Here I am, writing this post on Saturday night again. I'm not sure I'm ever going to get this done on Friday again. This week was just really busy. I feel like I ran from one thing to another all day every day, and really haven't had any "down" time to speak of. So I feel pretty tired. I hope this coming week isn't quite so hectic. (Not much chance of that, though.)
Sunday after I got back from choir practice Erin and her friend Dan came by for dinner. We enjoyed visiting with them. They were on their way back to a house in Deep Creek that a bunch of YSAs rented for Memorial Day weekend--they had gone back down to Virginia that morning because Dan had to give a talk at church.
For our Memorial Day, we were invited to another ward members' house for a cook out and for "Monday Home Evening" (They are new members and still learning all of the unique terms we use in the church. I thought that was cute!) They invited several families from the ward so there was quite a crowd but it was fun and there was lots of food. (The missionaries and some neighbors were there too.) We made strawberry banana ice cream and chocolate chip cookie bars for our contributions; both turned out really delicious. We got lots of compliments on the ice cream. The day was busy getting the ice cream made, doing laundry, and other household chores. Frank and I went to five different stores looking for rock salt and finally had to give up and use regular salt instead (it still worked). I guess no one makes home made ice cream anymore?! Most places said they stock rock salt in the winter for putting on roads, but they don't stock it in the summer. I finished reading Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker in between everything else. After we got back home, I did a few things to get ready for Seth's birthday party and after he went to sleep, I wrapped his presents. Tanner was working frantically all day on a school project that he procrastinated too long. Jared & Frank actually went out to the cook out earlier to help cook but I stayed home with Tanner (and Seth) so that Tanner could work on his project some more. We also came home a little earlier for the same reason. He didn't get it completely done, even then, but hopefully he got enough done to get a decent grade on it.
Frank drove kids to Seminary on both Tuesday and Thursday because the mom that normally picks up our kids (and several others) was in Ireland all week. That meant he didn't go in to work quite as early as usual those two days, so he was still home Tuesday when Seth woke up. We told him earlier that he could open one present that morning so he did that--he also opened cards from us and from Scott. Here's pictures:
(He got a Cat Woman playset to go with all his Batman toys)
That morning I went into the school to watch him "walk around the sun"--a Montessori birthday tradition:
(The flashlight is the "sun"; the strips of paper on the floor have the names of the months of the year. Seth carries the "earth". He starts by the May strip and walks around one time for each year of his life to show that the earth has gone around the sun six times since the day he was born.)
He also got to bring in 3 special things to show and talk about--in the picture below he is showing his class mates his favorite book--Wild About Books:
They also looked at a time line we've made of his life which has a picture for each year. I almost forgot about it this year and had to quickly pick a picture the night before and print it up here at home to add to the timeline! Later in the day, at snack time, they had the special treats we brought in. This year we brought in rice krispie treats. I was super lame this year and I even bought those! But it's a good thing because I really didn't have time to make anything homemade this week (besides the ice cream).
After I left his school, I got a few necessary chores done at home and then I went to help pack a few boxes for a sister in our ward who had to move this week. She had an offer on her house but wasn't sure until the last minute if it was really going to go through so it was hard for her to plan. At that point, she still wasn't sure it was going to go through but she'd decided she'd better start packing in case it did. Another sister and I packed up a lot of stuff in her son's room but I couldn't stay long because I had a few little things to do for Seth's party and I needed to shower still too. The party was right after school and we picked up a few of his class mates to take to the party with us.
I have to say that I enjoyed the lack of work I had to do for this party! When we got there, they had everything ready for us, including this cool bin for all the presents:
Seth got to pick out a ball and he and his friends played with it while we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive:
(Seth with friends Shade and Ryan)
Then they all watched a safety video and then we got to go into the first arena to play. It was nice because there was no one else there except for us and our party guests. The kids had a blast climbing, jumping, sliding, and going through the obstacle course:
They also liked playing on the play equipment that was there for little kids:
(Seth with friend Krish)
As the birthday child, Seth got to go into this thing called the cyclone--it mostly just blew air, but as you can see he enjoyed it.
The air hockey table was a big hit with all the kids too. These are Seth's friends Luke, Eliza, Henry, and Javy (Jared & Tanner visible in the background).
Seth on the obstacle course
Me trying out the obstacle course
After about 40 minutes, we moved to the next arena which had an even bigger slide and a place to play basketball:
Jared enjoyed slam dunking!
We all tried out the big slide:
As the birthday Mom, I got a free 3 minute massage in the massage chair. It was quite nice!
Now I'm on the big slide
And Seth tried it too.
Tanner and Seth have worn themselves out!
All the kids! Back row: Luke, Eddie, Paul, Henry, Ryan, Shade, Camilla. Front row: Javy, Liam, Seth, Eliza, and Krish. Notice they all look sweaty and pink cheeked! They played hard!
After another 40 minutes we moved into the party room for cake, pizza, and presents. Here's the cake:
Seth got to sit in this big inflatable throne while they sang Happy Birthday to him. (The crown is inflatable too, and he got to keep it. It says "Guest of Honor" on it. He loved the crown!)
Blowing out candles
Eating pizza. His friend Javy is one of the brothers that we car pool to school with.
