saturday tag-team

today has been a day of 'tag-team' for matt and me. first i got up and went to meet the ladies from my bible study for breakfast (we do an online study and try to meet face-to-face occasionally). then i came home and matt headed to the gym (we just joined the ymca last weekend and i have added water aerobics to my mall walking - apparently, i am a senior citizen now). next it was my turn to leave the house again and i took mason his friend benji's "winter wonderland" birthday party. and he got a winter wonderland because it had been snowing all day.

benji's mom did an amazing job. there were blue and white balloons printed with snowflakes everywhere. she had pictures of benji at different ages hanging from the strings of the balloons over the food table and plastic, glittery snowflakes hanging from the light fixture over the table. and there were lots of penguins - the cake, the goodie bags and the craft.

she started the kids out with a craft. she was telling us that where she comes from (i think ukraine) that the parties were for the adults with food and talking while the kids just ran around and played. she said that she knows how americans love their crafts so she is trying to be "american mom" and do crafts. she is such a sweet lady. she gave each child a canvas board painted blue that she had pencil drawn the shape of a penguin. she then gave them glue sticks and lots of black and white squares to fill it all in. then they glued on googlie eyes and an orange beak. all of the moms were wide-eyes when she got out the loose glitter to let all of these 3 and 4 year olds make a falling snowflake! like i said, she is a really sweet lady. and the kids loved it!

next the kids drew numbers to see who got to 'pin' which item to a snowman on the wall - a la pin the tail on the donkey. the ones who weren't blindfolded had to say "up", "down", "left", "right" to help the person whose turn it was to pin their piece in the right spot. the kids really liked this too and they did a pretty good job.

next was some pizza and fruit lunch for everyone and then on to musical chairs. it is funny because madelyn and i had just been explaining to mason how to play musical chairs a few days ago. but he would not play. no matter how much everyone begged him to, he just wanted to sit on my lap and watch. as they were starting the second round, i was finally able to convince him to give it a try. he excitedly hurried over to run around the chairs. when the music stopped - yep, mason was the one without a chair. and he cried. a lot. and then ran to me and buried his face in my lap. i explained that he is our sensitive one and he has a sister and little brother who win at all costs, so he is used to losing. i wasn't quite sure what was bringing on this level of devastation. benji's mom was so sorry that he was upset and convinced him that they would start over again since they didn't know that he was going to play with them. mason was finally won over when she offered to hold his hand while they ran around the chairs.

he made it to the final three before getting out again and he handled it much better this time. the best was the benji was edged out of the last chair by one of the girls who sat down at the same time. he too cried. someone made a comment about how it was only the boys who cried. but benji recovered quickly and we moved on to cake and presents.

after everyone was cleaned up they made a little backdrop for each child to stand in front of and hold a picture frame to pose behind. i am guessing that we will get those pictures later. it was pretty cute. and then they got everyone (parents included) together for a group picture.

lastly, we bundled back up to release balloons in the snow (i guess this is a family tradition on his birthday).

it was a very nice party and benji's mom even had gift bags for the siblings who weren't invited. this was a really big hit when we got home.

mason's finished penguin craft. he was the last one done and there were several comments about how meticulous he is.

now it was daddy's turn again. he was off to play poker with some friends. i was going to try and get the kids to take a nap since they were going to be out late with daddy after dinner so we all snuggled up in my bed to watch "the little princess" with shirley temple (one of my all time favorites). madelyn and i have been reading the book together and she really enjoyed it. mason was a little too sugared up and came to draw at the table quietly instead. maddux was asleep within five minutes of it starting.

matt got home as we were sitting down to dinner. when we were finished we got everyone cleaned up and matt took the three bigs out for a special treat - a basketball game! matt had gotten four free tickets at work and as much as i would have liked to go, it was really great for the three bigs to go and for me to have an evening at home to my self. manning went to bed about 30 minutes earlier than normal too. so i was pretty much on my own. i thought about soaking in a hot bath, but i decided that getting some things done around the house would be more relaxing in the long run.

matt was too busy with the kids to take any pictures (much to my disappointment), but it sounded like everyone had a great time. he did say that next time he might just bring mason because he was the most interested in the actual game.

it was a full day and i am sure this will be nothing when the kids are all in activities with complex saturday schedules for matt and i getting everyone here and there. love.