Family Birthday Party

Later on in the day on Saturday (Ty's birthday) we had family over for another birthday. This time around we opted for cake instead of cupcakes and after one homemade failure, I thought Safeway did a great job on the shield.

Tyler opened even more presents The cousins gathered around.

I even got a cute picture of Hailey and Elise.

He ended up with all these kits to add to his collection. He was also very excited to get some big lego boards for building. He has one smaller board that he uses a lot. Outside of legos he got a game (which Hailey and I have been playing while Tyler is engrossed in his kit building) and a rock tumbler/polisher which I know Tyler is going to love.

And ever since Saturday he's been building. We've had to limit him to one kit a day to stretch the joy out a bit. Though he really just wants to sit down and do them all in one sitting.

Tyler's "friends" birthday party

Tyler anxiously awaited the start of his birthday party. He really wanted to build his new lego kit but we had decided before hand that there was enough excitement in the day that it would best to save the kits for later in the week (at least that would give me more peace :)). So while I vacuumed and set out all the food, Tyler looked through his books.

Once all the boys arrived we started the party by creating shields and picking out swords. There were pens and stickers for the kids to decorate their shield. Everyone seemed to enjoy personalizing their shield. Most kids made pictures with shapes stickers or some sort of symbol with pens. Tyler drew two knights and one of them was bleeding....that's my boy.

Ready for battle

The treasure hunt was intermixed with jousting and castle cannon balls. There's a lot of commotion when you have 10 kids running to find clues and treasures all while holding shields, swords, and goodie bags.

Before the jousting tournament, we had some practice time.

Then each child battled King David...or in this case it looks like a group effort.

The kids also enjoyed the cannon ball throwing.

After all the hunting, and jousting, and cannon ball throwing, they were ready for a snack and cupcakes.

The birthday party gang.

The birthday boy and his daddy.

After cupcakes we did Tyler's favorite part....presents. He was so happy with all his gifts. He got a pillow pet (which was a big hit), games, legos, etc. One happy 6 year old.

The party ended up working out great. The activities lasted about an hour and 45 minutes which left them about 15 to 20 minutes to just play around until parents started arriving for pick up. All the boys got along great. Whew! One successful party down.

Tyler turned 6 on the 6th

Tyler turned 6 on Saturday and I'm just now realizing it was his golden birthday.....6 on the 6th. But I guess when you get to have your birthday on a Saturday and you get to have 2 parties in one day and then go to Disney on Ice the day after, how much more golden can you get.

Tyler was ultra excited for his birthday and probably like every kid his age it was all about the presents. He woke up in the morning with the presents from Dave, Hailey and I waiting for him.

And he was very happy.

Even happier when he found out what was inside......Shocking I know, but he really wanted Legos.

He was so very happy to get the Lego Kingdom kit.

And a small one from Hailey

Not quite as exciting (until the new Lego joy wears off) were some books about things that interest him right now.

He immediately built his smaller kit.

He loved his new mini figures with all of their gear.

He had all this built in about 5 minutes.

Now he just had to wait 2 hours for his party to start....and he had to be patient while I got everything set up for the party.

Birthday Party Prep

Tyler wanted to have a Knight birthday party this year. I looked on line and found some good ideas. Everything was fairly simple but once I put it all together it ended up being A LOT of work. More than I bargained for. But in the end, the party turned out great and Tyler had a great time. Here is a little bit of the party prep. I was so busy prepping, I didn't have time to blog about it.

We had castles made from cardboard. The kids used some soft balls for "cannon balls" and had to try to get the cannon balls into the castle.


There was also a treasure hunt (sort of Knight meets pirate). Tyler loves treasure hunts and especially the treasure. this was the dining room table as I was gathering and organizing everything.

There were little treasures all along the hunt but we had a treasure chest for the big find filled with jewels (which Ty loved), necklaces, and a tic tac toe game.

Here is the "jewels" treasure that the kids found. I'm sure all the parents are thanking me for this :). Tyler thinks it's the greatest though.

We had knight figures that we put on the cupcakes

Bags for the kids to collect there treasures in....

We also had cardboard shields that the kids decorated and then used in a jousting battle against Dave. We used balloon swords to minimize injury :). The boys had great fun battling each other.

Our house decor was red and blue and filled with streamers and balloons.

Tyler was so excited for his party.

Halloween

We found a fabulous ninja costume for Tyler this year and then after one fiasco after another it didn't work out. But he was happy as iron man (or war machine if you want to get technical). Hailey knew from the start that she wanted to be a dragon. As luck would have it I found a cute dragon costume at Old Navy.

Iron man Ty

Dragon Hailey
Complete with spikes, tail, and wings

The kids had a very fun Halloween this year. Some friends invited us over dinner and trick or treating (thanks Tonya and Pete). It was a lot of fun to go out with a group of kids.

We spent the first half of the day getting stuff done around the house. Dave worked an off duty shift and the kids and I tried to get some cleaning done. Hailey was in a crazy mood and everything was frustrating her. She probably cried 45 times before Dave got home around 2:00. Dave, Ty, and I headed out to the backyard to rake leaves and Hailey was throwing a fit so she stayed inside. A few minutes later I checked on her and found this.

She was much happier after she woke up.

We headed over to the Doman's around dinner time. The kids played

Ate dinner

and had some fancy treats.

And then got ready for trick or treating. Tyler had a really good time with Luke (who was a swat guy)

Hailey was a happy treating dragon

Halloween 2010 family pic

The group of kids trick or treating

There was no hesitation going up to the door to trick or treat this year. For the first part Tyler and Hailey were running up to the doors. They just couldn't get there fast enough. Things slowed down a bit after Tyler ran into a haunted house garage, without realizing what he was getting into. He thinks haunted houses should be made with snuggly things :)

My iron man and me

I think they were getting tired of pictures here :)

Hailey checking out all her candy

Tyler made a "home" for all his non candy treasures....Halloween and others.

Oh, My Growing Boy!

I've had a few moments over the past few weeks where I have looked at Ty's face while he's been doing something and feel like a catch a glimpse of what he will look like when he is older. It's those moments where time moves slow and I thank God for giving me this boy. He is sweet, he is kind, he is creative and he is funny. Val deserves all the credit but I will take credit for his eyes! Oh, how these 6 years have flown by.

Dave

100 brains

A conversation from our car ride today:

Hailey - Mommy, do you know what I.G.H.T makes?
Me - What?
Hailey - It makes the word sound "ight" (and she correctly said "ite")
Me - Wow, you are right. How do you know that?
Hailey - I have 100 brains. (said matter of factly)

With her, it might actually be possible.

I have no idea how this girl has taught herself to read. But it is definitely one of her gifts. I can't tell you how many times she will see a word (a big one) and say it like it's no big deal (ie download, thought, escape). Tyler just looks at me and says "is she right? How does she know that?". I don't know, I guess it must be the 100 brains.

Halloween blog and pics coming soon.