Party, Pinata & Pizza

On Thursday, August 18, we had taken the boys to Toys R Us, as I had mentioned before. We told them that this was an exploration trip and not a shopping trip where they were going to come home with anything. We were looking for ideas to write to Santa, we explained (and we as parents were secretly hoping they would help us pick out a gift for their buddy Kyler, who's party we were going to on Saturday). Also with Joshua's birthday coming up, it was nice to get some ideas from him as well. And I loved the things Caleb picked out for Santa to buy. It was an adorable trip, and the boys had fun even though we didn't get them anything.

I digress for a minute as this trip reminded me of when I was a child and we as a family went shopping to buy a less fortunate family Christmas gifts. My sisters and I were instructed to bring things back to the cart that we would enjoy or thought the girls would enjoy and my parents would say yes or no to buying it. One example of a "no" that turned into a "yes" was a whistle. One of us found it first, and my parents said no, explaining that their mommy would probably not appreciate the girls getting a whistle. Then another one brought it and again the response was no. But, when the third one thought it was cool, I remember my Dad saying to go ahead and put it in the cart. It was a great family memory. We weren't buying for ourselves, but I would venture to say that we had more fun that shopping trip helping others than we had in trips that were meant to buy for ourselves. We were feeling the Christmas spirit, all of us had a blast picking out things to give to someone else, and we were spending time as a family besides.

So, anyway, that Thursday night we did find something nice for our little buddy, and we hope he likes it!

After the Mission Aviation Fair, we headed to the grocery store and then back home to grab the gift and out to East Lampeter Park, where the Buckwalter Family was waiting for their guests to arrive. They are in our life group, and Kyler is also in Joshua's class at church. They have a blast together! They even call each other twins because Kyler is tall for his age - even though he's just turning four and Joshua will soon be five, they are the exact same height. The kids went out to the playground to play as other guests were arriving. Here are the two older boys about to come down the slide:

Joshua fell trying to stop the merry-go-round, and it scared him that it wouldn't slow down for him. Caleb came right up next to him when he cried. He has such a sensitive little heart! Soon enough they were back to playing! Ryan continued to sleep in his stroller in the shade as it was a beautiful, warm sunny day. Here's Daddy helping the older boys climb on the worm - they LOVE this thing!

Soon enough the Buckwalter's called all the children over to start the pinata portion of the party. They lined up to take turns whacking at the dinosaur pinata. Birthday boy Kyler took the first swing.

I don't remember the order of who went next, but soon enough it was my boys turn. Caleb hit it pretty hard with the bat. When he went to hand it to the next little one, though, I was scared he was going to accidentally hit them, too, since he kept swinging carelessly.

Each child took several turns beating the dinosaur. It was Kyler who eventually opened it - hurray! Candy, peanuts and prizes came spilling out!

I thought the way Karisten did the prizes was really clever. She gave each child a bag with a specific sticker on it (Joshua's had a soccer ball and Caleb's had a baseball). The children were to look for prizes with matching stickers so that each child got several things to take home, no matter what their age or size. The boys loved looking for things with their stickers and handing things with other stickers (footballs, musical notes, butterflies, lady bugs, and more!) to the other kiddos who were also looking. They loved all their prizes, which included erasers, "shaky shakes," a toy story pen, a little note pad, toothbrushes, granola bars, whistles, and so much more. I could not believe all of the neat things they brought home! Caleb also grabbed some candy and peanuts (which were a free-for-all) but Joshua wasn't interested. He's not huge into candy but loves things. He has carried his precious bag around with him everywhere.

 Below is a picture of all my boys. Joshua was looking at his treasures, Caleb is opening his lollipop, Shawn is watching both older boys and Ryan is sleeping like an angel.

Caleb LOVES lollipops. He was a sticky mess, but he didn't care. He likes to be messy and he loves candy! Lollipops are a favorite.


Soon enough it was time to sing "happy birthday" to our little friend. The cake was SO cool! It was a bunch of cupcakes all iced together to make a cars theme. Instead of having to cut the cake, they simply pulled apart the cupcakes and handed them out. Clever!

 Kyler blew out his own candles! Impressive!

And another treat (which was not ordered or planned by the hosts but worked out very well!) was the Witmer Fire Company having a truck there. They put on the lights and sirens (which woke Ryan briefly) and they let all the kids climb in and examine the truck. Our boys thought this was SO cool!

All the guests flocked to see the fire truck. I tried to snap a few pictures along the way:

Thanks for the fun times, friends! We are so glad to know you and spend time together as families!!!

After the cake, we spent more time playing on the playground and eventually came home for naps. We were having our friends the Durlings over for dinner that night, so I cut up veggies and got the food together while the boys slept. We kept it simple since we had had a busy day and just ordered pizza as the main dish. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and then we headed outside to let the boys play and run. Joshua has a great time with their oldest boy, Noah, who is in Kindergarten. The other kids get along well, too. It's fun to watch them play. We enjoyed chatting as adults, too.

We got the boys to bed that night after 9:30 pm since they desperately needed baths. But, it had been a very full and very fun day!