I won't post any pictures of Jace's celebration, since the other parents may not appreciate their children's faces on my blog. But it was a fun time; instead of a bowling party or something like that this year, Jace just wanted his friends to come over and spend the night. He asked for 4-5 friends but I vetoed that, considering we only have one living space and it was QUITE enough with three boys. With 5-6 boys I would've been ready to end the party by 8pm that night!
I actually started to post on Friday night, after picking up Jace and 2 friends for his birthday party and going to a movie (we saw "Hancock" rather than "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer", thank goodness- they would've enjoyed The Mummy, but I had no desire to see this third Mummy movie that received 2 out of 5 stars in one review!). After the movie and some time in the arcade at the cinema, we came home and the boys headed outside to play hide and seek. So, I took advantage of a few minutes of quiet time, and sat down to update the blog. However, it quickly became clear that my laptop was not my own, as the boys came back in a few minutes later and wanted to play RuneScape. So I turned the laptop over to them for the majority of the evening, and then fixed them something to eat-- pizza, Mountain Dew Code Red, and cookies for dessert - all the fun things that an (almost) 10-year-old and his friends would like for a birthday evening.
They had a blast, playing RuneScape, Jace's Playstation 2 and watching TV. At 2AM they were still up and I had to go in and enforce bedtime. Within 20 minutes of laying down, all three were fast asleep, thankfully. Normally I wouldn't want them staying up that late, but Dave and Neil were gone to a STL Cards game that night and scheduled to arrive home at 2AM as well, so I figured if everyone went to bed at 2AM then everyone would sleep until 10AM at least.
But the next morning I woke up about 7:30 to let the dogs out, and one of Jace's friends was on the sofa, already awake and looking around. Of course the other two were up by 8:30AM, and I was up as well. After a morning of doing laundry and picking up, I then took the boys to the aquatic park in Republic, about 20 minutes from us. It is a great place and a great price --only $5.00 admission fee, and it has two waterslides, two diving boards, rope monkey bars, and lots more. We spent about three hours there, with the boys playing and me catching up on some reading and napping since I hadn't had much sleep the night before.
Saturday night was nice and calm, Dave grilled out and he, Neil, Jace and I watched a movie. Then Sunday we headed to the lake about 10AM to welcome our friends down for Christy's birthday.
Lest readers think that Christy brought her own tiara, boa and wand to a lake birthday celebration, she did not. One of our fellow dock friends, Hollie (aka Hottie), who has all kind of fun stuff like that, presented her with the tiara and boa in honor of her big day!
It was a nice relaxing afternoon, but I do have to say that this was the first time this summer that the water was really too warm. In previous weekends it has been cool, with a warm current here and there while we're swimming in it. But after all our 90+ degree days, the lake has definitely warmed up and we were glad to find a cold current as we lounged in the water.
But I won't complain too much, as I'll be sad to see summer go in just a few short weeks. So we'll enjoy the swimming weather while we can!
