Nate's "Gaming" Party

I have always told my kids.....once you hit 10 years old, that will be your last BIG birthday party. (After that, we will just celebrate with a small group of friends, do a sleepover, etc.) Well, Nate is turning 10 in just two short weeks, and we had his party on Saturday. We decided to go out with a "bang," and hired a mobile gaming truck to come all the way from Birmingham!! (Because what else do 9-10 year old boys want to do besides play video games?! I assure you....nothing.)

We made sure to take a family pic before everyone got too sweaty :)

My boy.

Since the party was 10-12 pm, we had brunch-y foods like sausage balls, muffins, donut holes, fruit, OJ, etc.

My fave part of parties - the décor!

Nate pulled me aside and said "Mommy! I see a lot of envelopes! That means gift cards!" :)

Abby made this - all on her own - for the party. I loved it!

Since it was an all-boy party, I let Abby invite one girlfriend. She picked our next door neighbor, Kate.

 When the boys arrived, we had them play outside for the first hour. And to no one's surprise, they spent most of the time playing football! #rolltide

My family bought a group present for Nate - a huge 7' by 7' football net with 3 targets. It's called a "QB Trainer," since Nate thinks he's going to be a QB on his new flag football team :)

My best friend, Katie, moved to GA in July and I have missed her terribly!! Plus her adorable daughter Caroline and son Chandler. I was so happy they made the trip back home for Nate's party! Caroline is a hot mess and gets cuter every time I see her.

Another cutie at the party was Baby Thomas! N&P loved holding him, while his boo Caroline showered him with kisses

Trampoline fun!

Nate the acrobat

This pic cracks me up!!! Nate was the ref :)

Football fun in the backyard

Water/food break for these sweaty boys! Evers & Nate

Super mom Katie!

Love these silly boys singing Happy Birthday to Nate

Make a wish!

Finally, the game truck arrived!!!

The boys were in awe of the truck!

(And in the background, you can see the QB Trainer net I mentioned earlier. So cool!)

The birthday boy got to go on the truck first!

He picked his 3 besties to play Madden with

(Mason, Chan, Evers)

The whole gang

(Love the photobomb by Kate & Abby!)

IN THE ZONE!

#zombiefaces

Abby & Kate played "Just Dance" the entire time they were on the truck! (One hour)

#sillypose

It was so funny, once they got off the truck, they all acted like they were blind/it was too bright :)

Twinsies

Evers' dad built Nate a potato canon!!!

Evers & Nate have shot these before - at Evers' house - and were happy to show all the boys how to do it.

(I was scared out of my mind!)

Caroline & Abby raided the goody bags :)

For some reason, the boys thought it would be fun to see who could stick their hand in the ice bucket the longest!

Chandler won, and got $1 from Poppy as his prize :)

Oh, how we miss Chan!!

Nate wanted me to take this picture :)

He said he was pretending to play on the controller !

Nanny & Poppy with their #1 grandson

Nate racked up!! :)

I cannot believe my "baby" boy will be turning TEN in under 2 weeks. Hard to believe he's been in our life that long! However, I can barely remember what it was like before he was.

(Sidenote: if anyone is wondering why I had Nate's party so early.....my little sister is due with baby #3 on September 4th, but notoriously has her babies early. So, I wanted to make sure N&P could be at the party instead of with Bec and baby "Jim.")

Birthday Visitors!

Not only was last Thursday the kids' first day of school, but Nanny & Poppy arrived too! We celebrated both events at Summer Snow after dinner :)

 Friday, I put Nanny to work once the kids went to school. It was a 1 pm dismissal day, so we didn't have much time! Lots of party prep.....making sausage balls and mini-blueberry muffins, washing a ton of platters/bowls, cleaning, etc! We had just enough time to squeeze in Mr. Chen's for lunch - YUM - and then grab the kids from school.

After school, Abby insisted on showing N&P the "secret hangout," a fort in the woods that she & some neighbors have worked on all summer (even though it's hard to explore unless you are under 5 feet tall :)

We also tried out the Ice Cream ball thath we had recently gotten for a gift.....once you put the ingredients in, you're supposed to roll the ball around for 30 minutes and then voila! Homemade ice cream. Well.....it was a dud. It got water & rock salt everywhere because the ball was leaking. And I think the kids & Nanny got tired of rolling it too!