Opening a card, above and below--opening presents:
The party helpers served all the food, cut the cake, and even made a list of the presents and who gave them. It was nice because I got to take lots of pictures. I was so busy taking pictures that I didn't get much time to eat, though!
I think everyone had a great time. It was nice to come home and not have anything to clean up (except packaging from presents). Jumping around on all that stuff was fun, but it's easy to get injured. Tanner got "burns" on his knees. Frank kept complaining for the few days afterwards about how sore he was! I didn't do as much as Frank so I didn't have sore muscles but I did have a small injury. I went down a slide and Seth forgot the rules and came down after me before I got out of the way. I was just putting my hands down to push myself up from a sitting position when he came down and slammed his feet into my right wrist, which caused my right hand to bend in a way that it shouldn't. I was very thankful he wasn't heavier because I think he easily could have broken my wrist if he had been bigger. As it was, it hurt a little right at first but then I forgot about it until a few hours after we got home when it started to feel tender. It never got very bad, but it's been a little sore all week, especially if I need to pick something up or if I bend my hand in a certain way. It's actually the back of my hand that's been hurting, not my wrist. It was the worst on Wednesday but felt quite a bit better on Thursday, thankfully. It's still not completely back to normal but it gets a little better every day.
I was really pleased with most of the presents Seth was given at this party. He didn't get a bunch of loud, obnoxious toys! He got a lot of art things and Lego sets, which I love. After we got home, Jared and Tanner helped him build his three new Star Wars Lego sets:
He's been enjoying the new things to play with all week. One of the coolest things he got was this set to make a cardboard / plastic robot toy. First you color all the pieces and decorate them with stickers, then you build it into a robot that you can play with. We haven't got to the building part yet, but here is Seth working on some of the coloring (the head):
Playing with a dart gun:
Here is Seth with all the gifts from his party:
Here he is showing off his favor "bag" (it's actually a water bottle), with a few goodies inside:
Here he is with all the gifts from us:
I admit I got that Crayola glow book thing for him because I thought it looked really cool and I want to play with it! But neither Seth nor I have had time to play with it yet. He also received a card from Grandma & Grandpa but he hasn't had a chance to spend the money they sent him yet. All in all, he was thoroughly spoiled and I think he had a great birthday!
Wednesday I got shopping done. A sister in my ward came over to get quiet book patterns from me--they sat next to us at church the Sunday before and they loved Seth's quiet book. I visited with her for quite a while. I prepared for our presidency meeting that night but then we didn't have it because we decided the sister in our ward who was moving needed our help instead. (We didn't feel right about sitting in a meeting talking about how to help the sisters in our ward when one had such an obvious immediate need!) I actually didn't go to help that night because of my hand but my two counselors did help. I stayed home and wrestled with visiting teaching changes all evening, but didn't make a lot of progress.
Tanner went to the Drama Club Awards ceremony that night. Jared was going to go but decided to help with a service project doing yard work for a ward member instead. There wasn't any YM activity that night because we had a Ward Talent Show last night and the YM and YW were in charge of running the whole thing.
Thursday I took kids to the library at school, went grocery shopping, did laundry and some cleaning, and tried to work on visiting teaching stuff but didn't get very far. I took Jared to an orthodontist appointment right after school and then we went straight from there to help with cleaning at the house of the moving ward member. A bunch of other people helped her earlier that day to move most of her belongings from the old house to the new one. Jared and I came home long enough to eat dinner; then I went back over to help some more. Our whole presidency came and we were hoping to have a meeting of sorts while we helped but we ended up just helping with the move and didn't really get a chance to talk. By then she mostly just needed cleaning done and a bunch of things hauled away to the dump but her renters in the basement, who are also in our ward, were still trying to move things out so we helped them too. A few other ward members came over to help but we were all there until about 10:00 before everything got done. The walk through was supposed to be the following morning but the buyer's lender messed up and didn't have all the paperwork done so the lender asked to have it put off a week. Oh well! At least she has everything moved and can start settling into her new house. Both her and her renters moved to new places within our ward boundaries so we're glad we're not losing them.
That afternoon while Jared and I were gone, Tanner was doing the sound for the Senior Awards Ceremony at the school.
Yesterday I got the budget done and then worked on visiting teaching changes and finally got it all figured out. Tanner had a sore throat and stayed home from school. Jared went to help with the Ward Talent Show--he ended up being the emcee. Frank dropped him off and then I went over a little later to put all the visiting teaching changes into the computer. When I finished, I went into the talent show--in time to catch the very last act. We helped clean up and came home.
Today has been busy too. I met with the visiting teaching supervisor this morning to tweak a few final changes and then print up all the new assignment slips. Frank and I went on a walk and Frank cleaned the kitchen floor for me. This afternoon Frank went to help do the cooking for an event while I took Seth to a swimming party for a friend at school. I decided to wear my swim suit too and I'm glad I did because it was really hot and getting in the pool was very refreshing! I was pretty tired by the time I got home, though. Seth and I both needed to clean up after that. They were fortunate the weather warmed up so much this week--last week end it was quite chilly!
Now it is late and I have to get up really early for Ward Council, so I'd better get to bed. I hope that at least one night this coming week I don't collapse into bed exhausted at the end of the day! Wish me luck.
1 comment:
Wow! What a crazy and great birthday party. Can't believe they had a massage chair! haha!
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