Birthday Party for Thomas

I have to start out with a cute picture of Olivia in her shades. She rules the house.

Thomas is turning 9 next wednesday. He had his birthday party on friday night. He invited three of his best friends (Parker, Creighton, and Michael) to go to Crackerjax to play goofy golf and ride the go-karts and bumper boats. Josh got to go also. The way there and back, 5 boys had their Pokemon books out and traded Pokemon the whole trip. I don't see why they love those cards so much, but they are all into it. Once at Crackerjx, we were there for over 3 hours, and I think everyone had a good time.



This picture is the boys getting ready for golf. They thought they had it all figured out. It quickly turned into speed golf and something I havn't seen. They soon found themselves on the ground, trying to pray that their balls would go where they needed them to go, and if it didn't, they would try to blow behind it to keep it from going backwards. It didn't work very well.

Here the boys are in line for the bumper boats. I don't see many frowns.

Later on, I caught Thomas and Josh running around with their arms around each other getting ready to ride again. As the parent, it is nice to see that even with Tom's good friends there, Tom and Josh are still best friends.

I have to admit that after the first round of go-karts, I thought they were going to kick all 5 of the boys out of the park. The go-karts are not supposed to be bumper-karts. Tom's friend Parker was a very aggressive driver, it must be that go-kart he got for Christmas. They all started basically ramming each other fighting for position going around the turns. I was waiting for the guy in charge to stop and throw them all out, but the teenager just let them go at it. It was fun to watch. Those poor cars are in bad shape.

Back to the house for some ice cream cake and presents.

They spent the rest of the night staying up and playing what boys are addicted to, the Wii and video games. This morning they woke up and were playing some more.

The house is put back together now, and everyone is a little tired, but this was a birthday party that Thomas really enjoyed.

BASKETBALL SEASON!!!!

It is basketball time of year again for us. We are lucky that #3 and #8 are on the same team this year, as that won't be able to happen much with their age difference. Josh decided to try it out this year also. He hasn't played in a league before, but he is having fun and catching on. Thomas is very competitive and loves to play. So, this is what our next 7 saturdays will consist of. Nathan gets a bit bored watching because he wants to play, and Olivia is a handful, but we love watching the games.

Globetrotters

Last saturday, after a morning full of basketball practice, we took the family downtown to watch the Harlem Globetrotters! They put on a good show. The boys were laughing pretty hard, as were the adults also. Olivia handled it real well except for when the cotton-candy guy came by yelling "COTTON CANDY!" right in her ear. He scared her pretty good. I believe the highlights were people getting their pants pulled down while trying to shoot freethrows and the little blow-up guy that ate a person wearing a Washington Generals jersey. Those poor Generals, they just havn't been able to get a win in over 40 years. A good time for all. I recommend it at least once for everyone.

OLIVIA

Olivia decided that she doesn't like us to feed her, she wants to do it herself. She did well, and it kept her busy for about 30 minutes. She wouldn't eat mac-n-cheese at all until she could do it herself. We are going to have an independent one here.












Olivia has a good time playing hide and seek. She isn't fast enough to get away and really hide yet, but she does like to peek around the doors.

SNOW

We headed up to Grandma and Grandpa Greers house and played in the snow after Christmas. These city boys don't know what to do with it at first, but they figure it out pretty fast. The first picture is as close as Anthony got to a sled. He says he is brittle in his old age.

Rachel was all over the slopes, and she has the bruises to prove it. Everyone had a great time enjoying something that we never see at our home, SNOW!

Christmas Time 2008

This is what happens when you have only one Nintendo DS. You get all four kids trying get a turn on it. This was a problem that Santa helped us out with this Christmas.

Santa helped out Nathan with his own DS, which he was very pleased with.

Josh and Tom were very happy with their Wii. (Dad seems to like it a bit also.)

Olivia enjoyed playing with the boxes and trying to eat the wrapping paper.

And this is where they have been for the last week, sitting in front of the TV on the pullout couch playing Wii. A successful Christmas for all. I can't wait for school to start!

I had to throw in a picture of Super Nathan, because he is just so cute!!!