After the park party (yesterday’s post)… we headed home. I invited a few people back for pizza and even more cake, and of course to kick off the “real” birthday party – Halo night with his best friend!
Shout out to Kelly at Sweet Austin – http://www.sweetaustin.com – who made the cake – she rocks!
Here’s Jamie (now 8 years old!) with his Halo Master Chief cake
Here are some of the kiddos eating pizza and being super silly
And, of course, singing happy birthday with yet another cake 
So, Jamie had TWO parties. Let me explain…
So, Jamie wanted to have a Halo party, have a few boys spend the night, play Halo and have pizza. Halo is a game that Jamie plays on the Xbox. We only let him play the first one because I think the other two are too bloody. And the kid can’t even get past the first mission, so he doesn’t really see anything “good” anyway. I’m kind of a crazy person about stuff like that, but I agreed. I told him that one or two might have a problem with the Halo thing, but he wanted to do it, so off we went.
Well, only 1 kid could come. The parents said it was because they didn’t let their 7-8 year old spend the night or spend the night with more than one kid, but I overheard later that the two kids that couldn’t come for that reason were having a sleepover themselves. Gah, I hope Jamie doesn’t get wind of that – I’m sure it would hurt his feelings. I wish the parents had planned it another night or been truthful if it was the Halo thing. Because that will end up with my kid having his feelings hurt or thinking I’m a liar. It mainly bugs me because I was VERY careful not to tell their children about the Halo party directly – I emailed the parent the details, with screenshots of the game and all kinds of stuff. Sigh, sometimes I can’t win. Oh well, I can’t control the world, right? And I’m sure they meant no harm, but still… oh well, my blood pressure requires that I let it all go… *laugh* At the end of the day, it ended up not mattering anyway.
ANYWAY, the kid that could come was his best friend, so that worked out fine. In the meantime, he was upset that no one was coming to his party. So, we pulled together a quick after school party… with the theme of PENGUIN! Surely no one can find fault with a cute little penguin! (Plus we love Tux around here!) Heh, okay, the theme went as far as the invitations and a stuffed penguin on the table. I think the fruit snacks had a penguin in them maybe.
So, pictures from the park today and pictures from Halo night later…
He was a little grumpy and we had to pull him out for a few minutes. I made the mistake of giving the kids blow outs and they were driving him crazy. We had about 12-15 kids show up at this one
He perked up when it was cake time! Heh, I caught the smoke from the candle being blow out *dork*
He got even happier when it was present time (notice the blow outs all around him?)
My little boy is eight today. That right, today is Jamie’s birthday. He’s 8 years old. 2nd grade, baby!
Jamie was such a beautiful baby. I may be a little biased, but I think he was gorgeous.
Now, wow. He is an amazing kid. He is so smart, so wonderful in math, can read at a 4th grade level, just amazing. I love watching his mind work. But, Jamie is more than that. Jamie is very sensitive, he is loving, always ready with a hug. He’s very empathic. He seems to really care about other people. Don’t get me wrong, we have our moments, but he really is an amazing kid. If you are feeling sad, he knows it, and he’ll go out of his way to make you feel better. Definitely our little sweet heart.
Happy Birthday, little man. And thank you. Thank you for being such a cool kid.
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So… Jamie’s birthday is coming up in 10 days! WooHoo! He will be EIGHT! Yes, we gave him his gift early. He’s been BEGGING for a bunk bed for forever. He wants to be able to have his friends over and have a place to sit and for them to sleepover. We found this bunk with a futon and he fell in love with it. We found it for a GREAT price so went ahead and bought it. He’s in heaven.
This is the video where he first saw it. He knew we had gotten it, but we told him we weren’t going to put it up until the weekend or his birthday. Then Tom spent the morning putting it together. When he came home, we told him he was in trouble and needed to go to his room immediately and we’d be in there in a few minutes – I had the camera in there waiting to get his reaction. Yes, I realize I had the camera sideways at first. I didn’t even think about. Just deal with it.
This is them later after they got up there… now they go up and down with no big deal – and no, we didn’t leave them in there alone – but we did think about it 
Favorite line? “That doesn’t look like a ladder. That looks like death!”
Our newest nephew is here! Oliver was born on July 29th. Yes, I know, I haven’t made it up to visit. We tried, but either the mom was sick or Tom had work stuff or the schedule is full of other things. Ugh. Hopefully soon!
Congratulations to big brother Jack!
In the meantime, some pictures that my mother-in-law let me borrow:
A friend of mine and I have birthdays which are just a few days apart. This year we decided to have lunch and go to… (you will be shocked)… the book store! We had dinner at Texican Cafe and then wandered around Barnes and Noble while she watched me spaz out, grabbing books and telling her to read this one and that one and not bother with that one. (Tom hates to go with me, I touch everything). I came away with BOOKS! Oh and we had cheesecake at the Starbucks there. Yum!
I got:
1. The Girl Who Stopped Swimming – Okay, I am 99.9% sure this book was due out on March 4. But it was there and it’s for sale on Amazon. I feel gypped because I had specific plans to get this book the day it came out and it’s already out! *laugh* It will be read VERY soon. I love this author!
2. Beautiful Boy – I know, I read depressing stuff sometimes. This is a neat memior though. Instead of it being about the person… it’s written by the father watching his son go through drug addiction back.
3. Eat Pray Love – I KEEP LOSING THIS BOOK. It freaks me out. The first one I had to return to who I borrowed it from because I didn’t read it. The next one has disappeared. It’s no where to be found. If this one disappears too, I’m going to assume that someone doesn’t want me to read it.
4. The Red Tent – My friend (Lana) says she loved it and has mentioned it a few times. So Imma give it a shot. Not my usual thing… but there ya go. She bought this one for me
I bought her The Time Traveler’s Wife (No, she hadn’t read it! Freak!)
Yay! I gotta start on the Jackson book seeing as everyone got a day or two jump on me *pouts*
Happy Birthday, Lana!
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We had Cassie at the local indoor jumpy castle place. It was a pretty small party. The theme was “backwards”. The kids wore their shirts backwards (well, some did – Cassie refused herself). They walked backwards sometimes, they said “goodbye” as they came in, the cake was written backwards
AND the party was backwards… FIRST we opened presents, THEN we had cake and THEN we played. It was very silly
We hung out and then grandma treated us to dinner
Pictures (Tom did the cake this year… all by himself!):
Today, my little girl is 5. Where has the time gone? She’ll be starting school in the Fall. She’s such a little pre-teenager (already?) that when I told her I needed a picture of her this morning, this is what I got:
Hey, at least it wasn’t a “talk to the hand” picture. What a brat. And yes, I’ve brushed her hair since then
Cassie is my little girl. When she smiles, she smiles with her entire face and can light up a room. When she cries, she breaks your heart into a million pieces. And yes, she uses both to manipulate people and she knows it. But it’s okay, everyone is aware of it, so that makes it okay, right? She’s beautiful and smart and sweet and always has a hug for (almost) anyone that asks. If you ask her whose girl she is, she’ll promptly tell you “Momma’s Girl” – very well trained.
Happy Birthday, sweetheart. I hope you have a great time at your party. More later on that
I took this one a couple of days ago. She and Julie are “like a pair of mandarin ducks” (hehehe, been reading Snow Flower and The Secret Fan) – Julie is going to be so confused those first few days when Cassie starts school. She’s giving Julie a PB treat here
Tom’s birthday was yesterday… Happy Birthday, Tom!
We actually celebrated it on Saturday and I had a couple of friends over for a girl’s movie night, plus Dy came over with J, so we had dinner – one of Tom’s favorite meals Anyway… here’s some more pics…
