More Birthday Fun

In addition to their ninja party with friends, we celebrated Jaden and Cody's birthday with a family party as well. Over Memorial Day weekend, our in-town extended family came over for a few games led by Daddy, a stir fry dinner (Cody and Jaden's choice), and ice cream cake.

The boys, of course, were thrilled to celebrate their birthday twice and to receive some early birthday presents as well. As always, our family was so generous with the boys. Their first weeks of summer have been full of game-playing with new birthday toys! Here are just a few of their fun new gifts....

The boys spent a lot of time playing on this new air hockey table which bargain-hunter Uncle Andrew found on a super deal for only $5. Definitely worth that price, I'd say! 

Both sets of grandparents gave us money to buy a basketball hoop for Jaden and Cody. The boys talked about playing basketball all the time during recess at school this past year. Plus, they love shooting hoops with their small Little Tikes hoop upstairs. We knew that a real hoop would be a perfect gift for them this year. The boys were quite excited about the gift too...

...especially once Mommy and Daddy FINALLY got the hoop assembled! (The assembly ended up being quite the project that extended over 5 or 6 evenings-- it's tough to do tasks like this with a toddler around!) The boys have played basketball every single day, often even multiple times a day, since the hoop's been up. Thanks for the wonderful, generous gift, Grandpa & Grandma and Grammy & Papa! Your gift will be very well used!

Uncle Andy and Aunt Beth sent us money for a "new experience" for Jaden and Cody. We gave the boys a few options, and they chose to go to Build-a-Bear. Both boys absolutely LOVE what they call their "stuffies," so we figured they'd enjoy the chance to pick out their own stuffed animal. After selecting their un-stuffed animal,

the boys used the pedal to add the stuffing.

Then, they rubbed the animal's new heart against their own and placed the hearts inside their animals.

Finally, the boys printed out their animals' birth certificates.

Stripes the tiger and Swinger (ha ha!) the monkey were born! :) What a fun experience!

Mommy and Daddy's gifts to Cody and Jaden were new bikes! We had bought the bikes early (while school was still in session) but had hidden them over at Grammy and Papa's house so they boys wouldn't uncover them.

Grammy and Papa's cul-de-sac was a perfect setting for trying out the new wheels.

 The boys were long overdue for new bikes, as their knees were practically hitting the handlebars on their old 14" bikes. We made a BIG jump all the way up to 20" bikes, so it has been a bit of a learning curve getting used to starting and stopping on their own. It's not easy when only your tiptoes can touch the ground! Jaden and Cody have made some good progress over the past few weeks, though, and now can (usually) start independently and stop on their own too.

After picking up the bikes from Grammy and Papa's, we all went out for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Yum!

Being 6 has certainly been an enjoyable journey so far!

Birthday Interviews

Here are Cody and Jaden's annual interviews. It's always fun to hear about their current likes and dislikes and to compare their thoughts to previous years. Some of their answers always surprise me! I also enjoy capturing the boys' expressions as they talk. I sure love these two a whole bunch!

CODY'S 6-YEAR-OLD INTERVIEW

How old are you? 6

Who is your best friend? Aubree Hunt

What is your favorite thing to do? play games and recess

What is your favorite color? gold

What is your favorite food? junk food

What is your least favorite food? meat and other stuff

What do you like to do with your family? play games

What is your favorite toy? Legos

What do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be a chef.

What makes you happy? when I'm sad and people help me

What makes you sad? when other people make fun of me

What is your favorite book? Dragons Love Tacos

What is your favorite TV show to watch? Lego Ninjago

What is your favorite movie? Madagascar

Where to you like to go? swimming pool at Grammy and Papa's

What is your favorite treat? Twix

What do you think about before you fall asleep? my new Lego Ninjago set if I have one

What is your favorite animal? Swinger, he's a monkey

What is your favorite song? One Thing Remains

What is your favorite thing to wear? PJs

(I'm having technical difficulties with this last video, so I'll just post the text alone for this one.)

What are you afraid of? bears

What are you really good at? cooking

What are you not very good at?  (no answer)

