Our plans today didn't originally include cake, but we knew the kids would be disappointed. So, Becky got herself a chocolate cake, you know, for the kids. Happy Birthday Sweetie!
Becky planned this year's P3 Valentine's party for Aaron's class. There were games, valentine distribution, and of course, Valentine cookies. Guess what Aaron's favorite part was. :)
Our littlest munchkin turned 4 today. As usual, he's been acting like a 4 year-old for several months now. He is a big time reader, loves to play just about any game and go on any adventure. Since it was a school day for Alex (but not for Aaron on Mondays), we saved most of the celebrating for after school. Remember, we had just come back from Kalahari Resort the weekend before. We did take him to breakfast at Cracker Barrel - I think we may have him convinced that it is his favorite place to eat breakfast out, while really it is ours.
He had a lot of fun opening up his presents, as expected. It blew his mind a little when a wrapped package compared his 48 months old to his Grammy's 708 months and Grandpa's 814 months. Don't worry, you'll get there too someday kid (if you eat your vegetables).
When we let him pick where he wanted to have dinner, it was no surprise that it was at Chuck E. Cheese's. Maybe he'll try pizza as a 4 year old. It is a little odd packing him a meal into his favorite restaurant. Though to his credit, the pizza probably is not the best part of Chuck E. Cheese's.
The highlight of the night was Aaron's Grand Star Cake that Becky made him. Of course, both boys are big fans of Mario videogames, and the Grand Star is the big prize for completing major levels of the newest one, Super Mario Galaxy. Becky found a large star cake pan, made him a cake filled with candied "star bits", frosted it with the right color of golden frosting, sprinkled it with sugary glitter, and gave it Pepperidge Farm cookie eyes. Needless to say, it was a big hit and capped off the day in a really fun way. Time is so compressed at this age. This last year constituted a full quarter of his life so far. While the first quarter was cute and sweet, this last quarter has been the most fun for us, and I think for him.
Today we began the 1st day of a 3-day weekend celbration of Aaron's birthday. He was so happy to get to go to Kalahari Indoor Resort and Waterpark for his "birthday weekend". Kalahari is also in Sandusky along with the Great Wolf Lodge and Castaway Bay (Where we spent his 1st birthday). As you'd expect it had an African theme. Many of the waterpark activities were made for older kids with lots of big slides and 2 separate "Flowrider" attractions that pushes water up a hill allowing you to attempt to surf on the effective wave. Instead we enjoyed the Climbing Fort, the Lazy River, the Wave pool, and the Hot Tub. (These all had cute African names, but I've since forgotten them all.)
After we dried off and had dinner we burned off a few calories playing in the arcade, including an exhilirating run of Mario kart which the kids expectedly ate up.
Before bed we let Aaron open a "monkey box" full of small presents for his Birthday and played with a few of those before bedtime. Then we had to get a good night's rest so we could do it all again in the morning.
Becky assembled the scouts of pack 90 and their families for a pizza & movie party tonight. We advertised it to the whole school, hoping to get some more kids interested. One extra kid and his dad showed up tonight - the dad had been a boy scout and believed in the Scouts as a way to help raise young men. Becky put together a great display of the Scouts and their adventures so far this year.
Wolf Den member Nicolai and I demonstrated what he had learned this year about folding the flag in the school cafeteria.
Alex and Aaron got to spend the first Friday of their winter break at one of their friends' houses. This family has 5 kids with kids both Aaron & Alex's ages. While Aaron got to attend a birthday party there in the morning (and check out the 5 Munchkin swing), Alex got to spend the afternoon there for a holiday craft party.
Today our firstborn became an 8 year-old. He opened a few presents after breakfast, including this stringless electric guitar from Nana & Papa Evans. He loves rocking out with it. It even has a teaching mode that walks him through 8 progressively harder rock songs. 
He had never been to the new Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, so today we took a self-guided tour. One of the large display areas was full of glass jewelry which Becky and her mom loved looking at for inspiration. We sat in a heavily air-conditioned audience and watched a glass blowing demonstration, where the artist made a colored vase in front of our eyes.
He got to blow out a huge 8 on his ice cream cake and open a few more presents after lunch. We played with some of his presents and let his brother catch a little nap.
Alex got to pick the restaurant for dinner and he chose the Elephant Bar at the local mall where we celebrated Becky's birthday. The boys had a great time and got to take home the chimp goggles that came with the kids menus. Aaron is holding Podo, his new puppy that he got to open on his brother's birthday (to keep him out of his brother's presents).
As P-3 Grade Parent, Becky was in charge of helping Aaron's class plan and execute holiday parties. The first one was today's Halloween party. She got a lot of help from other parents which helped her divide the classroom up into game, craft, and snack stations. She developed a few fun games for this age group, including tossing "pumpkin" beanbags into a cauldron and bowling over some ghosts built from a toy bowling set. They ended with a long parade through the school showing off their costumes.
