6th Birthday Party at Pump it Up 10/27/12

As many of you know, I will never be a candidate for Mother of the Year.

And I'm ok with that.

So when Michael told me he wanted his party at Pump It Up about 7 months before his actual party, he gave his mother plenty of time to plan it.

Or so he thought!

I figured 6-7 weeks prior to the party date would be enough time to book the place.

I was mistaken.

SO!  The earliest I could get at a reasonable hour was 10/27!  And honestly, it all worked out better because Brian was in France for the 2 weekends around his birthday - so logistically, we couldn't do it then anyways.

This is what I told Michael and I rationalize in my head to make me feel better about not booking his party in time!

Yesterday, we had Michael's party at pump it up.  We had 24 kids:

We invited Michael's whole class from school and invited older siblings of the families we are friends with.

The kids had a blast and us adults too!  I raced another mom friend through their gauntlet.  It was SUPER fun!  I love seeing which of my friends like to do crazy stuff (I know - pump it up bouncy houses - super crazy right?) - and which friends prefer to sit out and watch.

Anyways, Michael loved being the center of attention:

He picked out a Backyardigans cake!  So cute!  I LOVE Giant's cakes by the way.  I am all about outsourcing that for birthday parties - no more elbow deep in buttery/sugary icing for me anymore.  I will be spending my time on the goodie bags and party theme accessories!  That's way more fun!

Michael's theme choice went from Legos to Star Wars to Legos to Angry Birds to Star Wars to Legos.

And he finally chose the Backyardigans days before his birthday.  OH WELL!  :)    I used the bags I was going to use as Lego treat bags anyways and was inside secretly thankful I did not have to punch out 6 - 1" diameter circles for EACH bag to adhere on there to look like lego. ;)

Michael had a great time with all of his friends and the kids and adults alike were all laughing and screaming.  I loved getting to know some more of the parents from Michael's class and it was nice to all get together.  They will be together for the next 8 years anyways!

I will be posting an entry about Michael at age 6 soon - along with his 6 year old portraits.  They came out awesome.  I love photographing Michael because first of all, he is only ONE kid.  And he's a kid that understands directions and will do what you say!  Plus, he's my kid so I took about 20 pictures of him and about 12-14 are keepers.  Gotta love that!

I should be editing pictures, but I am just not!

Thursday Digging

On Thursday, we started preparing for our Friday jumping in the leaves playdate with some of michael's friends from school.

Michael felt the priority was getting the trick or treat sign put into place.  I am going to have to say he prioritizes like his Daddy.  I was busy raking the leaves for the leaf jumping playdate.

He was totally quiet for a while, which always makes me worry.  I found him like this, concentrating very diligently at his work:

He dug a 1 ft wide and 1 ft deep hole for that sign on a stake.  Hmmm....

Had a great time though looking for worms!

So I wasn't about to discourage him from the rather excessive work for a little sign!  He was having so much fun picking them up and moving them to other places.  He filled in the hole after putting the sign up.  Mommy helped hold it up for him to finish!

Then we ran off to rake many large piles of leaves! Super fun!

We had the playdate on Friday, 10/26, with friends from school and they had a great time!  What I love is that they are all such good kids.  Very respectful and well mannered, one of the reasons we send him where we do.  Everyone is expected to have good manners and be respectful and kind to others.

Anyways - we had a fantastic time and plan to do it once a month with this same group, rotating houses!  :)

Grandparents' Weekend!

WAAAAYYYY back in September (8th and 9th) - Grammy and Grandpa came to visit!

It was Milburn's Grandparents' weekend AND we had not done our annual apple picking trip yet!  So off we went:

We went on a tractor ride back to the trees - Grammy and Grandpa had fun talking to Michael:

I took pictures wherever I could and also demonstrated that it is difficult to take pictures in full noon sun:

Walking with Grandpa:

Happy to be 5.5 almost 6!

Lots of apple picking happened!

Toting his wares:

Mom and her eldest:

More Apple Pickin'

More walking with Grandpa:

Afterwards, the grandparents took Michael into the play area because it was free for them and only $10 for Michael.  Versus $30 for all 3 of us.  We just bought lots of pounds (I think almost 30) of apples!

Brian and I got a very nice quick mini date eating apple cider donuts in the sun.

Then we were off to Mi Cocina in Jennersville, but I think they had a weekend chef because it was not as good as normal.  I had another friend go that same Saturday (although we didn't run into each other) and she said the same thing - that it just wasn't as good as normal.  We've been on a Friday night and been BLOWN away.

After some resting at home, we surprised Michael and Grandpa with How to Train a Dragon LIVE at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly!  It was a great show despite Toothless possibly being broken.  Michael was adorable and seriously believed they were real.  He looked at Brian and said, "See - I told ya. They are REAL."

Grammy bought him one of the dragon plush animals, which he held the whole night and slept with for a week straight.  I tell ya - I LOVE this school age.  It is so amazing.

Sunday was church and then more rest.  After that, Grammy and Grandpa were out!

Oh - worth it to mention - we played Pinochle.  After nearly 5 years of losing or never getting marriages between Brian and I as partners - we WON!  AND we smoked them one game where we went set twice (no meld and stuck with the bid) AND I didn't bid a hand I was supposed to.  AND we STILL won.

