Nathan's 7th Birthday Party

Nathan is now a 7 year old! He had a Lego Minecraft party at our house and was so excited about the theme. Minecraft is a crazy game that has gotten EXTREMELY popular. All the boys love it. The only problem with this as a theme is that the minecraft people won't sell the license to party stores so I pretty much had to make everything. It was fun, but a little stressful. The Lego part was easy because we had a company called Brickz For Kidz host the party. I told them the theme and then they tailored the party to incorporate Minecraft things. They brought a huge bag of Legos for the kids to do free play with and then led them in other activities. It was so nice because they kept the kids occupied in the dining room and we didn't have to do a thing except watch and take pictures! The party lasted an hour and a half, then we had cupcakes and snacks for the last thirty minutes. After Nathan's friends went home, we had our family party with grandmother, mama and papa & Carrie and Pearce, opened presents, swam, and Wayne grilled chicken kabobs for us. Happy Birthday our sweet, funny, and smart little boy. We love you more than you could ever know!!!!

Decorations: minecraft is all about TNT, creepers, Steve, mining for gold and diamonds and other resources. In the game, you explore different worlds, gather resources to survive, build and craft structures and buildings, and fight the creepers. And it's all made out of textured cubes. So we had TNT twizzlers, cupcakes with minecraft pictures, rice crispy treats, healing potion water bottles, creeper and TNT balloons, and a minecraft scene using Nathan's figures in the dining room. The treat bags had an inflatable torch, bottle cap necklace, personalized Hershey bar (those were a pain to wrap but very cute!) and diamonds. I made the front door windows look like the glass in the game by cutting adhesive labels into squares. Nathan loved it all!

Fun in Austin!

While Wayne went out of town for business, we went to Austin to have some fun! Pearce is always so happy to see Nay Nay and Charlotte. It is the cutest thing to see how excited he gets! And Nathan and Charlotte love feeling like the big kids taking care of him. Auntie Carrie planned so many things for us to do...she even had an itinerary written out, that's our Carrie. When we first got there, they played for a while and then we went to Mt. Playmore which is a cool new indoor play area.  They had the best time at this place!  Then we went to get a burger and one of Carrie's favorite burger places and then of course, we had to go get ice cream :)  Monday, we had to wake up Pearce early so that he could go to his 2.5 year well check.  Nathan and Charlotte went with them while I stayed home, got ready and watched Real Housewives. While I was relaxing, Carrie called me in a panic, because she couldn't find Pearce's BB (his blankie). He got out of the car with it, but then lost it. I told her it had to be there somewhere if he got out of the car with it, so calm down. Well, BB is very important to Pearce (maybe Carrie more)...and we know how Carrie can get a little stressed, so she hung up with me quickly and said she had to look for it more. Ok, back to the show for me. A few minutes later, she calls again, still upset that she can't find it. And then she asked me to drive over there to look for it! Seriously?! It's there! You'll find it! Click...she hung up. So 30 minutes later, she calls back and is so happy. She ended up finding it in the waiting room (she sent Nathan out to look for it earlier and it wasn't there so someone probably found it between the chairs and set it out). When they got home, Nathan couldn't wait to tell me that Auntie Carrie was so grouchy to them because she couldn't find BB. It was so funny! They were laughing about it now, but I don't think anyone was too happy earlier. Nathan used his favorite line, "Somebody needs a nap." HA!

So after that excitement, we headed to the splash pad.  We went to the Quarry splash pad which is huge with lots of sprayers.  After Pearce's nap, we decided to go swimming since we were already wet from the splash pad.  Pearce and Charlotte loved swimming together and Nathan decided to brave the big slide!  He loved it and did it over and over.  On Tuesday we took the kids to the movie to see Planes, Fire and Rescue.  We totally thought Pearce would love this movie because it was about planes and fire AND because Nathan and Charlotte would be with us.  Well, we got all the kids their snacks and settled in and about 15 minutes later, Pearce was restless and wanted to walk around.  After trying to get him to sit in his seat, Carrie gave up and went to sit with him on the steps.  He watched the  movie off and on, but mostly played on the steps...I think it'll be another year before we brave the movie theater again :)  That night we went to Carrie's other favorite burger place and let the kids play on the outdoor playscape.  Then we decided to walk next door and watch people do the indoor skydiving. I casually asked how old you had to be to do it and the guy said 3 and up....when Nathan heard that he went crazy and begged asked if he could please do it.  I said yes, wondering if Wayne would kill me when he found out how much it was, yikes! But oh well, I thought he was so excited about it now, we might as well. Nathan  took a little 30 min class to learn the signs and what to expect and then it was time to get suited up!  I could not believe he wasn't the least bit scared!  He even got to go up with two instructors and they did twists and turns and took him to the very top!  It was so fun to watch Nay Nay!!  

Wednesday, we decided to take the kids to the children's museum, The Thinkery.  They loved all of the hands on activities.  We decided to let Pearce skip his afternoon nap so we could go to this neat pool I had heard about.  It's called the Veteran's Memorial Pool and it was kid heaven!  Waterslides, fountains, a huge wading pool for toddlers.  We packed a lunch and then headed over.  Nathan was once again Mr. Brave doing a tall water slide and also jumping off a tall platform!  Pearce and Charlotte did the toddler slides and playscape.  I loved this pool because of the large shallow area...Pearce and Charlotte had so much fun swimming together.  We went home on Thursday. Pearce was so sad to see us go but excited to see them again this week for Nathan's birthday party!  We had such a great time together, as always!!!! 

 

Golf Camp

We signed Nathan up for 2 big camps this summer. His first was golf camp and then next week is indoor flag football. Golf was great because he also got a new set of clubs as part of it. The camp lasted a week and started the week after Logan and Landon visited. It was from 9-12, so not too long and was at The Tribute golf course which is really nice and also close to my house. 

After the first day, Nathan told me he had homework and was supposed to go online and look up the rules of golf. He was then to pick one and write it down. We were going to do it first thing on Monday but I ended up forgetting about it.  At 11:00 pm, Nathan came downstairs and was so worried that we hadn't done it! So we went into daddy's office, and Nathan picked rule #1 (the longest one) and wrote it down. The next morning, he kept checking to make sure he had it. I didn't really think much more about the homework. At the end of the week, parents were able to stay for camp and watch what the kids learned. Before they got started on the course, the head guy got all of the kids in a group and went over what they had learned that week. Then he told them to get out their homework assignment. I kind of panicked because I just assumed he had turned it in on Tuesday, and today is Friday! I never saw it in his bag and my heart sank for him...he had worked so hard to get it done, and I was sure he had lost it by now. Well, Nathan completely surprised me. He reached into his pocket and pulled out this folded piece of paper. His homework! Then the coach went on and on about how rule #1 was the most important and if you just know that rule, you'll know golf. At this point, I was wondering if Nathan even remembered which rule he had. So then the coach said, "Where is my little guy who had his homework ready 4 days ago AND wrote down the first rule?" Nathan raised his hand, and the coach called him up to the front and asked him to read it to the group. He did such a great job!!! And the main coach told him he was proud of him for taking his homework seriously. He then gave him a golf ball as a prize. 

After all if that excitement, Charlotte and I got to go with his group to see what he had learned. And the day ended with an award ceremony. Nathan got the award of being the most encouraging and best attitude. Sweet boy!