Birthday Mania

Almost done.
Birthday mania.
Seriously.
We kick it off with Nick -- his birthday is Dec. 22nd -- yep, RIGHT before Christmas. Then we do Christmas and move in to the January month of celebration. Nick had a "puppy/spiderman/Mizzou" party. We make a grand effort to keep Christmas out of it. No Christmas wrapping paper, everyone wears MIZZOU stuff...we open presents in a different room away from the tree. (That's also because the tree usually swallows up the room we normally do that in.) My hope is for him to never say "My birthday is at Christmas and that stinks." So far so good. We'll see how long that lasts.

Kyle turned 7 on the 10th. He wanted a "Ben 10" Party. And like his older brother, he really, really wanted a sleepover. Note: boys have sleepovers. GIRLS have slumber parties. Just an important piece of trivia for you. Important. Anyway - we usually let them pick -- some party at some place, or a sleep over with a limited number of guests. At first, we thought WE were getting the good deal not having to pay for some elaborate party at some venue ... but now I'm not so sure which is REALLY the better deal. The boys LOVE the sleepover. And Kyle was VERY excited to have his first one this year. I think it was also a first for some of the boys he invited - and they too were quite excited. We had the traditional ice cream sundae bar with tons of toppings and the (gross) spraying of whip cream straight into the mouth.
The next day we then had family over for more celebrating.

Jack turned 10 on the 17th. That's right, their birthdays are exactly 7 days a part. So yes, we had BACK TO BACK sleepovers + family night parties. Yep. Insane. Jack wanted a "basketball" themed party...and he started the ice cream sundae bar tradition and kept it going. He always invites the 3 boys who live on our street - and they now expect the big sundae bar. They too had quite a great time. Lots of Wii games. (Check out the video on our family website here.) Both parties were quite loud and both kept us up late. Though I think the 9-10 year olds were more "disgusting." (Louder burps and more potty talk to reign in.)

Can you believe we have a 10 year old? We can't. We have a kid who has a word to describe how long he's been around: a decade. We've been parents for a DECADE. Wow.
That freaked us out. So imagine how it's gonna feel in 2013 when we have a TEENAGER *AND* a "DECADE" kid! Ack!






Did you think I was done talking about birthdays? Um, no. My dad's birthday was January 12th. As far as I know, he did not have a theme party. Unless it was "TVs" or "politics." So, his bday is certainly lower-maintenance.


And this week is Ryan's birthday. And believe me, by the time we get to his birthday, we've had the whole family over like 3 times... plus 2 other parties in the house...and well, Ryan has very little interest in "partying." He's ready to chill. We're actually kind of excited because I have the day off and all 3 kids will be in school. We will go to lunch, maybe a movie - and not have to worry about sitters or anything. Just chill.

Birthday mania. Nearly complete. And actually, pretty fun.