I also got a double run.  THAT was fun.  :)

Bet you don't believe I blogged this!!  I am tired of not being caught up!
P

Editing my own images today...

Love my six year old little boy who is turning into a fun-loving and inquisitive little person.  

So thankful to be able to capture his spirit!

Target and Middle Names

Check it.

Found this sign in Target - Michael's middle name:

For the record, I wanted Minh to be his middle name - so he could have something Asian about him.

Unfortunately, Brian won out.  And I'm thinking I'll never see a sign for "Minh" at Target.
P

Pumpkins, Pumpkins and MORE Pumpkins!

Last Saturday, we planned to go to the Amish farm to pick out pumpkins because it is cheaper than Milburns.

However, we got lost and ended up at Swallow Hill Farm, who had AMAZING pumpkin prices!  

Here was our loot - all for $20.  That's IT!

Michael was particularly impressed, as was fat animal squirrel:

Sorry for the absolutely grainy picture.  Kim Kropka pointed out to me that my ISO was at 800.  OUCH on a 6 year old camera.

Michael LOVED this "cinderella" pumpkin that was only $10:

More Pumpkin Proof:

One thing I love about Brian is he is super spontaneous and loves to stop at things off the road.  We saw the sign fly by, Brian slammed on his breaks, we stopped in, and were pleasantly surprised!  The farm didn't even have the name of the farm on the sign, just what they were selling.  I don't even think pumpkins were on the sign.  We stopped because it said peppers and squash!  :)

So that was a fun adventure for us before Brian left for Paris.

Birthday 2012 - 6 Years Old!

Michael turned a whoppin' SIX YEARS OLD TODAY!  I decided to dedicate on ode to Brian with our French happy birthday sign:

I should have taken a picture of the Happy Birthday Chair cover!  Michael is lovin' all that stuff that makes a big deal about his day.  He sat in that chair for every meal.  He received a sticker from school that said, "It's my birthday today!" and he wore it on EVERYTHING.  Even when he changed clothes, he would remove the sticker from his old shirt and put it on his new shirt.

I accidentally ripped a part of it (because it was star shaped and hard to take off).  That resulted in tears, and I had to show him that it was a sticker and you wouldn't notice it because it still stuck together.

Then the gift opening commenced:

He received his Dream Lite that he's been asking about for the last 2 months!  Look at his loving caress. Hilarious:

To be honest, I thought it was just interesting. But then we turned on the dream light last night and it is freakin' amazing.  I literally said, "WOW!  THAT is so cool!" I think I need a dream light too.  He told uncle John yesterday:  "I love penguins!!  But sometimes they get eaten."

Next, a present from Mommy:

At the Kennett mushroom festival, he saw another kid with a camera too.  He told me he liked it.  Then I saw it at BJs (a warehouse store).  So I picked one up and Michael LOVES it.  He's been telling people:  "I got a new camera and it is a FAAAANCY one."  Can't wait to go shooting with him!  :)

And then the big gift:

He was super excited about his "shopping spree" at game stop.  I tried to convince him to buy the newest version of the Skylander game that is coming out on October 21st because it will work with the old figures as well as the new ones. He wanted nothing of that, which is OK because his parents still game on a Game Cube and PS1.  We totally understand not wanting to get the latest and greatest!  So glad he is our son!  :)

In the morning though, I did the pinterest idea where I streamered his doorway with the 4" of remaining tape that I had:

Michael loved it.  He loved it so much he wanted to keep it up.  And he's been sleeping in MY room.  SO it is MY door that is all streamered up, which means it is ME who has to army crawl in and out of my room now.

After all this gift stuff, we had birthday pancakes and a bowl of cereal.  Michael LOVES cereal.

Then off we went to Parent/Teacher conference.  He is doing great, and the best news came when Mrs. DeColli said that Michael loves to learn.

She also said Michael is really strong with his numbers.  So sometimes the class has to tell Michael not to answer and to give other people a chance.

I asked Michael yesterday:  "So does that mean you are a little like Hermione Granger in school?"

And he beamed and said, "YES!"

THEN - off to Game Stop to pick out games and take as long as he wanted.  After this, we went bowling.  The man at the bowling alley certainly did not want to let us bowl because he had to program the computers for the bowling league arriving in less than an hour.  But I convinced him to let us bowl one game and here was the score:

That's right - I sucked it up most of the game like I never took 2 classes of bowling to graduate Texas A&M.  Then I used the bumper for the first strike in the last frame.  The 2nd strike was legit.  And the 3rd unclosed frame was a shame because that 10th pin DID wobble.

After this, Michael had to get dragged to Old Navy because they were having their Stuff and Save event where we got 40% off our entire purchase!  SORRY, buddy - it only is for ONE day so we HAVE to go!  :)

Luckily, I put it under the "Let's go pick out some Tom and Jerry clothes for you!"  Michael agreed and when we were done, he said to me:  "No MORE SHOPPING!  Let's go home."  I know it worked though because he told family that "We went to get Tom and Jerry clothes for me and some PJammies."  He did not mention the dress, shorts, and 2 shirts MOmmy scored for $18 total!  :)

We went home and played Skylanders all afternoon on the Wii.  We talked to family and we just enjoyed our day of saying YES!  It was a great birthday and it's not over yet!  We are going to celebrate with Brian on Saturday and then he has his birthday party in a couple of Saturdays!