Eight is Amazing!

I cannot believe my oldest son is eight. Eight. Like two away from ten. Like baptism age.

Holy freak.

I'm old. So is Jeremiah.

And so, in his mind, is Hayden.

Hayden wanted a Mario birthday party for.ev.er. A week before his party, after I'd Pinterested a gazillion ideas and was pumped for everything (and I mean everything) I had to do, Hayden came into my room in the early a.m. and stated he no longer wanted a Mario birthday. "Eight year olds don't have Mario parties, Mom." I couldn't argue with that, although I'm sure it's not true. So he chose a soccer party.

Remember, this is the boys whose goal is to play goalie for the US Olympics one day.

Pinterest wasn't super helpful. And I'm SO not good at drawing soccer balls, so soccer ball cupcakes were out of the question. Luckily, the Dollar Store, as usual, came through.

I found little sports flags on toothpics that served as "Go Team Go" style flags on a white frosted cupcake with mini chocolate chips. About as "soccer" as we were going to get. See...

I was lucky enough that he chose a soccer theme because it meant he really had no games he wanted to play. Just to practice soccer with his friends. Easy enough. I wasn't going to argue that one.

Of course, in any soccer game you have to include some wrestling.

Funny story. The weather was HOT and WINDY during his party. It was so windy that no matter who blocked what wind in any direction, I could not get the candles to light. So I made him pretend to blow out the candles just for the sake of the picture. And yes, I stuck 8 candles on a cupcake.

Presents...the whole reason kids have birthdays...

Beyblades and candy...two of his fave things...oh, and girls. Oh wait, he's not into girls. But Rai and Jocy were so excited for him :)

More Beyblades, or as he calls them, "Beys". BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! And a muscle tee. I was always against these until he got one for his birthday. He's kinda cute in them!

The anticipation is killing me...what is it?!

Legos! From Nana! He's been asking for Legos but I'm not a big fan of spending money on something with such small pieces that he's bound to lose. He's taken good care of his Batman Legos (so far)...

Jeremiah and I got Hayden a skateboard. He's getting better at it but still not a pro by any means. He knows all the skateboard lingo :)

Baby Mia eating the pizza crust. The best part.

How does this girl always find my phone?!

Putting together their Lego Batman stuff. We let Roman open his from Nana and Papa a week early so that they could do them together.

On Hayden's actual birthday (Sunday, June 10) we had him open the rest of his presents from us. Legos and Squinkies. Don't know what Squinkies are? Don't worry, I know what they are and I still don't see the appeal. Tiny little creatures (Avengers for this one) that are squishy and live in plastic bubbles. I'm pretty sure I vacuumed up Iron Man :)

I was all caked out so we went with the untraditional ice cream for a birthday dessert. And yes, this time the candle really is lit :)

A few fun Hayden facts:

Likes:

Being outside, meaning skateboarding and soccer

Swimming, although afraid of the deep end

Fruit, mostly peaches and berries

Nutella

Candy (who doesn't?)

Ninjago and Sonic cartoons

Going to the movie theater

Legos and Beyblades

Wii and XBox (aka Mario anything and Skylanders)

Dislikes:

Reading (we're working on that)

Being told what to do

Sitting still, especially at church

Being grounded from anything

Broccoli

PB&J sandwiches

Quesadillas (must include refried beans to be Hayden-approved

Being by himself

BBQ on Memorial Day

Tai and I held a Memorial Day bbq this year. It was my first bbq that included more than two families. In fact, I think we had close to 8 families in attendance, and with every family contributing at least once child...well, we were busy! It was so exciting to have so many friends from church come to our bbq!

I had received McCormicks GrillMates from Crowdtap and wanted to give everyone the opportunity to try them, so I set up a table where people could choose from marinades, spices, rubs, and bbq sauce for their meat. Oh, did I mention it was a bring-your-own-meat party? We're so not in a position to buy steaks and chicken for everyone, luckily our church friends were so understanding and brought not only their own meat, but also sides and desserts to share! We had a huge feast and a lot of fun.

The favorites of the party were definately the Molasses Bacon seasoning and the Bourbon Brown Sugar BBQ sauce. In fact, just tonight I mixed the Molasses Bacon seasoning with panko bread crumbs (about half and half), dipped chicken tenderloins in egg, then the panko mixture, and cooked at 450 degrees for 18 minutes. It made super crunchy and taste chicken strips! And yes, I dipped them in the bourbon brown sugar bbq sauce. Not to be a walking commercial, but I'm sort of in love with the bbq sauce. Move over Sweet Baby Rays! 

