Celebrating Eight

Noah, my love, turned a whopping EIGHT years old on Friday, but since I was going to be leaving town on a girls' weekend trip that day, we planned ahead to celebrate a day early with a swarm of his favorite buddies and a shockingly swell cake made by Yours Truly. :}  Insistent that we would keep it simple, I dubbed it merely a playdate and objected all week when Josh/people kept calling it a party.  "It's NOT a party!" I tried to remind, but I think in the end I was drowned out.  So funny! Whatever you wanna call it, Noah felt so special and enjoyed hosting his company.   It was a Lego Chima fest with a side of swordplay and some rocket balloons. All boy!

Building a new speedor for racing.

Proud to show off his room/Lego storage facilities. :}

Getting down to the main event of racing speedorz through all manner of obstacles, speeds, teams, and opponents.

The track Josh made was perfect!

These three guys were more drawn to swords and shields and sabres - another favorite of Noah's toys.

The rocket balloons were passed out and the boys were all over it.

They were so cute figuring out how to blow them up themselves. 

Ready to launch!

Blowing them up is only half the fun ... watching them fly and catching them before they fall is the other half. :D

Seriously, besides water play, balloons are the best inexpensive toy we have ever taken advantage of!

Getting to higher ground before blast off.  Good idea, Noah!

The balloon fun went on and on.  There was QUITE a breeze all afternoon which managed to get many of them stuck in trees.  We gave those finishes extra points.  Ha!

Once we were out of balloons, I nabbed a shot of all the friends (minus one who was late) while waiting on cake.  Aren't they adorable?  

Once the cake was lit, everyone gathered around to admire. We videoed the kids singing Happy Birthday to Noah who threw us all for a loop by blowing out the candles at the end by waving at them instead.  Seriously, waving fast enough to blow them out like a fan.  What a nut!  Josh says he learned that stunt at his friend's birthday party last weekend.

These active and growing boys hoovered the cake and chips and juice and came back for seconds.  There was just enough to save a piece for later for Anna who had gone home with a friend from school.

Then Noah opened some cards and a gift or two from some of the buds who chose to treat the playdate like a party.  {See paragraph 1.}  Ha!

Before we let the kiddos loose to play again, we managed a trio of whole group shots.  We started with a funny faces one. :}

Then I asked them to smile like angels.  Bless their little hearts, they interpreted that differently than I meant.  Ha!

Then I requested they just smile like normal and the cherubs humored me.
Sweet things!

So thankful for the friends (and their families) that the Lord has surrounded my boy with.  The buddies Noah shared his day with were Camden, Hayden, Colman, Cole, Barrett, Bryson, Evan, and Brody.  There were a number of other friends Noah also wanted to invite, but the house is only so big and we musn't forget, this was not a full-fledged party. :}  So Noah cooperated and narrowed his list to only friends from co-op and church.  While I am here naming good buds, this is the perfect spot to also name the one girl Noah felt like should have been invited ... our sweet Claire, who is a dear family friend and who, I am told, felt like she should have been there, too. ♥

After the pics, we released the boys back to their Chima racing and crashing until pick-up. 

It was a birthday playdate success!   I love this shot.

When it was just us Browns again, we got out Noah's gifts from us. 

Anna was eager to open her token gift ... a little porcelain tea set this year.

Noah got busy, too.  This was his gift from Anna - chinese checkers.

A firman/police lego set from us, followed by some Mad Libs, a game called Blokus, and a Power Rangers DS game which he's already had me list on GTP because he didn't really dig it after all. :}

But the biggest and best birthday surprise was a killer deal Josh nabbed on clearance one day on his lunch break - a Lego Chima Chi Temple.  This bad boy is so expensive, Noah never even dreamed of asking for it; his birthday wish was for a much lesser and smaller set.  So he was stunned in a fantastic way once he wrapped his brain around what he has just uncovered.  We have the funniest, sweetest video of him opening and reacting to it.

The rest was history.  These three were digging in within minutes while we waited for some birthday pizza to arrive.

From co-op to Field Day to buddies riding home from school for a perfect playdate to presents to cake to pizza, Noah lived up his eighth birthday like a pro! 

 So happy for and with you on your day, Noah!  So pleased to celebrate another precious year with you.  Annual birthday boy survey to follow...