Joseph's Party

Joseph decided he wanted a Beyblade birthday party this year.  As we began to look for ideas online, we came across the basic plan for a Beyblade tournament party and we were off and running.  Once all the RSVP's came back, we saw that we would have 8 participants in our tournament.  With the help of teamopolis.com, we set up an 8-player round-robin "regular season" where every player got to battle every other player.  We had 4 stadiums, so that took us 7 rounds.  (I would show you a picture of the schedule, but I want to protect the privacy of kids' names.)

 (Tony and Jeremiah took turns launching Jeremiah's beyblade to try to keep things fair).

 (Can you tell Joshua beat Joseph here?  Check out Joseph's face.  They ended up tied for wins and losses at the end of the regular season, so this battle meant Joshua was seeded higher.)

After the regular season, we entered the championship tournament, seeded based on regular-season standings.  One of my favorite moments was when a player who had not lost all day lost the second battle of his best-of-three match.  Seeking any advantage he could get over his competitor, he asked him, "Did you go to church this morning?  I did. And I prayed."   We'll have to have a chat with him some day about unmerited grace versus earning God's favor.  : )

When all was said and done, #3 seed Joseph came in 2nd place, upsetting his #2 seed brother (who wasn't all that upset). 

Then it was time for presents:

and cake.  I had planned to make the cake look like a whole beyblade, but Joseph decided that would be too difficult.  He just wanted a Libra facebolt (part of the beyblade).  He helped make the design and wrote the word.

One of my other favorite parts of the party was when it was winding down.  Joshua decided he would go practice his piano (really!) which drew the other boys to that room.  Many of the 9 and 10 year olds proceded to play with the train table.  Maybe they're not so grown up after all!



Joseph's 10th Birthday

My firstborn turned 10 last week.  Which is strange, because his mother is still 29.

Joseph's birthday was Wednesday.  Tuesday night, after Joseph was in bed, I got his brothers up so they could decorate the kitchen windows for the birthday boy.

Jeremiah adding flames to the candles and cake we drew together:

The finished products:

Joshua really loved the window crayons, and added more things over the next several days.

After school Wednesday we went to Yogurt Mountain, opened the grandparents' gifts while on Skype with them, and went to a Mexican Restaurant for supper.  Finally, half an hour before bedtime, it was time to open presents from us:

Here is Joseph opening the Ninjago gift he was wanting but wasn't sure I remembered:

Clearly, we could have gotten him just this and he would have been sufficiently excited. 

However, we had also gotten him an ipod touch that he was not anticipating at all.  Let's watch him open it:

 (realization is dawning...)

And so it begins: brothers huddled around, watching him play on a tiny screen:

Happy Birthday, Joseph!

(Birthday party post to follow.)

Bike-Riding Pros

Last weekend we went to the church parking lot so Joshua could hone his newfound bike-riding skills.

He's not extremely confident with hills yet, but he can circle the traffic islands like a pro.  He told Tony he is ready for him to take the "balance buddy" handle off the back of his bike.

Jeremiah did well on his bike with training wheels.  He loved going really fast down the big hills, but since he doesn't know how to brake well that meant I had to run along beside him to stop him at the bottom.  He did get enough momentum going around the island that he could make it around the little uphill part on his own without stopping.

Joshua can even pass his brother with confidence!

Meanwhile, Joseph goes wherever he wants on the parking lot, always looking out for teenagers learning to drive on the lot (more common than you might think).

Ready to load up and head home: