Walk The Plank

This Saturday, Number One Son hosted a pirate party for some of his friends. Since he has a summer birthday, Lady Di thought it would be nice to invite some of N1S's new 3rd grade classmates to a pre-Halloween Pirate Party. N1S's guest list included everyone from his class, everyone from his Sunday school class and a few others. Since we are not related to Johnny Depp, and his bank account, we whittled the list down to eight close friends which eventually grew to twelve.

Lady Di was in charge of the food. I tackled the games and decorations. We had pizza and cupcakes. Typical kid party food. Since this wasn't actually N1S's birthday, we just wanted the kids to eat and play games. A few guests brought gifts anyway, much to N1S's delight.

We started the Pirate Party off with a good, old fashioned vest decorating. What? You haven't heard of that before? Well, Lady Di had this great idea. She got some black material on clearance and sewed it into twelve or so simple vests. Then we got some glue guns and a tub of Gramma Ollie's multi-colored beads and let the kids decorate their vests with 'pirate jewels'. Some kids were really into placing their beads in certain patterns and certain colors. Others tried to see how long of a glue strand they could get all over themselves. Once the vests were properly adorned, and glue gun burns properly bandaged (my own), we brought out the paper bags for the treasure hunt. The kids used markers to write their names on the bags. Most of the boys also drew skeletons and various pirate themed pictures on their bags, many with realistic bloody battles. With an emphasis on the blood.

Once the bags were done, it was pizza time. I prepared the treasure hunt while the kids were chowing down. We had around nine stations set up in the backyard with a clue and a pirate prize at each one. As the boys found each clue, they got to put a prize in their bag. We divided the boys into teams of three. While one team worked on the hunt, we tried to entertain the rest of the group with a game of Simon Says. We were immediately informed that Simon Says is no longer the 'in' game. The boys taught us a game called, "I Love You Honey, But I Just Can't Smile". You basically stand in a circle and say to the person next to you, "I love you Honey, but I just can't smile". If the person who is listening smiles, they have to sit down. A couple of the boys couldn't even keep a straight face before they heard the first word. When it was N1S's turn he said, "I love you Honey......, what was I supposed to say again?" The best player at the party was his sister Sweet Pea. She stared stone faced at the third grader next to her, daring him to make her smile. She is going to be trouble for the boys in Junior High, I'm afraid.

Once all the teams had located the treasure, we had to do something else with the unruly mob. It's amazing how fast those games go when third grade boys play them. The games seemed to last a lot longer on paper.

Anyway, the next game was 'tie an apple on a string and see who can bite it first without using their hands'. Can you tell I don't know the real name for this game. About three of the boys had mouths big enough to bite half of the apple. The good thing was that almost every boy wanted to finish his apple regardless if they won or not. At least they got something healthy that day.

Our last game of the evening was 'Walk the Plank'. You can't have a pirate party without that. We blindfolded each boy and led each one around the yard to a long board plank. One end of the plank was elevated about six inches. It is supposed to seem a lot higher when you are blindfolded. When the boy would reach the end of the plank I would yell 'jump' and would usually have to nudge them off a little. I would say about half of the boys were fooled.

After the plank it was group picture time and then cupcakes. Luckily, we had just enough activities planned to reach the time that parents started showing up. The parents got to see their fine young boys racing around with cupcake highs, trying to skewer each other with their new plastic pirate daggers. I'm sure we impressed.

We didn't want to throw another birthday party. We just wanted a party for N1S and some of his old and new friends. He got to get some peer interaction practice and hopefully, his friends got to know him a little better. The party seemed to be a success, as all of the boys pretty much got along. They all participated in all of the games. We paired up boys differently for each game and they all seemed to enjoy themselves.

This would be fun to do again next year. I will have to think up something a little more scary than 'walk the plank' though. And the treasure hunt will definitely involve some sort of monster jumping out of something. And probably more blood too.

Lego My Birthday

Number One Son turned nine years old on Saturday. Almost a decade. Where does the time go? We planned a trip for him and a friend to the Mall of America for his birthday. What nine year old wouldn't want to risk life and limb at a carnival park and go to Lego Land?

We got up bright and early on Saturday (8:30am) and got ready to go to the 'Mall'. The MOA has an indoor amusement park formally known as Camp Snoopy. It is now the Park at the MOA because they didn't want to pay Charles Schulz's family any more money. Anyway, we got there and bought our all-day wrist bands. Lady Di, in a moment of fiscal awareness, suggested that we save some money and not buy her a wrist band. This had less to do with frugality and more to do with Lady Di's sheer terror of any rides faster than the carousel.

Since we arrived at 10am the park was emptier than usual. There were virtually no lines for rides and the kids and I could ride multiple times in a row. The best ride is called the 'Twister'. It is a roller coaster which has a four seat car that spins as it rolls along the track. The last time we were here was about a year and a half ago. What a difference that made. N1S was just a little too short for the really cool rides then. Now, he and his friend, sought out only the most terrifying rides and laughed when Sweet Pea's more tame rides were mentioned.

"I am not going on the Merry-Go-Round.", he firmly stated.

At noon we dragged the kids away from the 'Log Chute' to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe. It was pretty cool. It was decorated in rain forest trees and animals, of course. It had multiple gigantic fish tanks with large colorful fish. Every once in a while the lights would dim and thunder would rumble through the restaurant. Some animatronic monkeys would chatter and move at random too. I know they were robots, but I think one of them stole a few of my fries. N1S mentioned his birthday to the staff and they brought out a 'Volcano'. Three chocolate brownies stacked around a mound of ice cream topped with a sparkler. Pretty cool.

