A week ago Chris turned 8:)
My fun-loving, opinionated, creative, busy boy! I'm not sure how the weeks, months and years fly by so quickly when sometimes the days feel long and exhausting. But they do:) And we capture the fun, sweet, silly moments and work through the tough ones;)
This year we told Chris we would host a birthday party for him. He's 8 after all and had never had his own friend birthday party:/ We've had other families over to eat his favorite meal and once had a bunch a friends over for a "going away" playdate that happened to be on Chris' birthday, but he was 2 and was too busy shoving a carrot up his nose.... really, gotta love 2 yr olds:)
Chris came up with some wild ideas and I was floored when Brian agreed to do a "paintball party"!! We priced taking the family paintball-ing but decided it would be cheaper and a lot more fun to do it at the house (and get to keep our stuff)!
So the not-so-secret, very excited Dad began purchasing a couple guns and plenty of ammo... some even on clearance:) And the Momma began planning a menu that would be large group, kid-friendly, low-final prep:) And then they came:)
I worried over whether the rain was going to hold off.
Or whether the younger kids would run through the house.
Or where everyone was going to sit!
But don't you know if all worked out! It always does! No need to worry.... I just planned for some "what-ifs" and watched how everything came together:)
How the afternoon before the party, a man we had hired to cut down some trees not only cut the tree down but then sliced the trunk up into perfect log seats (and log barriers for the boys to hide behind).
Love God's timing on that, especially since the man's equipment sat in our yard for 2 or 3 weeks and he picked THAT Friday afternoon and he went above and beyond what we asked him! There was NO way Brian would have had the time (and probably didn't have the equipment, either) to complete all that cutting!
And the rain.... it came all BEFORE the party:) The sky looked SOO dark about 30 minutes prior that I was soo worried we were going to be washed out. All 34 of us stuck inside together.... maybe watching Lego movies( if it was Chris' choice)!! But we had a gorgeous morning/afternoon:)
I also had my hands full with the cake!! We are still having to be egg-free (with applesauce) and they just don't hold together right! I was trying to make a BIG cake (not the casserole dish size) so we could have plenty to share with our friends! So I make a huge sheet cake. But God even allowed a busy mom with the "spiritual gift" of icing a cake to come just in time to help me! And Boy, oh, boy did she work some miracles!! You totally wouldn't have guessed the cake broke into many pieces and had to be put back together... kind of Humpty Dumpty like (yes, it was bad) :/ Totally wouldn't have known looking at the final creation:)
Kids sure didn't know (or didn't care)!
It was so sweet to have a few of our local friends over to celebrate Chris' 8th birthday! It's so cool to see how everything fit right into place... weather, logs, friends who could make it (last minute I should add), the angels that secretly cleaned up our playroom and the meal that was well received and even fed us the next day when family visited...
the kids had a blast, the parents got to visit and Chris had a great 8th birthday party:)
More pictures from the day:)
And I see many more paintball battles happening... as soon as it warms up a bit:/
My fun-loving, opinionated, creative, busy boy! I'm not sure how the weeks, months and years fly by so quickly when sometimes the days feel long and exhausting. But they do:) And we capture the fun, sweet, silly moments and work through the tough ones;)
This year we told Chris we would host a birthday party for him. He's 8 after all and had never had his own friend birthday party:/ We've had other families over to eat his favorite meal and once had a bunch a friends over for a "going away" playdate that happened to be on Chris' birthday, but he was 2 and was too busy shoving a carrot up his nose.... really, gotta love 2 yr olds:)
Chris came up with some wild ideas and I was floored when Brian agreed to do a "paintball party"!! We priced taking the family paintball-ing but decided it would be cheaper and a lot more fun to do it at the house (and get to keep our stuff)!
So the not-so-secret, very excited Dad began purchasing a couple guns and plenty of ammo... some even on clearance:) And the Momma began planning a menu that would be large group, kid-friendly, low-final prep:) And then they came:)
I worried over whether the rain was going to hold off.Or whether the younger kids would run through the house.
Or where everyone was going to sit!
But don't you know if all worked out! It always does! No need to worry.... I just planned for some "what-ifs" and watched how everything came together:)
How the afternoon before the party, a man we had hired to cut down some trees not only cut the tree down but then sliced the trunk up into perfect log seats (and log barriers for the boys to hide behind).
Love God's timing on that, especially since the man's equipment sat in our yard for 2 or 3 weeks and he picked THAT Friday afternoon and he went above and beyond what we asked him! There was NO way Brian would have had the time (and probably didn't have the equipment, either) to complete all that cutting!
And the rain.... it came all BEFORE the party:) The sky looked SOO dark about 30 minutes prior that I was soo worried we were going to be washed out. All 34 of us stuck inside together.... maybe watching Lego movies( if it was Chris' choice)!! But we had a gorgeous morning/afternoon:)
I also had my hands full with the cake!! We are still having to be egg-free (with applesauce) and they just don't hold together right! I was trying to make a BIG cake (not the casserole dish size) so we could have plenty to share with our friends! So I make a huge sheet cake. But God even allowed a busy mom with the "spiritual gift" of icing a cake to come just in time to help me! And Boy, oh, boy did she work some miracles!! You totally wouldn't have guessed the cake broke into many pieces and had to be put back together... kind of Humpty Dumpty like (yes, it was bad) :/ Totally wouldn't have known looking at the final creation:)
Kids sure didn't know (or didn't care)!
It was so sweet to have a few of our local friends over to celebrate Chris' 8th birthday! It's so cool to see how everything fit right into place... weather, logs, friends who could make it (last minute I should add), the angels that secretly cleaned up our playroom and the meal that was well received and even fed us the next day when family visited...
the kids had a blast, the parents got to visit and Chris had a great 8th birthday party:)
More pictures from the day:)
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| funny to watch my little Lydia expertly load a paintball gun |
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| Brian ready to (take down) play with the kids... Daddy definitely earned some "cool" points!! |
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| Chris proudly wearing his paintball welt (just under his eye to the right) |
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| Lydia and Chris- 14 months and one pound a part (my "twins") |
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| Splattered by paintballs hitting the log barriers |
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| The fierce older sister:) |
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| What do you think..... maybe our Christmas card pic ? LOL!! |
And I see many more paintball battles happening... as soon as it warms up a bit:/
3 comments:
taite has that same hoodie :) fun party!
It blessed me to read about all the events surrounding the birthday party. God indeed is so wonderful and always active at the right time. I loved all the pictures.
Looks like SO much fun!! With 3 girls we don't do birthday parties quite like that. ;)
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