If you could change your name, what would you choose? Asher

What is your favorite restaurant? Panda Express

What do you like to do with Mommy? bake cookies

What do you like to do with Daddy? play games

What do you like to do with your friends? play hide-and-seek

What do you like about Children's Ministry? that it is very fun and I like it

What's your favorite game? any new game that I get

JADEN'S 6-YEAR-OLD INTERVIEW

How old are you? 6

Who is your best friend? Hudson Brown

What is your favorite thing to do? play games

What is your favorite color? gold

What is your favorite food? junk food

What is your least favorite food? peas

What do you like to do with your family? play outside playing kickball

What is your favorite toy? my PJ Masks

What do you want to be when you grow up? a scientist

What makes you happy? eating my birthday cake

What makes you sad? when other people say mean things to me

What is your favorite book? Wink the Ninja Who Wanted to Be Noticed

What is your favorite show to watch? Lego Ninjago

What is your favorite movie? Moana

Where do you like to go? to the Dollar Store

What is your favorite treat? peppermint

What do you think about before you fall asleep? when I am going to fall asleep

What is your favorite animal? a Draco lizard

What is your favorite song? 10,000 Reasons

What is your favorite thing to wear? my swimsuit

What are you afraid of? any big, mean wild animal

What are you really good at? kickball

What are you not very good at? treating my baby sister like a person

If you could change your name, what would you choose? Asher

What is your favorite restaurant? Old MacDonald

What do you like to do with Mommy? play air hockey

What do you like to do with Daddy? wrestle

What do you like to do with your friends? play on the playground

What do you like about Children's Ministry? they're teaching about Jesus

What's your favorite game? Catan Jr.

Ninja Party

My two little ninjas, all decked out in their ninja headbands and ninja T-shirts, were so, so eager for their friends to arrive and for their birthday party to begin.

For the final 15 minutes or so until the first guest arrived, the boys took turns on "look-out" duty. One boy sat atop the bunk bed to watch the clock... 

while the other one watched out the front door. It was so precious seeing their anticipation!

Once the guests all arrived (finally!) and donned their ninja headbands, we sat down to figure out everyone's "ninja names" according to this fun worksheet. Some of the kids' new names sounded hilarious!

Then, the kids each decorated 3 paper ninja stars to be used for a later activity. Jason and I sure got to be pros at folding these things!

Once these projects were completed, we all headed outside to begin the kids' official ninja training. I told all the kids that they had just joined the Schleicher Ninja Training Academy and that all of the activities we would do that morning would focus on honing their ninja skills.

Our first game was Sensei Says (a ninja-version of Simon Says), led by Sensei Jason.

We moved the next game inside because of the breezy weather. For this activity, the ninjas-in-training all had to keep a balloon in the air by hitting it with their ninja (pool noodle) sword. Sensei Schleicher had the girls try this game first, then the boys...

...and finally everyone together. Each kid was SO focused on this activity and really got into it. They were quite proud of themselves when they met Sensei Schleicher's challenge of how many seconds they needed to keep the balloons up.

After these group games, we split the crew in half and did the next events in smaller groups. I took a small group upstairs for two activities. First, a ninja web! The kids had to climb through this string maze and touch five flags that were hanging around the room. Most kids stayed really close to the ground on this one.

Then, the kids took turns using their throwing stars to knock down a crew of evil ninjas.

Meanwhile, Sensei Jason was leading a special ninja obstacle course outside. Jason came up with such a nice variety of tasks for the ninjas-in-training to complete. These kiddos all worked so hard!

Jason's second activity was having the kids throw more hard-core (rubber) ninja stars at this foam target board. The ninja stars didn't really stick in the board like I hoped they would, but Jason improvised the score-keeping just fine.

After all that movement and time outside, we took a break for water and a story. Prior to the party, I let Jaden and Cody pick out which book they wanted me to read, and they chose one of their favorites, The Ninjabread Man. 

After I was done reading this book, I completely forgot about my next activity which was supposed to be playing hide-and-seek with the stuffed ninja dolls. Instead, I thought I was off on time and ended up just reading two more books (the Mobi Shinobi birthday books) to the group. No one complained about the extra storytime, and the additional down-time was probably appreciated by everyone, so it worked out just fine.

I figured that the final activity would be one of the boys' favorites-- a ninja battle! Before battling against each other, though, I had the kids practice their ninja moves by swatting at the balloons hung up all around the yard.

The kids took it upon themselves to destroy every single balloon, either by popping them or by knocking them out of the tree. When that job was done, I evenly distributed the swords so that we could have a Red vs. Blue ninja battle. 

The kids did fairly well at remembering my "no head shots" rule, but eventually of course the battle got a little wild. So, I suggested that we all attack Sensei Schleicher. What a good sport! :)

When we came back inside, I presented the kids with their certificates of completion from the Schleicher Ninja Academy.

These kids all worked up a big appetite for our pizza lunch (many thanks to Papa for ducking out of the party and picking up Little Caesars for us all!). Nearly every kid had at least two full slices of pizza.

We ended the party with birthday cake and ice cream...

and present-opening chaos!

I just loved the group of kids that joined us for this party. They were all such enthusiastic, willing participants in each of the activities. Even though I was hesitant about the ninja theme at the beginning, this party turned out to be my favorite one yet! The activities were perfect for my active boys. Most importantly, Cody and Jaden seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and their time with friends.

Happy 6th Birthday, Jaden and Cody. HI-YA! :)