Ethan's 8th Birthday

Ethan turned 8 on Saturday! He had really been looking forward to this one. He was excited for his baptism of course, which is coming up in July, but sometime years ago when he had asked for a pocketknife, we had said something like maybe when you turn 8. So he was certain he was going to get one for this birthday.

We started the celebrations off on Thursday night with a trip to Texas Roadhouse. It was really to celebrate Christian's surgery, my being done with work for the school year, and his birthday. He had a free kids meal birthday coupon, and Rebecca had a free appetizer coupon, so we only ended up ordering a full rack of ribs, and a hamburger, besides those two things and split it among all 7 of us. I usually fill up on rolls (I had 10 this time), so we still went home with lots of leftovers. And the best part of it all was it was free because we still had money on a gift card that my brother gave us.


On the saddle at Texas Roadhouse with his ice-cream while the workers sang to him.


On Friday we had a friend birthday party. Besides our kids, there were 11 of his friends that showed up. He really wanted to do a zombie theme for his party. So we set it up like there was a zombie outbreak and the kids had to find supplies to weather it through the storm. They paired up and each got a list that included water, granola bar, rope, a bag, and a ball. There were lots of these items hidden all over and some were marked as contaminated and others were clean - they could only grab the clean versions. We had planned to have them search through the ravine for these materials, but it was rainy so we had to do it all inside. Some of the kids got a little scared and tears were even shed out of fear, so I had to reassure them that there were no real zombies. Anyway, once they got all of their supplies, we played games that corresponded to each item. With the water we had a race to see which pair could finish off their water bottle the fastest. One of the girls kept on saying she was going to throw up. (I am sure Ethan is now going to have the reputation at school of having the dad you makes kids cry and throw up at birthday parties). Then, we the granola bars I had them race to see who could eat them the fastest without hands. For the balls, I pretended I was a zombie and they got to throw their balls at me. I think that was their favorite one. This particular game might have been better suited for a group of 5 year olds, because some of them could throw pretty hard and there were a few that were specifically aiming at my head. Last was a three legged race with the rope. I tied each game into a skill that they might need in a real zombie attack and overall I think it went well. Rebecca then fed them some cupcakes, they opened presents, and then just went crazy for 30 minutes or so until their parents arrived.





On Saturday we celebrated Ethan's birthday as a family. Unfortunately I had graduation ceremonies that day, so I was gone from 9:30 to 1:00. For breakfast Ethan ordered bacon, coco puffs, fried eggs, hashbrowns, and apple juice. For lunch he had nutella sandwiches, and for dinner he had grilled cheese sandwiches and a fruit and veggie platter. For his cake he asked for one called oreo freak out - which was a mint ice-cream cake with crushed oreos sprinkled all around it. Other than that we just played games as a family and watched a movie in the evening.





Ethan said he had a great time throughout the day. He is an awesome kid and we are really lucky to get to be his parents.