The Big Birthday Bash

Aah, the Birthday Boy had a great day.  Nothing like turning 9, right?  He wanted a Denver Broncos themed birthday, and we did the best we could but ended up with colors more like Miami.  Shh. Don't tell him.  He considered going darker with the blue but I really didn't want to turn everyone into Smurfs and figured more food coloring would do just that.  In the end, he was happy, and that's what matters.  He decorated the cake himself.

Then later, I found the cake looking like this... Umm, couldn't he just have eaten the icing in the bowl SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO THE CAKE!!!???

So I re-decorated the cake.

 Right after school a couple of his friends came over.  These two are twins, a year older than he is, but probably his best friends.  We keep their baby brother in our daycare and these guys have become fast friends.  They insisted on having him open his gifts immediately, and it was easy to see why. They got him a football - which they rushed outside to play with right away.

They also bought him an art book and a set of artists pencils.  The last time they were over the boys spent hours reading over the Calvin and Hobbes books we have.  One of the twins told him they got him those art supplies so he could create his own comic strips.

 After they finished with their football game they went back to the Calvin and Hobbes books - taking turns reading them to each other.

 There were lots of jokes told yesterday too ... mostly you have to be nine or ten not to groan at.

 Later two more friends showed up and we fed them all pizza - the nine year old's favorite kind - ham and pineapple.  I was surprised that a couple of the kids had never had that before and thought it was odd to put pineapple on pizza.  They were good sports though and all of them tried it.

Our four year old joined right in and though a little shy at first, he seemed to fit right in for dinner.  (Note- it looks like one of our guests was choking here, but it was really just that he was in the midst of a very exciting story lol).

 After dinner we headed to the church for AWANA clubs.  It was all boys last night, and well sugared ones at that. We started out with game time - with extra running ;)

 (This was a bowling game)

Then it was time for snacks - the football cake and ice cream.  Here's the whole rowdy crew. ;)

 I made him a yellow cake and added food coloring to the batter to make a marbled blue and orange cake.

At home he opened the gifts from us.

 He invited his brothers to help him open everything, which I thought was very sweet.

 And the brothers really got into playing with his new football.

The one year old even had to get his own football out.

 I think the four year old did more unwrapping than the nine year old, but it was all done with such sweet spirits.  I think the four year old appreciated being allowed to participate - though he might not have put it in those words.

 As you can see, he made a pretty good haul.

 This book was one of his favorite gifts.  I started reading through it and it looks like it's going to be an amazing book.

 He said this was probably his very favorite gift - an LED book light.  He put it to use last night, reading in bed until I made him quit at midnight.

 I had to include this picture, but please pardon the chocolate ice cream on his pants.  HA. It looks pretty bad from this angle.

 We got him a compression shirt for skiing.  He's been wanting one of those for awhile.  This one - believe it or not - is an adult small - and it was a struggle to get on.  They really mean it when they say compression.

 After all the presents were opened, he got started right away on his comic book.  Following the example of Calvin and Hobbes, he first came up with two characters, whom he named Bob and Louie.  Louie is a chicken ;)

I can't wait to read it!