Noah's 11th Birthday and a day off from school

NOAH'S 11TH BIRTHDAY AND A DAY OFF FROM SCHOOL!
Happy Birthday to Noah!  I woke up at my usual time, realized during my morning prayer that we hadn't made Noah a birthday sign, so I quickly determined that I would wake up Kelly and see if she wanted to, if not, I would get on it.  So I grabbed my sign off the door in preparation for the new one.  Folded it up nicely, which came to me after deciding that if I crumpled it or tore it I would probably wake people up, threw it away, then headed back up to Kelly's room.  As I passed the front door, I looked down on the floor and noticed... my birthday sign.... on the floor??  It was so weird, but quickly, I realized that I had folded up and thrown away a sign that Kelly had made the night before for NOAH!!  AAAHHH!!  It was actually really funny when I figured it out.  I grabbed it out of the trash, unfolded it, which I was grateful for the inspiration to NOT crumple it up, and hung it back up on the door- looking good as new, minus a small chunk that tore off on the tape.  It was hilarious that the day started out like that :).  So we spent the morning singing to Noah, having his breakfast (third choice because we didn't have all the ingredients for first and second choices... oops) and then cleaning to get ready for parties that night.  We headed out at noon to go check out the Clark Planetarium.  This ended up being a fun idea!  I was so happy I copied it from the Maughans :).

Everyone just kind of ran around to their hearts' content.  We all really loved the ball maze/rollercoaster thing.  Luke and I couldn't help but think about his marble rollercoaster we've been making.  Lots of fun.  Jack and Molly spent some time in the little slide/playground thing which was fun.  It's interesting to watch those two interact.  Not as much like the older kids used to.  Kinda makes me think it's the age gap.  I don't know though.  Everyone has such different personalities, could be anything.  We grabbed some popcorn as we left and parted ways- Nate and Erika went to go get Ruth, the rest of us came home to await the party guests!
Noah's friend party was a lot of fun.  I feel like it was really rushed and that might just be because I felt weird about having just two hours for an 11 year old.  I don't know.  We got them each $23ish dollars ($160 divided by 7- thank you Boondock's for the cool deal on New Year's- got it for half the price!), on their cards, and I knew that wouldn't take long to use, and Noah didn't have any other desires for his party, so we just left it at what we thought it would take!  So anyway.  I took Noah and his six friends to Boondock's for the arcade!

First game in and Josh hit the Jack Pot on one of the games!  Pretty fun!  They all ran around trying to get the most tickets.  I wasn't sure whether I should follow them around or just sit on the bench, so I did both intermittently.  It seemed like they were having a good time.  It took us almost as lot to spend the tickets as it did to earn them, but everyone was able to finally spend all their tickets at the end.  I get a kick out of how they all bought a bunch of small things rather than one BIG things.  Kids.  We got home, had our cupcakes, candy "cake", and ice cream.

I loved how we did it this year, asking questions about Noah and letting whoever got it right pick their candy from the "cake" it's always kind of a dilemma to me to decide who gets what.  They all seemed happy when I told them they all got five things from the cake.  There was a mad dash to rip it apart.  Kinda funny.  Then we did presents and the party was over! 

 I enjoyed listening to them talk in the car- I just love kid conversations.  Cracks me up.  I'm glad Noah got to have what he wanted for his party this year even with the shutdown.

After the friend party, we cleaned up a little, and awaited the guests for the family party!  I was exhausted.  I got a little grumpy.  Luckily it didn't last.  Nate had been slaving over some chicken wings for the party and for a friend, so we waited for him to take those and then ate and had presents and cupcakes and ice cream.  I forgot to mention that I made Noah's favorite candybar into cupcakes this year!  I liked this idea- maybe make it this year's thing :).  Butterfinger cupcakes- the bite I had was pretty amazing!  Just like a butterfinger! 

 It was nice to have Grandma Ruthie, Jen, Grandpa Hatch, Dawn, and Grandma Hatch here to support him!  I loved watching him open Grandma Ruthie's gift- a bunch of cool sentimental things from her and Grandpa Russ.  Even the cool puzzle thing from her dad!  A lot of cool things.  Grandpa gave him a retractable fishing pole and pocket knife tool thing.  Grandma Hatch gave him a pillow.  He got Battleship and a Jazz shirt (which we failed to give him til the next day- bad thing about buying things early, but I couldn't resist the Christmas deals) from us.  We all retired to the Jazz game after and that was that!  It was a nice day!  I loved that he got the day off from school and that we got to make it a family day!  I hope he felt extra special.  1-11-19