Birthday Details

I think we are officially done celebrating Trip's birthday and are moving on to our celebration of Jesus' birthday! Trip's celebration started last Friday, the 9th and continued through Tuesday, the 13th! Not bad for a 6th birthday. Last Friday, Trip and 16 other boys (plus Mady) celebrated his birthday with a LEGO party! It was chaos, but the kids had a blast! One of my CBS (bible study) teens, Tommy, brought two huge tubs of Legos and helped the kids create vehicles for a Lego battle. I think if that was all we had done the whole time, most of them would have been completely fine with that. But, after building and creating for 30 minutes, I insisted that they battle! :-) One rule was put in place: stay away from faces. The funny thing was most of the boys didn't really want to battle because they didn't want to ruin their creations. Unfortunately, Tommy had to take his Legos back home with him, so they all had to say goodbye to their masterpieces. After the not-so Lego battle, TJ took all the boys outside to break the pinata. Trip has always wanted a pinata for his party, so this year, I caved. I have no idea what happened out there, but they all came running back in with bags full of candy much sooner than I expected. After a few more games, pizza and cake, it was time to open presents. I hate doing this at parties because it turns every kid there into a monster. And, with half the boys there without parents, I was terrified of what would happen. No bones were broken, or gifts for that matter, but they were like a group of wild animals! Trip racked up! Tons of Lego sets and lots of other great gifts. We still haven't opened them all! His friend Asher got to spend the night with us that night. I think they finally fell asleep sometime after 10 pm. And, then Asher was in our room at 5:30 the next morning asking us if it was time to get up! WHAT!!! All 3 kids were out of bed before 7 a.m. When do kids start to realize the difference between Saturday and the weekdays? TJ and I were in shock. Round two of the never-ending birthday celebration took place Saturday. Kaki and Grandad brought Nicholas and Nolan down to see Trip play basketball and celebrate his birthday. He loved having such a big audience to cheer him on. Nicholas is a great cheerleader too...He yelled, "GO LIONS!" every minute or so. It was adorable! It was such a treat to hang out with Nicholas and Nolan. We haven't seen them in so long and they have changed so much! On Sunday, the birthday celebration took a small break, while Trip and Mady participated in our church's Christmas program. We have "participated" for the last three years, but this was the first time they both stayed up the whole time and sang! YAY! Trip was a cow (third year running) and Mady was a lamb(too cute). On Trip's real birthday, Monday, he got a fun wake up call from TJ, Mady and I. All three of us woke him up for school by singing Happy Birthday to him. Mady and I joined him for lunch that day and brought donuts to share with his classmates. That night, Trip picked pancakes for dinner. Yummy! And, opened one last present from us, an Early Reader Bible. His response was priceless: "Mom, this is the BEST present because it is the most important!" Then, he recited a bible verse he'd learned at basketball and we looked it up together in his new Bible. He'd remembered it word for word. AMAZING! We also received the exciting news that our niece, Hattie, was born on Trip's birthday. Trip is thrilled to share his birthday with her! Tuesday morning, Trip was EXHAUSTED. But, he managed to make it to school for Polar Express day. When he returned home, he opened one last package of gifts from Wisconsin. And, that concluded the birthday celebration for Trip Kuehn, age 6! WOW!