July 18, 2015-Happy (early) Birthday Graham!

Happy Birthday Graham!

(click here for today's pictures)

• It was 6:30 this morning when the kids started talking.  Robby rolled over and turned off the monitor so maybe we could sleep a bit longer.  I am so silly and had even set my alarm for 8 this morning, just hoping that they would sleep in.
• But no, there was much excitement happening upstairs-first, everyone was excited about Graham's birthday party happening today and second, they all wanted to get a good look at Graham's stitches.  I guess they talked about the party and examined the stitches until exactly 7 because that is when they all came downstairs.
• Campbell came in our room and lasted for a few minutes until she was told to leave (too much talking too early!)  Then Reagan walked in asking about her kindle-right where she had left it, on Robby's nightstand.  Keaton was next to cuddle up for a few minutes and by this time, there was no reason to even try to sleep anymore-it was time to get out of bed since there were plenty of things to do this morning.
• I started on breakfast while Robby did a bit of mowing.  Then we worked on setting up for Graham's party.  After we had finished getting ready for the party, we wondered why in the world we would have had a party at 11 in the morning on one of the hottest days of the year.
• Once back inside, the kids helped pick up the house and put on their clothes.  By 10:00, Graham was asking to go outside to start waiting on his party guests and when I finally let him, he was just in time to see Grannymom and Grandpa come.
• They delivered some of my freezer food that they had rescued from our first of three power outages while we were gone (outages: just our house, then just one circuit in our house and finally the entire neighborhood)  Once they had unloaded, then Nonna and Pops arrived, followed by Jason, Dana, Lilli and Cash, the Kamps and the Warfords.  Graham could not have been happier.  
• We ate first-hot dogs, potato salad and chips.  Then it was time for the big kickball game.  I did my best to make the teams even but my team got smoked by the other team and thankfully Graham was on the winning team.  The red team was Grant, Robby, Whit, Tara, Lilly, Eden, Anderson, Jason and Grannymom and we played our hearts out against the winning team. That yellow team was Graham, Aaron, Noah, Dana, Reagan, Campbell, Cash, Keaton, Grannymom and Sara.  
• We played 2 innings and then had to stop for a popsicle break.  Then it was back to the field for another round of ball.  Whitman enjoyed when the rest of us went back to the field because he was able to have as many popsicles as he wanted when everyone else was occupied.  After that round, it was finally cupcake time.  
• The wind, which hadn't blown all day long, started gusting as we lit the candles.  I was able to light just a few and we sang quickly while Graham blew out the candles.  While everyone ate the cupcakes, Graham opened his presents.  I believe my boy was pretty pleased with everything: a Michael's and Academy gift card, water balloon maker, the Action Bible, a blanket, boogie board, legos and a baseball glove.  My G was very happy with his presents and first laid them all out on the fireplace but by tonight, he was putting everything up where it belongs.  
• When Graham had finished opening all of his presents, it was pinata time.  Graham, Keaton and Campbell had worked on the pinata a day or two ago.  I poured some candy out of a few bags for them to get started with and when I returned all of the candy that I had poured out was in the pinata and all of the candy in those bags was also stuffed in the pinata.  The thing said that it would hold 2 pounds of candy but we had at least 5 pounds of candy in it-that meant a lot of candy for the kids when that pinata finally broke...now, I will have to start sneaking some of it out of their bags to trash it!  Goodness knows, we don't need any more candy.  
• After putting up all of our birthday party stuff, we had a fairly low key evening-just some hair washing getting ready for church tomorrow.  The day ended with supper and then a movie before bed.