Happy Birthday Nathan

Can you believe I have a son in the double digits?!  Nathan turned 10 today.  WOW!  He is getting SO old and SO mature.  The boys woke up to 2 dozen balloons in their room.  They loved it.  I had to bribe them with presents to get them dressed and out of the room.  We gave both of the boys their presents today since they were the same thing and thankfully they didn't complain.  I think the bean bag chairs were a hit.  When I went upstairs to tell the boys it was bed time, they were both laying on the chairs, reading.

For lunch Nathan wanted to go out to Texas Roadhouse.  He was elected "Mighty Mustang" this week from his teacher and got a free kids meal to there.  Somewhere he heard that Texas Roadhouse has great rolls so he REALLY wanted to go there.  I picked a chicken and mushroom dish that was delicious, and those rolls didn't disappoint either.  Nathan was a little apprehensive to get on the birthday saddle, but he indulged our waiter.  It is always fun to go out to lunch with the kids.  Sometimes I have Callie, but just having 1 or 2 kids is so much nicer.  We can talk and laugh and be more relaxed.  I try to do it every month or every other month.

When we got back to the school we took doughnut holes to Nathan's class.  The class all sang to him and made him turn bright red.  Then I took the other half of donuts to Ryan's class.
We have been planning Nate's party for awhile.  He came up with a list of 9 friends he wanted to invite and all but one made it.  We had a spy themed party.  The invitations were written in code and from moms or the kids themselves, I heard they were a big hit.
When the boys first got there we made marshmallow bazookas out of balloons and cups.  It was a little harder than I thought it would be for the boys, and they didn't work as well, but it was something fun to try.  Next we ate some pizza.  I bought 4 pizzas and we only had 4 pieces left!  I was worried that I'd have a whole pizza, but those 10 year old boys devoured them.  Next we went outside and did some target practice.  Nathan had set up two empty bookshelves full of toys for the boys to aim at.  We tried the bazookas, but like I said they didn't work well.  Good thing I had nerf guns as well.  The boys took turns and had lots of fun trying to knock down a bionicle, a polly pocket, or a plastic animal.  One boy said to me, "I am going to set up one of these tomorrow!"

Next we gathered the boys together down stairs and said they were ready to go on their mission.  We passed out their ID cards and on one side was a secret code that we had "intercepted" and that they needed to solve.  Greg is really good at coming up with cool things to say about what the mission is about.  The next activity was getting through a land mine field.  We had black balloons that the boys had to get through, and pop, without touching them with their hands.  Greg said something cool about why but I can't remember.  The boys had a lot of fun and it wasn't until they were all popped that someone noticed that something had been in the balloons.  The first code!  The boys started to decipher the code, which was really hard for some, but son realized that it still wasn't complete.
Next we split the boys into two teams and gave them all flashlights and each team got a picture clue.  They were to follow the clues outside to get to the "package."  There were pictures to guide them to the next picture clue.  I was really excited about this game but forgot to tell the boys they could only take clues with their color on it.  I thought Annabelle and I had hid them well, but I think someone took one clue (it was missing) and so one team just started looking for any clue.  It kind of got messed up but everyone was having fun so oh well.  At the end of the search we had our other key and we went inside to start deciphering the rest of the code.

It said, "Congratulations! The bag is through the lasers upstairs."  I was really excited about this part.  I had strung the hallway with string and we had the boys take turns trying to get through it, without crawling under.  We tried it a few times, first not letting the boys touch the string, then letting them touch 3 times, and finally letting them crawl under (Greg said something about us figuring out how to turn some of the lasers off).  The boys loved this and in the middle one boy came up and said, "Thanks for inviting me to this party."  I thought he was leaving early, but he was just having fun. 
Once everyone made it through the maze we had cake and ice cream and opened presents. After the spanking machine Nathan was spoiled by his friends and we have had fun learning 4 square with his new ball and playing with his other toys.  He also got a bunch of money to Target that I am sure he will have fun with.

For the last 15-20 minutes Greg took the boys outside and they ran around with their flashlights.  They did tag, races and I am not sure what else.  It sounded like they were having a blast and I was so glad that the weather has been so warm for February that they were able to go outside.  I was able to get a good part of the clean up done before the party was even over. 

 All in all it was a fabulous party and the kids all seemed to have had a blast.  When Nathan told me a few of the names of people he invited I wasn't sure that he knew those boys that well.  But, I really enjoyed getting to know some new boys and I was happy to see Nathan branching out and having a variety of friends.  Nathan is getting so mature lately.  He is so quick to help and do his homework and chores.  He is great with Callie and I look forward to a day when I can leave him to baby-sit (we will save SO much money).  Nathan still loves to read and play video games, but he is also learning more about basketball and with each game gets more and more aggressive.  Nathan is in his fourth year of playing the piano and I am always amazed at how well he can play.  I am so grateful my parents gave us the piano years ago, and even more grateful that Nathan loves to play it.  Nathan got to start Webelos at the beginning of this month so that he can finish an activity badge, instead of just part of it.  He was also able to go to a Webelos PowWow and earn 2 more badges.  When I told him that there were 20 badges but that he didn't have to earn all of them to get his webelos award, his response was, "But I am going to earn ALL of them!"  That is how Nathan is with life.  He wants to do his best all the time.  Sometimes this makes him get really frustrated with himself, but most of the time it just makes him awesome.