Jaden and Cody turned 8 at the beginning of June. We were thankful that our county had started to open back up following the quarantine, so we felt comfortable having our extended family over to celebrate. How nice it felt to have a large group gathering again! Jaden and Cody had requested scotcheroos for their birthday dessert--easiest birthday cake ever! :)
The boys chose a color scheme for their party, and I put together a few coordinating decorations.
Cody and Jaden also chose a few large group games they wanted to play. When the family arrived, we played Name it Eight, a scattegories-type game that Daddy created. Then, we moved into team charades, a game that always has us laughing!
We ended with Careers, a group guessing game that Uncle Jon led.
Jason worked hard to grill burgers, hot dogs, and brats for the crew.
After dinner, we sang to the boys, enjoyed their scotcheroos, and opened presents.
We sure love these new 8 year olds!
Unfortunately, the coronavirus changed our plans for the boys' typical themed birthday party with friends. Thankfully, after having such a great time celebrating their cousins' birthday in May, Jaden and Cody were very excited (perhaps even moreso!) about replicating that experience with their cousins for their own birthday. They chose to have Ian, Ryan, and Nathan spend two nights and parts of three days at our home. These boys were active and silly and just had the best time together!
Shortly after arriving, the boys rode their scooters around our neighborhood and played around our community pond for quite some time. It was a warm day, so having a water war was a perfect concluding activity.
The Post-Water War Photo-- I'm not sure if they were trying to get warm again, if they were worn out, or just enjoying the time of relaxation. Whatever the reason, it sure made for a funny picture!
That evening, after a meal of chicken pot pie (Jaden's request) and leftover teriyaki chicken (Cody's request), the boys enjoyed birthday treat #2-- mint chocolate chip ice cream cake.
The rest of the day was filled with Pokemon trading, more playtime outside, some video games, random dress-up/sword fighting adventures, movie night, and silly story writing.
Not surprisingly, these stories contained a fair share of explosions and bathroom humor. The boys got the biggest kick out of reading these out loud and often had to hand the story over to me to finish since they were all laughing so hard!
The next day, we loaded everyone into our van and headed down to Galveston Beach.
It was a beautiful day to be outside! The boys (and Adley) built sand fortresses, jumped into waves, rode their boogie boards, fed seagulls, and even did some kite flying. The time flew by!
Once we returned home, we had a pizza dinner and ended the day with another movie. The next morning we forgot to take any pictures! We spent our time playing tennis at a park, playing on the playground, and then recovering from the heat with Gatorade and donuts back at home. Ian, Ryan, and Nathan headed home right before lunchtime.
Jaden and Cody loved every minute with their cousins and didn't seem to miss a birthday party with friends in the slightest! It wasn't the birthday celebration we had originally envisioned, but it ended up being wonderfully low-key and full of great memories.
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