Sunday, October 13, 2013

Turning four is kind of a big deal


Such a big deal that I've almost lost count of how many different times Alder got to celebrate his birthday. He got to celebrate at school and had a fun party with his friends. He was supposed to have soccer on the day of his actual birthday but it was rained out. Luckily his buddy Sam invited him over to play at the last minute and the cupcakes we were going to share at soccer didn't go to waste (though there were a few extras, which made a nice complement to coffee the next morning). Adler had a great birthday with one of his best friends and especially enjoyed some of Sam's toy tools, including his safety goggles.

We also did a birthday dinner with all the grandparents at White Fence Farm, which is always fun.









Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Soccer

Adler is doing soccer this fall and some of his buddies from his class last year, including Sam, are doing it with him. I'm not sure anyone in this family has a future in the sport but Adler's doing better with it than his brother, who's soccer career is likely already over.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Back to the Home Depot

Just like his brother, Adler had his birthday party this year at Home Depot. I have to admit it's a pretty nice venue for a kid's party, if the kids are into building or constitution at all.  And it seems like most are. Home Depot provides a room and little building kits for each of the kids as well as someone to walk the kids though assembling the kit (though parent assistance is still needed). And they provide all that for free, which is kind of nice. So you just need to show up with a cake and some snacks and drinks. And clean up is relatively easy. It doesn't take all the stress out of the birthday party experience but it's a pretty good way to go and the kids really seem to really enjoy it.


Adler was very serious about putting the right amount of sprinkles in just the right places on his cake. This was the second cake that Kari baked that day but that's a different story.


Heading out to the Home Depot.





Adler chose to make toolboxes at his party. We got there a bit early to set up and it was a little hard to wait to get started.




If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail (paraphrasing Maslow's law of the instrument, of course).






I guess if you get a bunch of young kids together in a little room and give each of them a hammer, at least a few tears are kind of inevitable. 










I'm not sure why but Adler was very worried that the other kids would blow out the candles. Maybe because he and LT had recently insisted on blowing out the candles on Baba's birthday cake. Everything turned out okay with the candles though.


Another nice thing is being able to use the big Home Depot shopping carts to help bring things in and out from the party. The boys wanted to carry their own newly constructed and painted tool boxes though.