It's Great to be Eight!

Ethan turned eight on July 30, 2012.  It is so weird that I have an 8-year-old!  Where did the time go?  

Ever since I took Ethan to a Spy Kids movie at Movies 8 last year, he has been obsessed with everything Spy.  All year long during school at recess he would recruit fellow spies.  Whenever his teacher asked him to draw something, it always had to do with spies.  He is so into spies that if you tell him he is "imagining" or "pretending" he tells you, "No!  I really am a spy!"  So of course the theme for his party was Spy Kids.  This was the first time he had a party where he invited friends from school.  I did some online research on different spy parties and we came up with a plan.  

When they first got here I had badges with their picture on it, (scanned from the yearbook).  They cut them out, glued them together, and wrote their name on it.  After they had their badges they got disguise glasses and a mustache to wear and Bryan took their picture.  I still need to get those pictures from him, so I will have to upload those later.  The next activities were to "train" them to be spies.  First, they had to "diffuse a bomb".  I had Bryan blow up a bunch of small balloons and just one balloon had red confetti inside of it.  I dumped them out of a bag and they were all supposed to stomp on them and whoever found the red confetti balloon won; only the balloons were tough and wouldn't pop with the weight of the kids, so Bryan ended up stepping on most of them.  Ethan and his friend got a pin and were popping them and I think Jonah found the confetti balloon.  

The next task was to complete an obstacle course.  We had red string wrapped around the trees, which was supposed to be lasers beams that they had to climb over and under and not touch.  Then they had to football run through some rings, jump 10 times on the small trampoline, jump jack over to the bricks, walk across the bricks like a tight rope, and then squirt down a plastic cup with a Nerf water gun. 

While they were busy doing that I had Bryan go in and hide the presents on dryer.  I found a good scavenger hunt online.  When we came in I gave them another prize to put in their party bags and then exclaimed, "Someone's taken all the presents!"  There was a clue where the presents were supposed to be.  To make it more spy we did code ciphering.  It was written backwards.  It was a little hard for them to read, so I ended up reading most of them.  Some of the kids, especially Austin, were so upset the presents were gone and thought someone had really stolen them!  They ran around and found all the clues and we found the presents, phew!  They found out it was Bryan who took them and interrogated him :)  Ethan then opened his gifts and we had cake and ice cream.  It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted after!  This pregnancy has been a lot harder on me than the others.....well in different ways.  I was sicker with the other two, but this time I am just tired all the time!  Here are some pictures from his birthday....

Ethan's friend Austin

Liam

Cousin Layla

Dylan

Cami

Gabriel

Jamison

Jonah

Budget Spy Kids cake....printed off a picture and set it on toothpicks so that it was a little raised up.

Bryan and I gave Ethan a bike.  He's outgrown his and gave it to Austin.

Certified Spy Kids

Here are all the spies in their disguises!

The day before his birthday we had dinner at Bryan's parents and had a little family celebration for Ethan.  My mother-in-law is seriously like Martha Stewart, but better.

 We are so lucky to have Ethan in our family.  He is a very caring, sweet boy.  He is fun and has a great imagination.  He is also good at helping me clean things up!  We love you Ethan!