Water Park, Computers, and Snow!

Wow it's been a long time since I wrote here. Guess I've been too busy enjoying life to write about it. We just got back from the UWWG.That was big fun.

Ryan loved the sword fight and the endless games of chase.
He enjoyed reconnecting with friends (Jared is on the right) and making new ones (Jet is on the left).
Ethan had a blast selling and trading Pokémon cards with Aryn and Evan.
Ethan really wants to learn to surf. We thought this would be a perfect place to try it out, but he absolutely hated the flow-rider. He said it was too fast and too scary.
After he tried it out, cried, and calmed down he said, "I'm really proud of myself for trying that." Way to go Ethan.

We left the Water park on Friday and arrived home Saturday to a visit from two wonderful friends. Doran and Amory are here for the week. They arrived just in time for Ethan to get his long awaited holiday present. He wanted a laptop and used all his Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice money to get it. He waited until we could find one in his budget that met his needs. That finally happened yesterday. He was so excited. He and Doran opened the box together.
Mimi helped get it all set up.
Ethan hasn't been off it for long since.
Today we have lots of snow. Doran wanted to go play in it, but was having trouble convincing the other guys to go out. I suggested we could cover him in snow without leaving the house. Ethan leaned out the back window and shoveled the snow from the overhang. All Doran had to do was wait. It was Ethan's idea of perfect snow fun. He got to cover someone in snow without going outside.

Now we're setting up all the computers in the house so that all four guys can play Wizard101 together.

Manhattan and Ryan's Birthday Party

On Thursday I took Kim to her doctor appointments while Esther got to take Ryan and Ethan as well as their friends Doran and Amory to the top of the Empire State Building. Our guys have been there once before, but it was Doran and Amory's first trip to Manhattan.
They really liked the Subway.
The top of the tall building was cool, too.
Today was Ryan's 5th birthday party. He actually turns 5 on the 25th CLASSIFIED, but no real spy lets anyone know private information. He had said he wanted a spy-themed party, but changed it at the last minute to a Rescue Heroes one. He still got lots of cool spy gear including binoculars hidden in a football and a secret code book with decoder pad.

We made him a Rescue Hero symbol birthday cake.

He got lots of presents.
We had 3 rescue games for everyone to play. First we put a bunch of plastic balls and some crumpled newsprint into a tent along with 2 dozen parachute guys. We covered the tent with white sheets. (Thanks Karen for tent and sheets and Mik for the newsprint!) That was a tragic avalanche in which the parachuters were trapped! The kids went in with flashlights and rescued them though so all ended well.
Next we made cardboard flames and set the swing set on fire. Ethan and Amory were trapped inside! Luckily, we had some water balloons to use to douse the flames. Teo and Kyle were happy to aid in the rescue.
In fact, we found no shortage of volunteers.
Ethan and Amory were in no hurry to be rescued though.

Oddly, some people preferred air in their balloons.
Finally, we hung some small foam airplanes in the tree. We said they were having internal fires. of course you can't use plain water to dose a jet fuel fire. Since foam fire spray is expensive and dangerous, we settled for whipped cream.

Sam was willing to demonstrates good firefighting technique.
But really, who could have whipped cream and waste it all on some silly airplane fires?

Certainly not Ethan!

Nor Amory!
Piper managed to make a can explode.

Ryan was content to just play the gracious host, or is he taking them back to fill water balloons?
So, we had a very full week and now we have four sleeping boys and several slippery spots in the yard where the rain is busily washing away the whipped cream.

We also have a little bit of leftover cake.

Down to 4 boys and 3 mommies

Ethan's birthday party was wonderful. The guys ate tons of cereal and a gallon and a half of milk at breakfast. They woke up at around 5am, but I told them that it was too early. Oddly, they all laid down and went back to sleep until 6:15am. Even more oddly, they played quietly and let the two youngest, Arden and Ryan, sleep until 7am.

After that, it was all playing all the time. They went on the trampoline. They run through the house. They played with their DS's. They decorated the yard with streamers and balloons. I have to say here that Ben was especially helpful. He organized the decorating, helped make sure the little guys were included, and helped calm people down when people had conflicts. In addition to the 10 boys that slept over, another 10 kids came for the party.

Here's a small part of the crowd at our place today with Ethan front and center opening his gifts.


He got so many wonderful things. I honestly can't pick out a favorite gift he got this year.

Of course, no birthday is complete without a cake. Since his theme was Pokémon, it's only fitting that the cake was a Pokéball. Ethan was extremely pleased that he thought of having the cake color match the colors on the Pokéball. The red has strawberry cake. The white was vanilla cake, and teh brown has chocolate cake. I baked teh cakes and Esther formed them into the Pokéball.

The kids really liked playing on the swing set and the trampoline, but the grown-ups seemed to prefer sitting in the shade.

Now it's 8pm and all the kids but Doran and Amory have gone home. They are staying until tomorrow when their dad will come to take them back to Salem, MA.

I know a lot of people would boggle at the thought of having that many kids, and I did too at first, but it's really a lot easier to watch 12 kids than 3 or 4. With 3 or 4 kids they seem to brake up into 2 with 1 left out or 3 with one left out, but with 12 they formed groups that formed, reformed, shifted, and changed. It was easy enough to keep them occupied and happy. The downside is that having 12 would cost far more than our budget allow. I guess I'll have to settle for occasionally having an extra 10 spend the night.

Tonight 12 Boys, Still Only 3 Mommies

It's Ethan's birthday weekend and the first part of his birthday is a sleepover party. We told him he could have a total of 4 friends so naturally we have 12 boys including Ethan and Ryan. It's great. They ate pizza and cupcakes, jumped on the trampoline in the rain, played with their DS's, and giggled insanely.

12 boys and 1 girl. Anne (our next door neighbor) came over for the pizza and cupcakes.

After that they watched a movie (Purple People Eater: 1980s, B-grade, fabulous. Go thou and watch it.) and ate popcorn.

Of course you can't just watch a movie. You need to play with your DS while you watch the movie.

Some quotes:

Ba (noticing that Doran is wearing a t-shirt advertising the members of a family not his own): Doran, where did that shirt come from?
Doran: My house.

Anne: There are 12 boys here?! I will count them. (She goes to the living room doorway.) 1-2-3-4-5- 1-2-3- They are hard to count when they are moving.

Ken (Coming in to drop off Beckett and Sawyer): How many boys are here?
Ba: 12
Ken: You can smell the testosterone.

Now the boys are all in beds, and sleeping bags, and on couches. They have their blankets and stuffed animals. They are whispering frantically to each other: "Shh." "Go to sleep." "You go to sleep." "I can't while you're talking." "Shh!" "You shh!" "Move over." "Get off the blanket." "It's my blanket." "Is not." *Hard tug on blanket* "Oh, it is." "Move your foot." "That's not my foot." "It's my foot." "Well move it." "OK." "OK." "OK." *Maniacal laughter* in chorus: "OK-OK-OK-OK" *Laughter* "Shh will you!" "Right." "OK." *Groans* "Not again."

This is the life. I can't imagine a better way to spend a Friday night.