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.

This week in pictures

On Monday Kim generously invited a bunch of people over to her house.

The slip and slide was a favorite activity.

Goat herding was also very popular.

Tuesday was a very busy day! First up was Ryan's gymnastic class where it was parent day. Ryan hates parents day. He doesn't like so many people looking at him. Ethan, however, got to show off in front of the parents as he demonstrated some cool moves to the younger kids.

This a photo of all the kids with the medals and certificates they got for finishing the class. Spies don't let people take their pictures. I mean, really, how would it look if a spy got photographed at training camp? Ryan is in the photo. He is hiding behind the girls standing in the back row, but you didn't hear that from me.

Next we went to Stephanie's house where Ryan got an early birthday present. Actually, he got 2 presents. One is a mandala drawing kit and the other is a stuffed olar bear. Last year Stephanie gave him a stuffed jaguar which he still carries around.

One of Stephanie's cats was very interested in a bag of beads and string I brought to work on.


In the evening we went to homeschoolers night at the New Britain Rockcats baseball game. There were 508 homeschoolers there. It was 97 degrees at game time, but that didn't stop Ethan and Ryan from settling in for food and fun with friends...
and without.


Of course, what's a sporting event without a bench-clearing brawl? Really Ethan is just tweaking Teo's nose. Teo thought this was big fun.

What's up with that?

Life is just a laugh riot when you're at the game.


On Wednesday we hung out with friends at Petersen Park in Wolcott, CT. One of the kids found a snake (a Northern Watersnake) which obligingly let me photograph him.

I also noticed a cool looking Green Frog in the creek.




I'll write more about the rest of the week later when I get the photos downloaded to the computer. Now it's time for me to have a hot drink to soothe my sore throat while I watch some television.

Rainbow Boys

I was watering the garden today while Ethan and Ryan jumped on the trampoline. "You can't spray us Ba!" they yelled. I pretended not to hear them and continued watering.

They yelled some more and I turned innocently asking "What are you saying?" I "accidentally" sprayed them. This became a wonderful game. As I sprayed Ethan across the trampoline, I noticed a rainbow in the spray. It arched gracefully across both Ryan and Ethan. I wanted to grab the camera and get a picture of it, but there was no way to use the camera and the hose without interrupting our game. I love that my guys were playing in a rainbow today. They didn't even notice, but that made it all the more perfect.

Ethan's Birthday

Today is Ethan's actual 8th birthday. In sharp contrast with the weekend activities, today was a normal day. We took Ryan to gymnastics in the morning and then went to Ethan's kung fu class. I made cupcakes last night which he shared wit hall his friends at kung fu. We gave him the choice of going to his friends' house, going to a play place, or going to a park with some other friends. Of course he chose going to his friends' house since his Pokémon-playing pals were going there.

He played Pokémon Stadium Battle and then they played together with the Wii. Even the delights of the electronic world couldn't keep him indoors though. He spent most of the day outside with Ean, Indy, Ben, Josh, Sam, and Ryan. I just realized that he managed yet another all-boy play day. After playing for hours, I had to tear him away so he could go to his gymnastics class. Now he's sound asleep, happily holding one of his new Pokémon figures.

Eight years ago tonight was a very bittersweet night for me. I had a beautiful new son, but I had lost his twin sister. She had a seizure in utero and was stillborn. Tonight I am, once again, happy and sad but for a completely different reason. My beautiful son is 8 years old and, somewhat selfishly, I don't want him to grow up. I know this almost cliché, but as much as I relish his growing independence, I miss the things he's outgrown. I look forward to the person he's becoming, but I know there will come a day when his birthday night will be a time he wants to share with friends, in a world I can never share. I want to keep him safe and protect him, but I also want to help him grow. I have conflicting desires, but I know which one will triumph. His birthday is just a reminder that my job is much harder than I ever imagined.

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.

Swords and Looms

Today we made swords from PVC pipes, foam insulation, and colored duct tape and/or making portable tapestry looms using wood, screws, and wing nuts. We had 15 kids and 6 mommies (including us and our guys) play, eat, make things, and have fun.


Sawyer and Beckett opted for the basic silver duct tape.


Silver was popular. Chloe, Tessa, and Teo all chose that. Deva went with full-on color.

We did get the adults to participate. Stephanie and Peg had never used power tools before.


Esther showed Peg how to use a saw and the drill! Stephanie learned, too, but I didn't get a photo.


I think Peg likes her loom. Karen has screws and wing nuts. She has a loom, too, if all the holes will ever line up.



Stephanie made a loom, too. She said it's picture perfect.

Ethan and Ryan and the other kids somehow managed to avoid having their photos taken. I'm not sure exactly how that happened. We'll have to photos of them when they take their swords out to battle.