 After dinner, we played Reverse Charades (the kids' fave, especially when Nanny is in town :) I was on a team with the kids, and we were the "Cool" team - DUH. Then the oldheads were the "Uncool" ones. Such a hilarious game!

 Saturday was Nate's 10th birthday party!!! We had it at the house from 10-12, so I put everyone to work early that morning. It was a huge success, and Nate was one happy boy. Thank you to Nanny & Poppy for always coming to his parties....ten in a row! :)

 After the party was over, Nate opened presents and we all chilled for a bit. Then, Abby conned Poppy into playing with her....they played Shopkins in her room, and even colored in the craft room. I don't think Poppy has ever colored before!!! He was pretty proud of his masterpiece though :)

 Saturday was pizza night and another family game. This time, it was Scattergories, which always gets a bit heated. I won't name names, but one person in particular always makes up the craziest answers and then gets mad when we won't them count. Again, the kids think it is hilarious.

Sunday, Greg headed out early for a bike race, while the rest of us went out to breakfast at a new place called Metro Diner. Everyone loved it (which is rare)! I have never seen Poppy eat so much in my life....he usually eats like a bird.

Then, we all headed to Buhl (about a 25 minute drive) to see Greg compete in the Alabama Road Race Championships. It was sunny at first, and we set up camp to watch Greg do his 3 laps (each took about 30 minutes).

After lap 2, the weather took a turn for the worse. We rotated between watching Greg from the road and from inside the car. When it was time for the big finish, we braved the monsoon and cheered him on!!!! He got a *very* close 4th place. He was disappointed but we were proud of him!

#drownedrats

Greg had planned on cooking Sunday night, but instead, we opted for Cook-Out. So yummy! It was a great ending to a fun weekend. Nanny & Poppy left early Monday morning, and we were all sad to see them go. Until next time!

First Day of School

The kids started school last week, on August 3rd.

So early, I know! But that is the norm around here, so we are used to it.

We had open house on the 2nd, and got to meet their teachers/see their classrooms. First up, Mrs. Wagner's class, whom Nate had for second grade and we LOVED! And although the kids aren't thrilled with their classes this year - most of their friends are in the other class - I am excited because they got the teachers I wanted!

Abby was excited to see her desk with all the emojis, and all the new textbooks & school supplies inside her desk.

 Nate has Mrs. Stewart for 4th grade, and only has 16 students in his class! (Abby only has 15. I love that Holy Spirit is such a small school!) The big thing about 4th grade is.....Lockers!! They are in the classroom and Nate was super excited to see his. (And I was excited to hear that we can decorate the lockers!! I know Nate will probably only want a locker shelf and maybe a small dry erase board. But man oh man, I know Abby (and I) will have fun decorating hers once she gets to 4th grade!! :)

Little dude, big desk

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The kids woke up excited for the first day of school! (Which shocked me - I thought they would be super whiny because waking up at 6:15 am is quite an adjustment!)

Excited about their new lunchboxes :)

I love that Nate automatically puts his arm around Abby :)

Full of sass!

I wonder how many more years they will let me take this pic!? #soembarrassing

 They actually wanted me to walk them inside on the first day, which surprised me! 3rd graders and up get to walk to their classroom and put their backpacks outside in the hall, and then head to the gym. So Nate headed down that way with his buddy, Mason and I walked Abby directly to the gym to her find her class.

Caught these two handsome guys on my way out of the gym! #twinsies

When I picked the kids up from school, they were both full of smiles. Nate was bursting to tell me all about the color-coded binder he has to take notes and keep his classwork in! (He is SO my son.) And Abby befriended the new student, Lilou, and said she liked recess the best because that was the only time she got to talk to her bestie Mia, who is in the other class :) Could my kids be more different!?

Sounds like they will have a great school year, and I'm excited to see what adventures lie ahead for them. (And I'm excited to have my house to myself again, ha!)