FAMILY BLOG: Birthday Surprises, Jalapeno Bites, Soccer

This past week it was Matthew's 11th birthday. I still can't believe he is 11!! As always he adds some spice and excitement to our family and we are thankful for him.

We just had a family party for him this year. He got a Wiggle Car as a present and everyone has had fun with it. It is not made to be a two seater, but try and tell Noah that.

Matthew was excited to go to church on Sunday because they were going to sing to him for his birthday. The primary presidency forgot to do the birthday song, but Matthew didn't catch it until the bishopric member was in the middle of his object lesson. When Matthew realized they hadn't sung to him he kept interrupting the bishopric member reminding him that they needed to do the birthday song. Finally the bishopric member finished his short lesson and they were able to recognize the birthdays. It was Matthew's and another girls birthday this week. When Matthew got up to the front of Primary so he could be sung to he said, "I would like to invite every kid and their family over to my house for dinner and my birthday party." Uhh that was news to me!! Everyone then looked at me and I was so surprised I didn't know quite what to say. I am sure I had the deer in the headlights look plastered on my face. I just cringed and nervously laughed and tried to shrug it off while secretly hoping that no one would take him up on his offer. He then found out that the other girl's birthday was that day. He then told her in front of everyone, "Hey you need to invite me over for your birthday. I am sure my mom knows where you live. I can come over for your party." She just looked at him and then went and sat down. It was a little awkward, but they have learned to go with the flow in this primary so it wasn't a big deal. Matthew is quite the character to say the least. He keeps them on their toes at all times--that's for sure. If they forget something he will be the first to remind them. He even kept yelling to the chorister that he could come lead the songs if she'd like. Thankfully she is a really laid back lady that works really well with him. She just told him that she was prepared and didn't need any extra help that day. Thanks Matthew. However, one sweet girl from his primary class did end up coming over later that day. She had made him a plate of cookies and a card. The card had a big train on the front because she knew how much he loved trains. She brought them over to wish him a happy birthday. Matthew was so excited he didn't know quite how to react so he kept trying to walk away. I had to hold him in place so she could actually talk to him. It was such a sweet thing to do. Here's the front of the card:

Here's the inside of the card:

It said, "Dear Matthew, Happy Birthday! You're AWESOME! I missed seeing you at school this last year. I get to see you at church though! You're a nice great friend! I hope you have a super duper great birthday! Your friend, Ashlyn." It was so sweet! The cookies were really good, too.

Aaron had to work on his actual birthday so it was up to me to entertain the kids. We had had a big party at Chuck-E-Cheeses on Saturday so we had already done some celebrating beforehand. Anyway, I let Matthew choose what activities we did that day. It was a rough day because Kids in the Park is now over so we have the whole day to play instead of only half. We went to the Train Museum (Union Station Museums in Ogden) in the morning and then we went to the Dinosaur Park in the afternoon. I had a little chit chat with the kids before we left and told them they only way we could go to these places is if they cooperated, obeyed and helped me. Luckily, we had a pretty good day and I got some extra help from the older boys. Here's Matthew holding Sarah's hand helping her walk into the Dino Park.

Matthew also got a telescope for his birthday and he tells us every night that he needs to have a late night so he can look at the stars. Um, yea, that worked for one night, but we are the mean parents and won't let him have a late night every night. If he has a late night we pay the price the whole next day because he becomes 'Chuckles' aka Mr. Ornery. He has figured out he can see things in the day time, too--thank goodness!

I think Matthew had a pretty good birthday.

Sarah is now old enough to start soccer. She had her very first practice yesterday. To get her ready she got to wear one of her brother's old uniforms. She was excited to go play.

When we first got to practice I tried to drop her off with the coach, but she would have none of it. She wanted me to be right by her side at the beginning. I had to stand right by her while she kicked the ball. Finally after a while the coach got her away from me and I was able to go and sit on the sideline. Sarah is probably the youngest on her team and it really shows. She had a little bit of a hard time paying attention to instructions and doing what she was supposed to during practice, but what kid doesn't at some point?! She did have fun, though.

