Jacob's 9th Birthday Party

We celebrated Jacob's birthday a week late because two of his good friends have birthdays right around the same time, which means us mamas have to coordinate or else they wouldn't be able to go to each other's parties.  This year was my year to do it a week late, and while I'm glad we coordinate, it kind of made me sad for him to not have it closer to the actual day.  But he still had a great time, of course.  Jon and I need drinks, but he is happy :)

 But first, I had to finagle some help with the THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY water balloons..

 Poor Aunt Jessie.  She texted me and said, "hey, we haven't hung out in a while, want to go to a movie Friday?"  But Jon had to work, so I didn't have anyone to watch Jacob.  So I suggested she and Morgan come over and help me set up for the party...After about the 5th balloon she said, "your text didn't say anything about 350 water balloons."  hehe.

But don't feel too bad for her, notice the margarita in the left corner...

Friend Nicholas, Miles, and Michael.  Miles, in the middle, is one of the fellow bday boys.

Ian

Ben, Hunter, Carson, Alex, Conner, Julian.  Ben, the first on the left, is the other fellow bday boy.

Marshmallow game!!

Carson on the ground, Julian dropping

Ben on the ground, Miles dropping

Hunter on the ground, Michael dropping

Conner on the ground, Ian dropping

Miles on the ground, Nicholas dropping

Snow cones!
Nicholas, Ian, Alex, Conner

Jacob and Ian

Ice Cream Game!

Miles and Carson

Jacob and Alex (these two played each other in the jamboree this morning)

Nicholas and Hunter

Ian and Julian

Miles and Carson

Showing off their muscles...

 and again...   Please notice you cannot see Jacob in either one.  That is because he is hiding behind the kid in the orange shorts. Sigh.

Jacob doesn't like cake anymore.  Kroger makes these bad boys for $10.  Sha-bam.

9 YEARS OLD.

Cutie in a dunk tank.

Ben, looking a little terrified...

Miles, looking a little bored...

Water balloon fight.  With 350 balloons.  WHAT. WAS. I. THINKING?!

Jon added to the balloon fight with the hose.

An impromptu game of football.  Always.

I got this tarp out for the kids to lie on during 2 games we were going to play.  Instead they just played on it with the hose for almost a solid hour...

Hunter

Alex

Kaleb, changing his mind...

Remnants...

 EV.REY.WHERE.

Conner

 

The invitation, made by yours truly ;)

We all had so much fun.  I really enjoyed the chaos of all the boys, even though it felt like it could all end badly at any second ;)  They sprayed me a few times, got into the marshmallows after the game and threw them everywhere, mixed so many flavors in their snow cones that they were really just drinking koolaid...but no one got hurt, and several times I heard a kid exclaim how awesome this party was.  So--Success!

End of Summer :(

This summer was SO SHORT.  The kids got out May 23 and are started back August 5.  Add to that Jacob wearing a cast for 2 weeks, and it really felt short.  Here are some random pics from the summer.

Jacob regressed into his childhood and began carrying his bear around everywhere.

We ran A LOT OF ERRANDS.  Poor Jacob.  Somehow I always have a million things to do.  In this particular pic, I am buying wedding gifts for my mother-in-law to give to Hallie and her other grandson getting married this fall (she is becoming more and more homebound).  Thank goodness for technology.  And carpeted floors.

For a while when he was 3 or 4 (?) Jacob was obsessed with rocks.  He still enjoys them thoroughly, hence the random rocks that come home in the back pack or are picked up during various outings.  But at the height of the obsession, Mom bought him some polished ones and in the sack was this one-shaped like a J!  When Jon's dad died a couple years ago, Jacob put together a little gift that included a random chain, a pic of both his parents that had been on Jacob's bulletin board, and this rock.  Jon has it all in a little box on his side of the bathroom counter, and I just thought I would get it on here.

The boy has had an active childhood.

Lacrosse camp.  Jacob is in the blue helmet.  Jon found all the equipment at a garage sale (!), and it was so perfect since Jacob is still undecided about whether he actually wants to play on a team. Plus, the helmet is blue, so I could pick him out easily ;)

Chihuahuas LOVE a blanket.  I was sitting in a recliner and this was my sight when I lifted the blanket.  Gonzo is buried down deep.  I don't know how they breath.

I still continue to take advantage of my boy wanting to snuggle with me.  We sleep in Abby's bed about once a month. Usually when Jon is working late so I don't feel like a bad wife.

 We voted for the separation of the school districts.  Our issue won (is that how I say that Melissa?), but I really don't know what it all means yet.  This school year will be interesting.

Jacob found out he would be playing for the Broncos this football season, and quickly asked me to look up the NFL roster so he would be ready to pick his jersey number.  Peyton Manning is on the Broncos, but Jacob didn't add him to the list because, "he's a quarterback and I am not a QB.  Plus, everyone will want that number, so I need to be ready with a different one."

I made Jacob read throughout the summer.  Of course he only checked out books about football players :)

And used a Grizzlies' ticket stub as a bookmark.

 Our boss invited all the supervisors and their families over for a cookout.  Jacob took the opportunity to relax.  He leads a stressful life, you know.

They had rented this dunk tank for this purpose: to put our bosses in there and let the supervisors have at them.  And they did...

But really, the kids monopolized it.  They loved it and we are thinking about renting it for Jacob's birthday.  Who knew you could just randomly rent a dunk tank??

This actually nothing to do with summer.  Just an observation.  If I had known about this several years ago, I could have measured Jacob's growth by how many slices of Milano's pizza he could eat. Milano's is one of those places that serves HUGE slices of pizza.  He has always loved it and considers it a "nice restaurant" suggestion when we want to go out to eat.  He used to barely finish one slice.  Now he can eat 3.  Below is a pic of their small pizza box.  He was thrilled this night because it was completely for him.  I can see my future food budget will be expensive...

Here is the post from his bday last year when Grammy brought him a large pizza.  He was very excited:  http://jaybob45.blogspot.com/2012/08/bobs-bday.html

Also, he is up to the 12 count nugget meal with a LARGE fry at Chick Fil A.  NOT. COOL.