She then came over to help with Alex's Primary class party. It has become a tradition for her to set up a "touchy-feely" station where the kids stick their hands into decorated pumpkins that contain an icky item for them to feel and guess what's in there. This year she had them feel Vampire Bat Wing Bones (dry Ramen noodles), Hairy Werewolf Noses (unpeeled lychee nuts), Giant Ogre Ears (cactus leaves, needles removed), Zombie Veins laced with Maggots (cold cooked penne and rotini), and Evil Troll Eyeballs (peeled lychee nuts). Another big hit, but all this success comes with a price. After 4 years, she's running out of things to put in there. We trust her creativity and can't wait until next year.
The Boy Scouts held a Halloween party for the Cub Scouts out at Camp Miakonda. This was our first year for this, but it won't be our last. They had one Friday night, but it was rainy, so we came to the daytime one today. The kids got dressed up as Mario and Yoshi - two characters from their favorite videogame, Super Mario Sunshine. Everyone seemed to recognize them, even many of the adults. They went from station to station and played games, got their face painted, or went through a haunted cabin. They even had a haunted fort set up at the back of camp. Aaron sat out of the haunted houses. Each of the stations gave them a treat - one of the stations gave out a banana.
The games were relatively easy and they gave out the same amount of candy whether you won the game or not. The Council lodge had a snack station set up, so we paused for some hot chocolate, root beer floats and a taste of the treats they had gotten so far.
One of the special parts was a haunted forest hay ride where ghouls and goblins jumped out at us. We were warned that they wouldn't actually touch us, so we were asked to please not throw candy at them. It was fun and would've been a lot creepier at night. Becky got this picture of a sweet moment between the boys before we got under way. This party was better organized and more fun than ones we've tried at the zoo, so we'll be back next year.
We gathered again this year for the PreSchool Pumpkin carving party. Aaron colored his pumpkin red and ate lots of snacks.
Alex tried to cut out a "BEWARE!" sign from the back of his pumpkin, but it proved to be very difficult to complete during the party. So instead, he designed a scary face with eyebrows a hacked it out with me holding it in his lap.
Beware indeed!
Alex and Aaron were invited to a pirate themed party this evening for their friend Evan. They had a blast getting dressed up in pirate costumes and getting "tattoos" painted on their arms by Becky. Alex even drew his own treasure map as a prop to go along with the spyglass my nurse gave him.
Evan's parents planned a real treasure hunt and sent two teams of kids all around the house with rhyming clues. Each team had a treasure chest at the end filled with candy and gold coins (and some candy gold coins).
His mom made this beautiful cake. The ship, people, tree, and candle are not edible. The sand and water are.
Evan had a great time, and we had a great time sharing in his pirate adventure.
Today my family celebrated my 36th anniversary of my arrival on the planet with breakfast, presents, a song composed by Alex and performed by all three of them, and of course....
...strawberry pie! Becky has been making one of these for my birthday for years. This one is decorated with candles in the shape of my age. Here's to the next 36. Pass the Cool Whip.
Aaron woke up very excitedly this morning and came downstairs to his new workbench with working drill press and rotary saw. 
We had to open presents in batches again, like Christmas. As usual, it was hard to open one and then move on to the next without playing with the one he just opened. Alex spent some of his own allowance money to buy him this Diego 123 game.
While all the kids arrived, they decorated a T-shirt for Aaron with fabric markers. Some drew their own pictures, some signed it, some colored in the line drawing on the shirt.
The party then moved to large inflatable "bounce-arinos" (as we call them) including a moon jump, a maze race (that's Aaron coming down the slide of one), and an even larger slide that the bigger kids tackled.
Then we moved into a group play area and played some group games - musical floor spots (think musical chairs with large plastic spots), relay races, and parachute games (above). If there were other groups here, they would be going to the inflatable area while we were here.
Next came the carnival area with kid-sized carnival games that they could play for prizes by spending tokens they received when they got here. 
Then we moved to the party room which was decked out in 1970's furnishings (chosen because it was connected to the 1980's room where we had food for the adults - they also offer a 1950's room). There we had pizza they provided (very tasty) and some fruit and snack food we brought. Then the kids decorated their own cupcake and sang "Happy Birthday" to Aaron.
They made him a ballon hat and overall made him feel very special. Because of the size of our party, we were helped by 2 Party Heroes that handled everything and did a great job. To get the kids out, they offered them a free chance with one of those "claw" crane toy dispensers to augment the gift bags that they put together for us. Several of the kids there want to have their next birthday party here - including Alex - so we will certainly be back.
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