Ninja Turtle Birthday Party

We had a great time at Miles' party on Saturday.  What a crowd.  Between daycare & school, it's very hard to narrow the list at all.  We had just over 50 kids & adults.  On Saturday morning, it was a little cloudy.  I started getting nervous.  There was only a 30% chance of rain, but what were we going to do with everyone if it rained??  Thankfully it didn't.  It was hot, but not as bad as it could have been.

Our good friend, Travis, took my camera over about 30 minutes into the party.  I had so many pictures that it was hard to decide between them.  I think this is the most pics I've ever had on one post.

It was hard to get Miles to be still for a few birthday pics before the party, but we managed...

With that out of the way, it was time for the party to start.  His friends started arriving...

Travis & Rachel are SUCH good friends.  How great is this?? When they showed up, they looked puzzled and said, "What? This wasn't a dress up party?"  Kidding, of course.

It was a major hit with the kids...

  

Everyone ate pizza...

...and sang Happy Birthday...

 

Miles loves the spotlight on his birthday.  Every year, the pics from his party have pure joy written all over them.

After eating, it was time for some serious jumping...

 

Some of the kids played in the tree house too...

Helping Miles open presents every year completely stresses me out.  I feel like we don't adequately thank everyone b/c he just tears them open one after another. Plus, all the kids are excited and want to "help" and get everything out of their packages.  He had more presents than I've ever seen at a party.  It was crazy.  I was sweating by the time we got through all of them.  He loved every minute of it.

Aunt Crystal, Uncle Steve, Olivia, and Ava got him the Octopod.  He's been wanting it so badly. His reaction was priceless.  The next day he randomly said, "I can't believe Aunt Crystal got me the Octopod."

Opening the Batman jail from Marmee...

 

He couldn't wait to tear into this big bag from Granny & Pa...

A baseball bat, glove, ball & tee makes for one happy little boy...

Several of the volleyball girls came to wish him a happy birthday.

One of the girls & her family got him a Chicago Bears jersey.  Thank you???  Totally kidding, he loved it and that's probably all it took to make him Bears fan. Darrin & I aren't that easy, just so you know.  It's going to take some Garrett's popcorn or something.

This gun was a hit.  Uncle Steve helped put it together...

It looks like I'm in a stand off with a bunch of 5 year olds...

If you are opposed to kids playing with guns, our house is probably not the place for you.  The kids loved the jumpy, but next year, I think I'll just throw a bunch of weapons out in the yard and call it a party...

 

I think the adults had fun hanging out too...as much fun as you can have a 5 year old's birthday party...

 

After everyone went home, we were playing with some of his new toys and Miles said, "Thank you for my awesome birthday party." And...that's why we do it. 

Weekend Wrap Up

We had a great time celebrating Miles' birthday this weekend.  I have almost 450 pictures from the party, but I am one tired mom.  Miles & I are going to watch volleyball practice for a little while & then chill for the rest of the night.  More pics coming soon.  Hope your weekend was great!

5 Year Check Up

Miles had his 5 year check up with Dr. Bates last week.  We didn't tell him in advance b/c he would have worried himself sick about it.  I scheduled it a couple weeks early so that Darrin could go with us before he started preseason.  I could barely hold him down for the shots at his 4 year check up, so I didn't stand a chance this year without some reinforcement. 

Dr. Bates has a new office, complete with a play area.  It's all fun and games in the waiting room...

I'm thankful for several consistencies in Miles' life thus far...Dr. Bates, our daycare, our church, to name a few.  Our favorite nurse, Donya, has been with us from the beginning.

Miles weighed 42.5 lbs (64th percentile) and was 44" tall (75th percentile).  They start measuring BMI at age 5.  Miles' BMI was 15.5 (51st percentile).  Dr. Bates said you couldn't get any more average than that, which is good.

He did great for the exam...

...and then we broke the news about the shots. It did not go over well.at.all.  No kids like shots. I get that. Miles is on a playing field all to himself. It was traumatic.  Don't ask why, but I tend to laugh when he cries that hard. I guess it's nervous energy.  I had to look away while I was holding him down with Darrin & Donya.  It took all three of us for 2 shots. 

 

He had pizza, a root beer float, and a trip to the library afterwards to help him recover. Thank you, Lord, for a healthy boy. Glad that's over!

Photo Dump & Insomnia

I'm running on very little sleep here.  For whatever reason, I was up for at least half of the night.  Call it what you will...insomnia or maybe just a snoring husband. I finally moved to the guest bedroom at 3am hoping to salvage a couple hours of sleep.  My mind was racing and when I did sleep, I had the strangest dreams.  They've been coming back to me all day long.  I was up solid from 3-5am.  Usually when I can't sleep, I just lay there hoping to eventually fall back asleep.  I was so awake at 3am that I debated getting up and actually accomplishing something.

Here's my list of what I debated doing at 3am:

1)  Getting the curtains ready to hang in my sunroom.  I need Darrin to hang them, but I thought if I were to get the curtain rods out of the boxes and put the curtains on the rods, that it wouldn't take as long once he has a free minute to help me.

2)  Going to the gym.  Laughable.  I am not an early morning work out kind of person.

3)  Doing a little food prep.  I went to the grocery store yesterday, but I didn't have time to wash all the fruits & veggies or cut & separate my meat like I usually do.  This was the worst of all the possibilities and it was quickly dismissed.  I don't mind grocery shopping, but I am not a fan of doing all the food prep.  I do it to make my life easier during the week & to ensure that we eat healthy as often as possible, but I loathe every minute of it. 

4)  Watching Monday's episode of Bachelor Pad. This was a promising idea, but it wasn't enticing enough.

5)  Blogging. I thought about it since I haven't blogged in a couple days, but then decided against it.  Here's what I would have blogged about if I had actually gotten up.  Just a random assortment of pics from my phone...

Miles & Cambry taking a break from playing to eat some grapes...

Granny gave Miles a lantern for his tree house. We actually misplaced it for several days after he brought it home. We were going crazy trying to find it.  It was finally discovered at the neighbor's house.  Apparently Miles had taken it over there to show them and then left it there.

Marmee sent Miles a package in the mail.  He loves getting mail...

I celebrated 13 years at my job.  My boss had these delivered.  So thoughtful...

I was eating an apple at work the other day only to discover that Miles had stabbed it with a fork a couple times.  There was also a huge bruise where he dropped it.  I finally gave up after trying to dodge all the holes & bruises.

Miles has a new neighbor friend named Chloe.  They are super cute together.  Every day after school, Miles ask me to "text Ms. Beth to see if Chloe can come play".  I'm trying to break him of relentlessly knocking on people's doors without an invitation. 

Miles wrote this at school yesterday..."Best isy Neele".  When I asked him what it said, he replied, "Neeley is best".  She is a friend from school.  Her mom and I were sorority sisters, so naturally we think it's adorable.

 

A glow stick in the bathtub never gets old...

 

I noticed Miles was wearing his pen on his shirt the other day. I asked him who did that & he said that Pa did. 

 

So, now we are caught up on my sleepless night & all the pics from my phone.  Here's hoping for a better night sleep tonight.  If it doesn't happen, I'm definitely getting up and doing something!