After practice she knew that everyone gets drinks and treats from going to her brothers soccer games. However, the coach didn't bring any this week, but that didn't stop Sarah. Sarah followed the coach's daughter over to where they were sitting and helped herself to the coach's drink. I tried to run over and grab her before she got the straw in her mouth, but didn't get her in time before she had chug a lugged part of the drink. I had to sheepishly hand the coach's drink back to her while nervously laughing and say, "Um, sorry 'bout that." I felt pretty stupid. Oh well I guess that will teach the coach not to bring treats or drinks **SIGH**! She is a little stinker! Earlier that day Sarah had been doing something and I jokingly said, "You are a twerp!" She turned to me and told me very angrily, "I NOT A TWERP! I A LITTLE TURD!" Good thing we got that all cleared up.

Our garden is growing. It is not impressive by any stretch of the imagination, but we are getting a few things from it. Sunday we found a huge jalapeno pepper. We picked it and Aaron talked Josh and Daniel into trying some. Aaron took a big bite off the end to show the kids that he was brave enough. He didn't tell the kids that the end of the pepper didn't contain the hot seeds so you could take a big bite without burning up your mouth. Josh and Daniel came over and took big bites, too so they could be like dad. Wow when Daniel started to feel the burn you could hear him just howling. He was not happy with Aaron at all.

Here's Josh trying to shove an ice cube in his mouth to cool his burning mouth off. He did handle it a bit better than Daniel, though. There was no uncontrollable howling. I don't think the kids are ever going to try something Aaron recommends again.

Saturday we came into some peaches and I spent the evening watching the Olympics and bottling them. We got 15 quarts. Wahoo. The kids have already asked to try some, but I am not done looking at them yet. So much work goes into bottling them, that I want to look at them for a bit before we open them and eat them. I guess I am weird that way.

Noah LOVES cars. You never see him without at least one Matchbox car in his hand. He even brings them to lunch, too. The other day we had Ramen for lunch. As I was cleaning up I found his car with noodles stuffed inside. I guess he decided to give some of his noodles a ride. MMMM yummy.

Saturday we had Matthew's family party. We went down to G&G T's house Friday night. We fed the kids dinner and got them ready for bed. G&G T were nice enough to watch them while Aaron and I went out on a date. The next morning we let Matthew open his presents. He had some unwanted help from his brothers, but he didn't get too upset.

While we were packing everything up the next morning the kids were playing in the back yard with G&G T. Noah was swinging and his brothers made sure he was swinging in the swing at all times. When we brought him inside he ended up barfing everywhere. We decided to watch him for a few minutes to make sure he really wasn't barfy sick just motion sick from being in the swing. Luckily he seemed to be fine so we then headed over to Chuck-E-Cheeses to play. We just wanted to make sure since we didn't want our trip to become upChuck-E-Cheeses. Thankfully he was fine. After playing for a bit we had our pizza and Matthew got to blow out the candles on his cake.

The kids had fun playing. Noah had a hard time at first and all he wanted to do was scream, but he did lighten up. He even was excited to wave to Chuck-E-Cheese when he came over to say hi.

We split everyone up. There was one kid to one adult except for me I got the two youngest, but they weren't hard to please. I think we spent most of our tokens on this stupid horse ride.

Noah was quite crusty at first, though. He did not want to do anything, but I made him do it anyway and he was NOT happy about it.

Here's Grandma helping Matthew:

Grandpa helping Daniel:

The theme to Chuck E Cheeses is, "Where a Kid can be a kid!" It seems it is where adults can act like kids, too. Aaron was supposed to be helping Josh, but it seems he was trying to see how many tickets he could earn alongside Josh. Here he is showing off his huge collection of tickets.