Unbeatable! James's 6th birthday party!

I was really dragging my feet for James's party this year.  I begged him to have a sleepover party, or chuck e cheese, or anything but my normal party, but no, James wanted a pokemon party.  This party is really tributed to Ms. Juliet who sent me an email telling me what I was going to do.  Thanks again, Ms. Juliet, I couldn't have done it without you.  We had it at the same park as always.  Even James complained, but understood when I explained when it was the only park with lots of shade and room to play party games.  Of course, I bring out all of our toys for the kids to play with.



Love that rocket launcher.  Where can I get another one?



And the big bubbles



I also had pokemon coloring pages:

 

This party was from 4-6, which is an awkward time, so about 4:30 I fed the kids hot dogs, watermelon, and chips:



The kids could have probably played with the rocket launcher all day, but I did have some organized activities.  First was pin the tail on pikachu.  It went ok.







Then we had "gym battles".  Really just games of chance with cards, dice, and coins.  We had a Mimi Gym:



A Grandma Gym:



And a Papa Gym.  Except the Redskins were winning so we had to improvise:



Now, I did not have an active role with the gym battles, but I will say that I think the kids loved this.  One of the things I like about pokemon is that the heros don't always win.  Neither did the kids.  The Gym Owners will tell you that they threw the games a lot, though...  Once the won, the kids got gym badges:



Then it was time for the grand finale, the scavenger hunt!  This year, no pictures, just riddles with words...and they rhymed!





Then end was the cake!  This cake represents my first ebay bust.  This was the second try:



This is the first year that we let James have presents.  ALL YEAR, he kept telling me, remember at so in so's party where they got to keep all of their presents?  I want to keep all of my presents.  Yeah, ok, James.  He was excited:



So was everyone else:



I think everyone had a good time, even all "the outsiders"  Next year, hopefully we can just go see a movie or something!

First Day of School! 2012!

We limped along through the rest of the summer and finally made it to the first day of school.  For full disclosure, I had thought that after camp, school would be a piece of cake.  I was right and wrong. 

I am also going to explain a quote that some of you might have heard.  I was talking to James about starting school and how sometimes mommies and daddies might cry.  Now, I didn't think that I would cry, but you never know.  I like to be prepared.  I explained to James that Papa cried when I went to kindergarten for the first time.  James's response, "well, that's because he thought you were dumb!"   Thanks James!



James had a good first day.  He seems to like school, but is not fooled that it is "fun" like he was lead to believe.  Yes, you do have to do some work!

Two and a half weeks later, Andy starts school.



With Andy, you never really know.  He was definitely interested in going back to school, HIS school now that James was gone.  He still was a little clingy, but yesterday when I picked him up, he cried that he would have to wait two WHOLE DAYS until he could go back and then go to soccer.  Who is this kid?  He does seem to interact more with his classmates then last year.  Do NOT let me sign Andy up for the Multiage Class.  He needs to be in a different class from James.