Sunday, May 24, 2015

It's great to be 8!

My sweet little Josh who I swear was a baby like 5 minutes ago just had his 8th birthday! The big day fell on a Tuesday so bummer for him he still had to go to school after having breakfast in bed. He chose to wait until after school to open his presents.

 He was very practical in his asking this year. I guess it just goes to show he's really truly growing up. He got a new swimsuit....

 A suit to wear to church....


 The thing he wanted more than anything was a digital watch. He got many more things too. Unfortunately daddy was out of town that week so we just celebrated without him. Josh wanted to get a movie that night so we had a fun night eating fajitas, slurpees and watching Night at the Museum 3 (which was actually hilarious).
 He did have a friend party this year too but thankfully we waited until daddy got home for that. When Josh said he wanted an obstacle course I was thinking, "Okay, they can jump through the hula hoop, do a handstand....." and then Trav says, "Cool! We can turn our backyard into the blah blah blah swamp where Luke trains with Yoda and they'll have to collect power sources and carry them in a backpack....." (It's really not called blah blah blah but I don't know what it's called. Any Star Wars fans willing to hep me out?) This is why dad's should be in charge of birthday parties. It was much cooler than the handstand contest I had envisioned in my mind.

When the boys were arriving they had to make paper airplanes and turn them into star ships.
 Then we had a contest to see who's went the farthest....

 They watched a short clip of Luke Skywalker training to be a Jedi with lightsabers and the running through the forest thing.....
 We headed to the basement to train with lightsabers. They had to hit a ball blindfolded....only using the force.....to know where it was. They had to hit the ball hard enough to light it up.

 They had a really fun time with this. I liked it because it was like a pinata without the candy.


 I think this picture is so hilarious! Ha ha! Who has such a big frown?
 This is the one I was going for before the light saber interrupted. William was having a "Darth Vader moment."
 The boys were really cute with him though and helping him hit the ball too.
 Then it was outside for the obstacle course. Okay. This turned out to be awesome. I wish the pictures did it justice. Thankfully it stopped raining long enough to do this. They had to go collect 5 "power sources" by climbing the rope swing, running across rocks, running to the playhouse and doing the monkey bars, going down the slide, jumping over a log, running thought the forest, stacking 3 rocks and back to the beginning. And we timed them so they all really got into it.
 Stacking the rocks ended up being one of the hardest parts....
 Some weren't as tall as others so it's good they helped each other. Ha ha!



 The best part of the whole party was when it was Kate's turn. All these big, tough, 8 year old boys were all begging to help Kate. So instead they all helped her. The whole time they were telling her where to go next and saying things like "Good job Kate! You're doing awesome! Keep going!"
 They all went though the whole course with her....

 It was seriously the sweetest thing. Josh has some good friends.

 Rachel was the official time keeper and recorder
 Yep, He's grown...




 While waiting for turns some of them played with William. Again....how cute is that?
 Then we headed inside for birthday cake and Yoda Soda. I think that's the real reason he wanted a Star Wars party again since he had one a couple years ago. Who doesn't love Yoda soda?



While they were eating the boys started playing "Telephone" all on their own. It was so funny. They were having fun with everything they were doing. We could have planned nothing and I know for a fact they would have had the best time.





 We totally ran out of time so we had to hurry to open presents. These gifts were a little less practical but just want he wanted!



It was such a fun birthday party. I love that he has such nice friends and he is such an awesome boy. I am so happy he's mine! Love ya, Josh! Isn't 8 great?