Seven

Owen turned seven!

 Request for breakfast: french toast and Dad's special sauce {powdered sugar and butter}.

 Smile...at the camera? 

The boys all ready to go to church on Owen's birthday.

We met my parents and brother {who was there for the Sundance Festival} for dinner Saturday night at Owen's favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. We ended up skipping the aquarium because Owen really wanted a friend party instead.

My brother had to head home but my parents came up for dinner Sunday night. Owen requested ham and mashed potatoes with gravy...his new second favorites. At first he wanted Talapia but we reminded him that he would be eating fish at Red Lobster. This boy likes his fish.

 Grandma brought some cupcakes. Boy...that was a lot of candles for a cupcake. :) You're getting old Owen! :)

 We love the trick candles in this house. Took a few blows.

 Reid sure loved the cupcakes.

 Ha ha...what a face. It looks like he's embarrassed that I caught him licking the frosting head on or something.

Oh and notice...Finn McMissile goes pretty much wherever Reid goes.

As I mentioned, Owen changed his mind last minute and wanted a friend party. We kept the guest list small but still had a good time.

Owen is obsessed with ocean animals lately. There is a gallery wall of ocean animal coloring sheets that he's colored in Reid and Owen's bedroom. So I thought it appropriate to have an underwater ocean party for him.

Last year we invited 9 kids and all of them came. This year we only invited 5 and 3 came. At first I was sad that we didn't invite more kids, but these boys are all best buds and were not shy at all. Not shy at all = rowdy, wrestling, really loud fun! :)

 We made these little snowglobe aquariums before lunch. The kids surprisingly really liked this activity. I wasn't sure how it was going to pan out.

We had starfish PB&J sandwiches, squid dogs {hot dogs with noodle legs}, goldfish crackers and grapes. Owen loves sea food and fish but I thought it best to keep the food kid friendly for his party.

 Cheesy shark teeth.

 A squid cake.

 Don't eat Pete! The kids loved this game. It was so gross {for me} though to see all the spit spray over the board every time they yelled, "Don't eat Pete!" blech... ha ha...

When the person who was "it" would go into the next room, they would try to decide on who was Pete and Owen would say the name of the animal loudly so they would have to pick a new Pete almost every time. He used their real names though, like Marlin and Lemon Shark which, it seemed that he was the only one who really knew which ones those were. He sure loves his sea animals. :)

 Balloon seaweed.

 The point was to see how long they could keep the shark afloat with their seaweed, but they ended up just going wild and wrestling around.

 We then played pass the shark to the Jaws theme...a lot like hot potato and musical chairs. It worked a lot better.

 Blowing out the trick candles again.

 He got a little help from his friends this time.

 Oooh a tentacle. Reid loved being a part of all the party fun and the boys were really good about tolerating/including a 3 year old.

 I worked pretty hard on this cake the night before. It slumped overnight and started to tear at the top, but Owen loved it anyway.

 There was a TON of cake and so I gave the kids as much as they wanted. Their eyes were definitely bigger than their stomachs. Most of them ate the parts of the squid that they wanted and then left the rest.

Owen loved having his friends over to party. He plays with one of the boys outside of school almost weekly, but the rest I didn't know as well. So it was fun for us to meet them.

I realized this time around that I should have had Owen help me more. Jared was pretty sick the weekend of the party and only popped in to help a bit here and there as he was able. I kept wanting the kids {mostly Reid} out of my hair as I got everything ready in the morning. At the last minute I had Owen skewer grapes for me. He was SO helpful and capable. Since he's our first I sometimes forget to include him more and give him more responsibility. He was so proud too to share with his friends that he "made the grape coral." Now I keep thinking..."Man, I should have had him stuffing goody bags, oh and making the sandwiches..."

Days later Owen said, next time let's have a pizza party! Sigh...I'm glad my kids don't have birthdays super close together because I am wasted! Those ready made parties at the Fun Center are starting to seem worth the money. :) Reid will be old enough this year to have a real party. He's already feeding me ideas of what to plan for him.

Thankfully I have until September!


In all seriousness, I do love celebrating my kids.

Owen is growing into a very responsible, respectful, smart young man. We sure love him a lot!