Paul Turns Eight

This past Thursday our Paul turned eight.  How crazy is that?  And yes, I'm aware that this happened nearly a week ago.  It's been a busy one, folks.  I'll catch up!

 Baby Paul on the couch at about four months.

8 Year Old Paul after swim lessons on his birthday - I love the big smile that is all gums - I used to do this!

Paul's birthday began with the building of his birthday train, a Bangsund Family tradition.

After the birthday train there were two small gifts from Mom and Dad.

 A little bit of LEGO...

 ...with a side of ham.

A cool craft kit that allows him to make these neato dragon things.

After breakfast and some LEGO building, it was time to go meet Grandma and Grandpa for second breakfast at IHOP, per the birthday boy's request.  Paul ate all five of his silver dollar pancakes, and then opened his gifts.

 It's a Minecraft sheep.  And Paul is utterly delighted.

 It's the Ender Dragon from Minecraft - in LEGO.  Really it's the coolest thing ever for most 8 year olds in the Western Hemisphere.

Checking out the back and showing it to the others at the table.  The adults were clueless but polite.  The older brother was probably a little jealous, but handled himself beautifully.

We went back to the house for a few hours before swim lessons, during which Paul built LEGO and Luke watched Paul build LEGO.  It really does work well, for the most part.  We headed for swim lessons at 12:15.  The boys are doing private lessons this year.  They just haven't ever learned much with thirty seven other kids in the pool.  It's not the best learning environment for folks who can get distracted by their own arm hair.  For. Real.  I was blessed to be whining about this predicament to a friend of mine who shared her solution to a similar problem in their family.  Private lessons with a college student who teaches the boys at the nearby high school pool during the adult swim hour.  It's empty, people.  Except for two or three elderly folks swimming laps, my dudes are the only peeps in the pool.  And they go one at a time so they can't even distract each other.  Good idea?  Yes.  Yes, it is.

I don't have pictures of Paul in the pool on his birthday, but here are a few from two days earlier, when he had his first lesson.  Teacher Nikki did a fabulous job getting him to put his face in the water by the end of his first day.

After swim lessons, Paul got to pick lunch.  Jack in the Box.  $1 for a grilled cheeseburger.  Yes, I know it's not a healthy choice, but folks, birthdays only come once a year.  And you can't beat $1!

We ran over to Fred Meyer to grab the birthday cake, and then headed home.  Regarding the lack of baking on my part - here's the deal - I had it in my plan and on my calendar to bake Paul's cake.  When the day came, Tuesday, I had delivered Paul to Canby to spend the night at my mom's place.  Luke was on his first overnight bike trip with Grandpa.  I got home at 3pm.  And I did not want to bake a cake with my free time.  So, I got online and noticed I could buy a cake for less than $20 at Fred Meyer. Terrible?  Nope.  Do I feel guilty?  Nope.  I played piano and sang for nearly two hours.  And when my husband arrived home I wasn't grumpy or crabby or stressed or overheated from having baked a cake.  I was relaxed and happy to see him and ready for our date.  I am so smart.

Anyway...we grabbed Paul's cake and headed home where I put the finishing touches on the basement for Paul's Minecraft party that evening.  Okay.  I want to be SUPER clear.  I hired my friend Vanessa to help me put all this together.  She has an amazing Etsy shop called Timber + Lace where she sells adorable and awesome party decorations.  I approached her about a month ago and asked if I could hire her to help me throw a Minecraft party for Paul.  I had spent about three minutes on Pinterest, and it only made me sweat and weep.  Crafting does that to me.  Vanessa said yes, and I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.  Sidenote:  If you aren't familiar with Minecraft, none of these pictures will make sense.  ;-)

 It's a creeper face made from square paper plates.

 Paul's birthday banner with Minecraft themed paper.

 Paul's finished Ender Dragon acted as our tables centerpiece.  There is a creeper head in the background, flanked by Paul's new sheep and ocelot.

 Both boys pose with the Ender Man that they helped me create!  Yes, we did this together.  Vanessa was super inspiring and encouraging.  She also left me enough black plates and black streamer to make this happen.

With the basement ready to go, the guests began to arrive!  We did an evening birthday party on the day of the birthday so that our Daddy-Man could be there.  The Saturday after the birthday was not available.  In the future, we will find a way to have the party mid-morning.  Evening just isn't our best time of day, but we made it work this time!

The kids started by eating pizza.  Then we played a game.  Pin the tail on the Minecraft pig.  Pictures.

Pizza eaters with the pig in the background

 More pizza eaters

Each player wore the creeper head and pinned their tail.  This is the birthday boy.

This is the birthday boy's brother.  We are keeping this thing forever.

This is the birthday boy's five-year-old friend's dad.  Aforementioned five year old was NOT going to wear the creeper head.  So his dad said he would do it for him.  Awesome.

The Fred Meyer cake with the cool cake toppers Vanessa made.  Happy Birthday, Paul!

After the cake it was time to play an hour of Minecraft.  No pictures available because I was upstairs with the moms enjoying mom time!  Overall, the party was a HUGE success.  And I was SO happy when it was done.  One down, one to go!!