After lunch we spent some time ($$$) in Lego Land to settle our stomachs before our second round of carnival rides. In the afternoon, I took Sweet Pea on all of her rides and Lady Di watched the boys take on the big ones.

We got home in time for a late supper and straight to bed. The kids were exhausted and so were we. It was a lot of fun though. I hope we can make it back this winter. N1S and I can ride the cool rides and Sweet Pea can coax Lady Di onto the Lil' Shaver coaster.

The next day we let N1S open a couple of presents. He got a cool piggy bank from Gramma Bev and Grampa Ray. Complete with coins. And a Batman Lego set from us. This should keep him busy for a few days.

Now, all we have to do is start planning N1S's classmate party in a few weeks. Since he has a summer birthday, we thought it would be OK to have another party and invite some of his new 3rd grade classmates. It will be a pirate party. I am converting the kids' clubhouse into a pirate ship and Lady Di is getting costumes and other decorations ready.

So, how many birthdays does a kid really need? I guess when family lives far away and calendars are so busy, any day can be a birthday celebration. Heck, it's gotta be someone's birthday somewhere. As long as there is cake, I will be there.

May is Movie Month

I'm in a movie rut. Parents with kids know that going to a movie is a pretty rare treat. Many obstacles usually block any kind of a meaningful night out with your sweetie. First you need to pick a day that isn't booked with baseball, soccer, piano, chest club, field trip, conferences, birthday, wedding, funeral, Dancing with the Stars, Etc. Then you have to examine your finances to see if you qualify for a Baby Sitter Loan. Especially if you have to pick them up and drive them home, with today's gas prices. So we finally pick an open date. And luckily we find a baby sitter with an opening in her schedule. Now we have to pick something to do.

Hmmmm......

Skydiving? Spelunking? Square Dancing?

All right, dinner and a movie. I didn't say I was creative.

I generally like to eat out and see a movie. I, of course, like action movies in the theater. A movie with only a good story can be watched anywhere. But I get the most bang for my buck (or $7) from a special effects movie in the theater. Did I mention a movie rut? We generally don't go to the movies often but this month I have seen 3 whole movies. Can you believe it?

The first movie Lady Di and I saw this month was Spiderman 3. I'm sorry but I was a little disappointed. Not even the IMAX screen could help Spidey live up to the hype. Although, when the Sandman was about to make an appearance in the film, our seats were actually vibrating due to the decibel rumbling IMAX speakers. Rock on THX!

The second movie of the month was Shrek 3. OK, so this one wasn't a date. This one involved Emery's five year old birthday party. We only have one van so Lady Di and I borrowed our neighbor's van and loaded 9 five year olds and 2 eight year olds into both vans and headed for the cinema. The kids did a great job sitting through the whole film. I liked the first two Shrek films, but the third one was a bit slow until the end. If you can wait in the lobby eating 'free refill popcorn' until the last 15 minutes of the movie, you'll come out ahead.

9, five year olds and 2, 8 year olds

The last movie of May was Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End. My neighbor invited me for a guy's night out. I don't think I've been on one of those since the early nineties. Anyway, this movie was definitely the best one of the month. It was a little long in spots, but overall, very swashbuckling.

Not Johnny Depp

So, does anyone notice the subtle theme of my movie viewing? The last three movies I have seen are all third movie sequels. Is this all Hollywood has to offer? Or am I too cheap to splurge on a movie with thinking in it? Are you allowed to refill your popcorn bucket 3 times?

Ahoy, Matey!

This weekend our son Ethan performed in his first musical play. The play is called Kokonut Kapers. This was a performance for 2nd through 6th graders. Ethan is one of a group of 'bloodthirsty' (singing and dancing) pirates. The play was very cute and the kids did a great job. They worked hard for the last two months. My hat's off to the directors of the play. The directors had two sets of about 40 kids to coach and direct and I didn't envy their job at all.
Ethan was part of a group of four pirates. They danced and marched with their swords and sang in the chorus. They each had head scarves, one earring, make-up beards and an eye patch. We were pretty proud. The kids were well prepared and Ethan was all business on stage. He didn't miss a cue.
At intermission, the audience got the chance to drop notes or cards into 'star' boxes that members of the cast had decorated themselves. People left cards, candy, flowers or other nice notes of congratulations in their boxes. Ethan got some baseball cards, an action figure and some candy in his box. He was pretty excited.
Emery was also excited, since she got some candy with a note too. Good thinking Lady Di. Although, Emery was counting Ethan's stuff to compare with her own.
Overall, this has been a great adventure for Ethan. He made new friends, learned about how a play is produced, and got to experience a performance. We hope his interest in the fine arts will continue. He has good rhythm and can sing pretty well. With his good memory and ease on stage, maybe he will get a speaking part in the next play.
It was a big day for Ethan. His two sets of grandparents and Great Gramma Peg got to see him perform. After the show we all celebrated at Ethan's favorite restaurant, Applebee's. His Auntie Sue and Uncle Tom will get to see him for tomorrow's performance.
I hope he can get some sleep tonight. His big day made him too keyed up to sleep right away. It will be fun to see the second performance. It usually is more relaxed and more fun. Maybe, Ethan will ad lib some pirate lines.
Arrrrrrr!