Ethan's Birthday

Ethan turned 9 last Sunday. Since it was a Fast Sunday, he wanted to wait to celebrate his birthday until this weekend. We did a friend birthday party yesterday and then all of the family celebrations today.

For his friend party he decided on a basketball theme. He was having troubling narrowing down his guests and he ended up inviting 14 of his friends and all of them ended up coming. We started off just shooting around on our hoop while his friends arrived. Then we played a game kind of like sharks and minnows, except with dribbling a ball across the court. Next we played a shooting relay game. Then we tried to split up into teams and play a tournament of games. But five-on-five on our court was just too crowded and they all ended up swarming whoever had the ball anyway. And the teams that were off just went crazy with all 10 of them on the trampoline at once. So we switched it to play a game where they listen for their number and then run after the ball. We did a couple of other short games after that, then presents and desert. Ethan ended up with 5 different guns (3 Nerf guns, one supersoaker, and one dart crossbow) as well as a bunch of other cool presents. I think the most used one so far has been a whoopee cushion.







Today we started off with early morning basketball. Ethan, Christian, and Elliott came to watch me play at the church. At least 20 people showed up, so we left after I played the first game. For breakfast Ethan picked cereal (coco-puffs and fruit loops) and bacon. Then we opened presents. All of the kids were very kind and thoughtful in what they gave him. That is probably my favorite part of celebrating birthdays, see what the children give each other. We played some Nerf gun wars for the rest of the morning. For lunch Ethan picked sandwiches. Some people did peanut butter and jelly, others did Nutella, there were also peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches, and Rebecca and I did egg salad ones. In the afternoon we went outside and played a few games of capture the flag. For dinner Ethan picked chicken nuggets and fries and then ice-cream cones for his birthday dessert. We ended the night with Spongebob.



Overall I think Ethan had a great birthday. We are so glad that he is part of our family. He sets a great example for all of us.





Although it has been really nice out for the past couple of weeks (70s+), today, out of nowhere, it started snowing. I tried to get it in these pictures, but it is still hard to tell.