Last week we had a sleepover birthday party for Thing 1. I've decided that throwing sleepover birthday parties for your kids is like giving birth to your kids - when you're in the middle of it, it's unbelievably painful and you vow you're never going to do it again, but as time goes on, you think it wasn't that bad and you sign up for another one (No, I'm not pregnant). The party this year did contain a few gems, though. It was the first year that I heard girls discussed (in hushed tones, as though the subject was taboo), and we apparently invited a couple of pyromaniacs because I heard "Yeah, I know! Fire's awesome!" more than a few times. However, the best moment of the party came during the opening of presents. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.
Thing 1 opened his gifts from the kids and then I brought out the pièce de résistance: the gift from all four grandparents and us. He started opening it, and he got this smile on his face that anyone who knows this kid well will recognize. It's like he's trying to hold it back, but you can tell that he's really pleased. It was a Nintendo DS. Every ten year old's dream. The best part, though, was the reaction from the rest of the kids. They broke into applause. They cheered for their friend. They patted him on the back and shook his hand. I swear, if this kid ever wins an Oscar or a Nobel prize, the crowd support will be a disappointment after this. I think they would have hoisted him on their shoulders if he hadn't been holding the DS. Sparky and I were both shaking with laughter. I am kicking myself now for not getting it on tape. Luckily I did manage to get a few pictures with the still camera.
Here's that smile I was talking about...
And here we are in the midst of the hand shaking and celebrating.
Happy birthday, kid. 10 is a big birthday. I hope you have many more birthdays like this, and I hope for your sake and your brothers' that I continue to forget what a pain it is to throw a sleepover for a bunch of 10 year olds.
Before our trip, Thing 3 went from shaggy to spiky. Here are the before and after pics. (Why do my kids always look like they're being tortured when they smile for the camera?)
Earlier this week we got back from our two week vacation to everywhere. We spent two nights in Spokane, where we hung out with my fam and went to the water park, then we went to Yellowstone for five days, then to a surprisingly fun family reunion in Lava Hot Springs, then to Utah for three days to visit friends and family. We did the 16 hour drive back in one day, and of course I had to get sick on that day. One of the great things about Addison's disease is that you catch everything that's going around, so sleeping in a house with 55 people is not recommended. I'm not exaggerating. We had 55 people in one house for three days. My immune system just couldn't handle it. It's like using a bullet proof vest made out of swiss cheese. So we got back Tuesday night, and after two days of drugs and tissues, I have decided to rejoin the land of the living.
You always learn new things when you go on a vacation with your family, and this one was no exception:
The nursery in the West Yellowstone ward is full when it hits 6 kids and won't accept any more.
When you drop off your kid at the sunbeam class because he was rejected by the nursery (hey, he's tall for his age and can sit still), don't panic when he's not there at the end of church and the teachers think you're crazy. He'll be in the CTR 6 class, and no one will know why.
If you lose Thing 2 at a swimming pool crowded with hundreds of people on the Fourth of July, just watch the diving boards. (It's starting to sound like we lose our kids all the time - I swear we don't.)
I heart playing Rock Band on the Wii.
A ping pong table, an air hockey table, and two Wiis can make anything endurable, even a family reunion!
You can learn new things about people that you've known your whole life by playing Loaded Questions. I learned that one of my sisters is a closet political junkie, another thinks she looks like Zoe from Sesame Street, that my mom wants to be in a boxing match with Satan, and that my Dad likes Christopher Cross ("You could get caught between the moon and New York City. I know it's crazy, but it's true." Can anyone name the TV show this quote is from?).
Pool lifeguards are actually there to rescue people and not to daydream. We saw one jump out of her chair and save a kid from drowning. The kid was five or six and the parents were nowhere to be seen.
When you're three, you get to make up new words. Thing 3's new word of the trip was "drinky." "Mom, I'm drinky." "I'm berry drinky." I heard this all trip, and it always made me smile.
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is breathtaking, possibly the most beautiful place on earth, and Old Faithful is worth the wait.
When three-year-olds see guns in a play, they think they're real. We went to the Playmill in West Yellowstone to see "Oklahoma," and during the show, they shot guns, with blanks of course. I didn't think anything of it until the end of the play when the lights went on and Thing 3 turned to me and said with relief, "Phew! They didn't shoot us!"
When you visit with old friends that you haven't seen in years, it's like you were never apart.
