The Richards Home: May 2009

Thursday, May 07, 2009

Cameron's Birthday Party

Cameron's birthday party went really good. There were 16 kids....15 boys one girl! The theme was Cameron's Birthday Adventure (Magic Tree House). Dustin and my Dad turned the back porch into an enclosed tree house. I had borrowed a strobe light from a coworker and had planned for the kids to enter the tree house and read them the beginning part of the magic tree house books where the wind began to blow (we would turn on a fan) and the tree house began to spin...faster and faster (strobe lights) and then all was still...turned everything off. We did this for each new place we would go to. The first time we landed back in ancient Egypt and i had the kids first wrap one of their team mates in toilet paper to make them into a mummy. Then they had to race around the yard where we had buckets layed out of sand and dig throught the pyramids to find puzzle pieces. As soon as their team put the puzzle together I handed the a scroll which had hieroglyphics on it and they had to use their notebooks to decode the message. Once all three teams had decoded their messages they had to act out what it said in order to break the mummy curse (hop on one foot, spin around, and yell birthday). We then did the tree house thing again this time landing us in Greece and we set up the Olympics....relay races each child recieved a medal and we went back into the tree house and came out for an erupting cake and present opening. I had made the cake into a volcano and with a little dry ice it erupted with red lava and steam....the kids really liked this and then the left over dry ice was put into the punch to bubble. We were running out of time and so we quickly had the kids go on the treasure hunt which ended with a treasure box and a pirate pinata. By this time all the parents were there ready to pick the kids up and so the jurassic period had to be skipped (I had 50 balloons blown up with dinosaur stickers inside....kids were suppose to pop the "eggs" to find the t-rex babies. I ended up letting Cam, Dyl, and Ethan just go out and pop them all!) Good birthday...little hectic but it was well worth it to see how much it meant to Cam.

Digging into the pinata!

Racing around to find clues to the buried treasure.

Volcano cake.

Bat spinning relay race.

Gathering up all the kids.

Creating a mummy!

My dad had helped Dylan turn Ethan into a mummy too!

Ethan after popping all the balloons....he found every inch of his body to place a sticker on!

Cameron's 9th Birthday

Dustin got Cameron a go cart for his birthday. Cameron was so excited and has been cruising around the woods and lawn!

Cameron opening presents after smashing his finger.

Yes Dylan is outside in his pajamas catching bees!

Cameron giving Ethan a ride!

Dylan hanging out while Cameron carts him around!

Cameron's finger after tripping over a brick and smashing it with a hammer.

Blowing out the birthday candles.

Cameron with his ice cream cake.

Tadpoles

Uncle Billy told us that tadpoles were out down at their pond and so Dylan just had to go up and see them. Dustin ended up catching three for the boys which are now in a fishtank in the house. The boys have been feeding them and watching them grow. Dylan is so excited to see what frog or toad his will turn into!

Tap Tap

One of the boy's favorite family traditions...tap tap. After the boys found their baskets and all the eggs we had our traditonal cinnamon buns and everyone used their decorated egg to play tap tap. Dylan was our winner this year!

Easter

On Easter Sunday Dylan was feeling a little better but he and Cameron still both were running a fever and therefore we had to stay home for the day. I will get a family shot some other time since we didn't get to dress up and go to church. The boys had a good day though.

The Easter bunny this year had some problems with his spelling. Dylan was quite confused by this and has decided the bunny must not have gone to kindergarten yet!

Ethan is just happy he got a basket....he doesn't even notice anything wrong with his name!

Egg dying

The night before Easter we finally had a chance to dye Easter eggs. Dylan had been running a fever for the past few days and so as you can see from the pictures he barely was able to sit with us to dye them. We finally got him to write his name on one egg before laying back down on the couch.

My boys!

Bowling

We helped with the special olympic bowling for a day and both boys got to join in too (Cameron was at a friends house). Although there were no bumpers up on the lane, both boys managed to knock a few down!

Ethan just hoping the ball will hit one!

Sugar Shack

We made it back in time for the last few weeks of making maple syrup out at my Uncles Sugar Shack. The boys all helped carry in wood, collect sap, and Dylan was even given the job of raking up all the leaves in the woods (he still has not finished this task!) Dylan also quickly learned the concept of working and wanting to get paid. He had a lot of question about me going to work and how much I was making and after a while of thought he came out with..."I have been working and working for Papa at the sugar shack and I still have not gotten paid!" Papa explained that he gave the money to Uncle Billy who convinced him he gave it to Dustin who said he gave it back to Papa. Dylan finally decided that it was the AIG that took all his hard earned money...we all decided he has been watching too much news with his Papa in the mornings!

Collecting sap.

Uncle Dave and Aunt Joannie down for a visit.

My parents dog Komera (sounds like come here) is on the right and our dog Kylee is on the left. Both are pure bred beagles.

Uncle Dave helping Dylan pour sap.

Ethan and Dylan getting to help drive the tractor with Papa....this is Ethans favorite thing to be doing!

1st day of school and NY cub scouts

On the first day of school in NY, we found out would also be a night of cub scouts. Dylan and Cameron both had a great first day with many kids remembering Cameron and becoming his friends once again. Dylan has become mister popular in his class with all the girls trying to get kisses and all the boys wanting to be his friend. He is loving it! At Cam's first meeting for cub scouts he jumped right in getting to carve out figures from soap and learn how to use other tools. Below is a picture of Cameron with one of his friends from kindergarten.

Ethan's Birthday

Since we were on the road for Ethan's birthday day, we didn't celebrate until we got to NY. My Mom had the kithcen decorated all up and had gone out and bought him a bunch of monkey things (pillow, bank, slippers, etc etc...and a great new monkey toy for his cake!) Although Ethan was still running a fever he was so excited to see the kitchen all decorated just for him!

Monday, May 04, 2009

Moving to NY

Ethan began running a fever before we moved and ran it for the entire move to NY. While Dustin and I were packing we happened to look over and find Ethan asleep on the heater vent among the mess of the move!