Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated Kai's 10th birthday at Moonlight beach with our family and friends. Kai has 2 other close friends who turn 10 - Violet on the April 2nd and Robbie on April 1st. Well, we all decided it would be cool to celebrate together at the beach. And celebrate we did! We invited our families, a very small bunch of mutual friends and their family members and enjoyed the company. Jeff ended up being pounced upon by the lot of kids, they played in the sand, they played at the playground, they sang the birthday song and blew out some candles. We are definitely blessed. Here is a slideshow made from the pictures friends took (thanks!). The slideshow has music, so pause the music on the side bar and enjoy.


Celebration of #10 from Beachbum on Vimeo.

As an aside, there was another group at the park right next to us that had a few teens playing guitars and singing. Great sounds and fun to hear. Goes well with the music! And, it's just a tidbit I don't want to forget.

You can visit Mandy's blog to see her version of this special day for Violet...here. She talks about stuff I didn't mention.

We celebrated our family gift time on Saturday night. Auntie Mary was here, too, and that made it extra special. He got everything on his wish list and a few things that surprised him. He had asked for a game cube and 3 games and two sets of Grandparents made that happen. With his gift card he just ordered 2 more and a book. Kade gave him a set of board games, which Kai thought was cool. Annie got him a skate board with lessons. Jeff and I gave him a Japanese style bowl/cup/dipping sauce set (that Pete hand made). The bowls have notches for the chop sticks and the set is beautiful. Baba and Grandpa Jon also got him a zafu and now he has a great Japanese themed set.

Pretty much, he's a very contented boy. I'd include more pictures, but he chooses not to have them taken often. They'd show him with a contented smile.

A better picture from Flo...

Here is a better view of the face work I did for the Mardi Gras party. Thanks, Flo!!!

Party time!

We had a bunch of friends over to make some delicious food and play. Mandy took some great pictures for us. You can see them here.

We made some yummy raw desserts - to tempt us with a healthy alternative to all the other stuff we have in our house. It was hosted by me to help me remember I can eat yummy sweets without filling my body with stuff it doesn't respond well to.

We made: apple pie, almond halvah, cinnamon girls (cinnamon tortes), apple cookies, sweet pecan pie, pineapple heart pie (pineapple, mango and coconut), pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate freezer fudge, blonde and chocolate macaroons, pecan tortes, and dark chocolate ganache tart.

Even sharing between the seven families, we ended up with tons! Thankfully most of the desserts can be frozen for later! Yum!

Anyway, there were something like 20 kids here! They had a great time playing and making up their own games. Some helped in the kitchen, too, but most just went and had fun!

Jeff came home and said something like - you should have more of these more often. The house looks better than when I left, the fridge is full of food, the kids are happy and worn out and you have had a good time!

Yeah!

We did have fun and my spirit is happy. How blessed we are to have all the community and good friendship.

The Party...

was a ton of fun. We had people arrive beginning at 6:00pm and they trickled in with the last arriving at 8:00. The kids played with all our toys, played 'fishing for monsters, and pumpkin bean bag toss. The mini spiders were fun, too. As usually happens at our house, the wii was turned on and since our youngest guest, Jonas, was here - Jeff started us out with "My Name Is Jonas" by the rock band Weezer. Once out and all, guitar hero became a great entertainment for young and old. I think pretty much all the dads had a go and the kids loved it and took turns playing. The mom's hung out and talked, followed the kids around and just seemed to relax in the moments. After everyone got here, we headed out to trick-or-treat down the side streets near here. They managed to get enough loot to be happy. After getting back the organization of it all began...then trades were made. The potluck food was tasty. Kai wanted to bake a pumpkin pie, so we did that. A tad too done, but still really tasty. In prep for the party, we pierced an apple with a bunch of cloves and added it, plus cinnamon and sucanat to some apple juice and was it ever yummy!

We ended up being blessed with overnight guests. The only challenge was that Charis and Kade didn't want to go to sleep...so we were up until 3:30 am! If you are familiar with Sandra Boynton's "I'm not tired" you'll get the general feel of the whole thing! Now just visualize it with us moms in place of the little bear and the kids as the narrator...

Here are the pictures from my camera. The one above with all the adults is from Mandy (thanks!) I can't wait to see the pictures others took! I'll post them as soon as I get them.


Halloween 2008 from Beachbum on Vimeo.