Thanksgiving and Birthday Weekend

We had a busy Thanksgiving weekend, without many pictures taken. Thursday we went out to dinner with Grandpa and Grandmom. These are pre-dinner pictures taken at home. The restaurant was so crowded, there was no way to move and easily take pictures during dinner. And the dinner ended abruptly as N threw up all over me as everyone ate dessert.

Friday we cooked Thanksgiving dinner at our house and also celebrated Rudy's (and Bill's) birthdays. We only took a few blurry pictures during the present opening.

Saturday we headed out to the tree farm to tag our tree. N was not happy with it from the moment we stepped out of the car. He cried and yelled and didn't want anything to do with it.

So we picked out a tree without his help.

Looks good.

Saturday night our town had a small fair. We walked down to check it out. Rudy was thrilled to watch the magician and help him out.

A snow machine (that actually blew bubble mixture) was a big hit.

And we got a picture taken with Santa, who arrived on a fire truck.

Spy Party

Rudy wanted to have a friend birthday party this year, so I researched and we decided we'd do a spy theme. The invitations were written in white crayon and to find the hidden message, the recipients had to color over it with a marker.
The cupcakes were made to look like bombs. (The twizzler is a fuse.)

After taking those pictures, I realized I had forgotten the little ninjas I had cut out, so I added them.

In the upstairs hallway I created a laser maze with streamers.

As the guests arrived, they had to draw their secret agent name out of bags, Each agents' name consisted of a color, animal and number. They made name tags with their names (But we never really bothered calling anyone by them) and then had to make a disguise.

The laser maze was a hit.

Other activities included every getting a familiar picture of a character on their back and having to ask questions to figure out who it was.

We used Nerf guns for target practice.

We had a relay race with disguises.

And each kid got a balloon tied to their ankle and then had to run around and try to pop everyone else's balloon while not allowing theirs to get popped.

Then we had bomb cupcakes and the last assignment was to solve a clue to find their Spy Kit (goodie bag with some spy activities in it). I would say the party was a hit )although exhausting with 12 boys running around the house!).

After a few party guests went home, a few other friends joined us and we had pizza and more fun running around the house. (I like to call this- how many boys can you fit around a table- I think there are 3 full families equaling 8 boys!).

Then Gage realized he had missed the picture, so he ran over for a retake.

This was one of Rudy's gift- a Griffindor blanket that was extremely soft. He wore it to bed, then came down in the morning still wrapped in it.