well with him because he loves blowing expectations out of the water.  He's shy, but super friendly.  He's a great helper and always runs to do me or dad a favor but if you tell him it's a chore he hates it.  So it's all in the power of wording.  He loves spaghetti and cucumber and tacos.  He is pretty much setting up permanent residence in the beef camp and could avoid chicken for the rest of his days ... Unless it's moms crispy chicken - which I take great pride in making for him...

He hates trying new foods.  He loves to tease and is obsessed with slapping people in the butt - as far as I know he limits that to his immediate family!  And he is over the moon in love with Seth and loves to make him smile.  

He's a pretty awesome kid.  He doesn't talk a lot about friends or school, but every once in a while something exciting comes bursting out and he gets super excited.  I was glad a few school friends came to his party because I was honestly unsure if he had any.  

I love that boy.  We forged our friendship in fire...and it's there to stay.  He's my sweet, sensitive, happy kid.  Who makes us crazy!  

Oh, and as far as an Olympic Themed bday party for an 8-year-old boy goes?  He loved it, but I think the thrill was mostly in having a party...I probably could have saved myself the headache and time on all the extra pizzazz I added.  Boys.  Their favorite part of the party was dodgeball .  Go figure .