Just Add Water

At 9:30 yesterday morning, it was 90 degrees outside and felt like 110. At noon, the skies were starting to look darker to the west. At 1:30, we were right in the middle of an INTENSE downpour! At 2:00, Mommy was panicking that we might have to host eleven 9-12-year-old boys at our house for an indoor birthday party. By 2:30 it was 74 degrees outside and wet. Plans went into action to host inside. By 4:00, it was clearing up and we were rejoicing that the party could go ahead as planned - OUTDOORS. At 4:10, we were 2 dozen water balloons and counting...

Ethan has been planning a kickball birthday party since February. At 4:45 (sunny, warm, and humid), Dana headed off to the park with the boys while Nedra waited behind at the house for stragglers and made last-minute food preparations. Nedra soon followed with camera in tow. After a 45-minute game of kickball, 10 sweaty boys, 2 sisters, and a dad were ready for the next activity. We returned home to find that Rudy had helped himself to the frosting on one edge of the cake!

Much to the excitement of those in attendance, we prepared for water balloon and water gun games. It really doesn't take long at all to go through 100+ water balloons. Fortunately, we did have organized games, which helped to prolong the longevity of the balloons. Energy was at an all-time high during the water games. Thus, no pictures - the adults were involved in maintaining some sort of order-...bummer, because if you could've seen pictures you would see complete joy, wild laughter, great friends, and lots of plain old-fashioned fun (well, the balloons were old-fashioned - some of the water guns were pretty high tech:o). I seriously believe if you have 10 boys, hot weather, and room to run - all you need to do is add water for hours of entertainment!

With games and activities completed, we moved on to the food (complete with lots of jokes and stories from the boys as they congregated out on the deck). Ethan opened presents - a couple of favorites being a real shark's jaw and Blokus 3D - and the boys dug in the sandbox for silly putty, their take-home gift. We concluded with cake and ice cream, but the boys were quick to get back outside for some unorganized fun with the water balloons and water guns. They were all sufficiently soaked by the time their parents arrived.

I would say this was one of the best birthday parties we've ever hosted (along with being one of the least expensive). Don't get me wrong - birthdays are great and we've had some fun parties, but they all come with their challenges, don't they? This time it looked like the weather might be a challenge, but once God took care of that for us, it was smooth sailing! All of the boys were fun-loving, well-behaved, and inclusive of each other. As you can see from the photos, Ethan was flying high. He had a wonderful time.















Thanks to all of you who were able to celebrate with us! It was a joy to have you here. Happy birthday, Ethan! Get ready for round 2 on Saturday in Brainerd with Great Grandma. It'll be the first time we've been able to celebrate those 2 birthdays together. For those of you interested in putting names with faces, here's the rundown of the photo below...Back row: Mommy and Sarah; Middle row: Ethan, Josh, Joseph, Hannah, Cedar, Kyle; Front row: Caleb H., Caleb T., Grayson, Nick, Jack, Greg. Daddy took the photo.