Matthew's 6th Birthday

Yesterday was Matthew's 6th birthday. We had a pretty big day planned out. I always allow the birthday child to choose the meals for the day, and he chose muffins for breakfast, Kid's Cuisine frozen meals for lunch (yuck) and a picnic on the beach for supper. Not too bad and pretty easy for me!

After a muffin breakfast, I started in on getting ready for the party. The kids and I straightened up the downstairs, frosted the cake, and put up the decorations. Sounds simple, but it took all morning long to accomplish this task! We finally settled down to play some Wii a few minutes before our guests arrived.

Matthew had invited six friends over, and four were able to make it. We had opted for a party on his actual birthday rather than the typical Saturday b/c every one of our guests has a stay-at-home mom. Plus, I really don't like eating up my Saturdays with a big clean-up/party/big clean-up planned :) His guests arrived on-time and one joined him in playing Wii. After they had all arrived, we played musical chairs. The theme was Star Wars, so the kids marched around the chairs to Darth Vader's theme music. We did three rounds of that and then switched to 'Pin the Light Saber on Yoda". Rob had drawn a large Yoda (probably life-size, come to think of it) and I made some light sabers. We only did one round of that game b/c it always seems to get old fast. Then we dumped out Ben's Legos and the kids had a Lego-making contest. Ben was the judge, manily b/c he's not as proficient with the Legos yet. All of the game winners went home with their own "light saber" a.k.a. glow stick.

Then it was time for the cake. I did my best to make a Death Star cake, covering a round two-layer cake in grey frosting. I then drug a chopstick through it to make all of the lines. Not professional, but at least the kids figured out what it was :) Matthew wanted chocolate cake and strawberry ice cream, so the kids feasted on that. I had also found glow-stick straws, so they had fun drinking out of those.

Then Matthew opened his gifts. He had already received his family gifts. His Litwiller grandparents got him the TIE fighter Lego Set, shirt, and a color works book (all Star Wars), we got him a Lego Star Wars Hoth battle set, and his Fulkerson grandparents and his great-grandmother sent him some money. With that money, he has so far purchased a Buzz Lightyear and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii (which we ordered on-line for $10 cheaper than the store price!) At the party he received a large bubble wand (looks like a lightsaber) a small Lego set of trucks, a set of Star Wars books, and another Lego Star Wars set. He is one happy camper right now!!

By this time Rob was home from work, so he had set up the pool and slip n' slide in the backyard. The kids trooped out the door and had a blast sliding and playing in the water. Anna was the only unhappy one b/c I forgot to cover her in bug stuff and she got several mosquito bites. We brought the kids inside 10 minutes before the parents were set to arrive and I set up Mario Kart. We have three controllers, so they were able to take turns playing the game. That kept them quiet and happy!

Rob and I had a bit of down time and I checked the weather. Looked like we were in for a storm, so we thought about cancelling the beach trip. Matthew was crestfallen and Mommy is very giving on birthdays, so we amended our plans. We did go to the beach as planned, but decided on eating at McDonald's instead of a picnic. Good thing we did because it had just started to rain when we were leaving. We also cut McDonald's shorter than usual, but we went home, bathed the kids, and let them finish the evening watching Return of the Jedi.

Matthw had a terrific birthday and thanked us lots for it. I'm pretty tired today, but birthdays only come once a year, so it's okay. And birthday parties only come once every two years :)