Aubrey and her friend playing in the sandbox. They had such a good time and got along really well. I think we need a playdate with these two! And yes, I'm such a good mom that I forgot sunscreen. She had blisters on her shoulders that night!

Josy teaching Aubrey how to use a baseball bat. :)

So here I thought I was being all creative and brought strawberry and blueberry fruit salad with whipped cream, and someone totally one-uped me and brought angel food cake to be topped with strawberries, blueberries, and whipped cream. How can I beat cake?! It was super yummy, too. Tai made cupcakes and used little Americana toppers from the Dollar Spot at Target. We love Target. We had such festive desserts!

Here's Karen and Joe Spencer. Karen lives in Tai's apartment complex and she had a ton of fun toys for the kids to play with (i.e. all the sand stuff Aubrey was hoarding). Fun fact (or small world)...I knew Joe during my freshman year at college. He was friends with my roommate and we hung out quite a bit. Who knew we'd move to Albuquerque and within a few blocks of him?!

Jeremiah pretending to be a better bbq-er than me. We all know I'm queen of the grill (right???) but he did a great job managing everyone's steaks, pork chops, hamburgers, chicken, and hot dogs. And it was nice that he did that while I chatted up everyone who came!

Aubrey eating a cookie. I'm 90% sure she did not eat lunch. Just cookies and cupcakes. I'm not even sure that was her cookie. She's a finders-keepers sort of girl.

See the chicken on a stick? That's ours :) Apparently I didn't thaw chicken breasts, I thawed chicken tenders...so in order to keep them from falling through the grates I put them on skewers. And Zach teased me endlessly about how ghetto I was. I thought any food on a stick was more fun!

There's Hayden! He was off playing soccer with some of the other kids and I saw him maybe a total of 5 seconds..just long enough to take a picture and prove he was there.

Danielle and her mini-me daughter getting soda. I love Danielle's hair color. I want it!

The Taylor's brought a bubble machine that had the kids super excited.

The Mannings were smart and ate in the shade. It was in the high 80s on Memorial Day. I'll bet their girls didn't get burned and blistered like Aubrey!

Josy showing us her black (literally) hot dog her dad grilled for her. He tried to get her to eat it by telling her it was chocolate!

Tai and Kristen with their babies. And bubbles.

More grill masters...except Zach (in the grey)...remember the "chocolate" hot dog?!

Forget my earlier comment that Aubrey ate only cookies and cupcakes. Here she is eating the strawberries and blueberries and shunning everything else. She has priorities.

And here's my other child that made a brief appearance in between soccer games.

Tai and I were so impressed with our dollar store decorations and plates. And then there's Aubrey's random My Little Pony to the right.

Tai even found blankets for everyone to sit on and picnic with!

We had such a blast at our barbeque. I got to know more people from our church and eat some delicious food. I've added new spices and bbq sauce to my pantry. The kids got to play with new friends. The weather was perfect. The whole barbeque went really well!

Hayden's turn to be awesome

So this is Hayden's third year at soccer, but the first year that he actually really got it. I've loved seeing him grow in the sport, from dogpiling the children who had the ball to playing in the grass to cheering for the wrong team...he's now figured out whose team he's on and what the rules are. His favorite position is the goalie but he'd play just about anywhere just to be in the game.

His newest life endeavor: play soccer for the US Olympic Team. Every evening after dinner he takes the soccer ball outside and says he needs to practice. It's hard to argue with his comment, "Mom, how will I make it into the Olympics if I don't practice every day!"

Could Jeremiah be any prouder? Probably not. Soccer runs in his blood.

Hayden's games were every Saturday for 8 weeks. I'm glad they're over and we can get back to normal Saturdays, but I miss cheering him on. His team went undefeated this year and he was so proud of that.

Aubrey likes to pose for pictures lately. She has a Ring Pop in her mouth and is dancing for me.

Roman actually found Hayden's games boring. He really wanted to play but wasn't old enough this year to be on Hayden's team.

Hayden taking a break at his game. They got snacks during half time and at the end of the game. Another reason Aubrey and Roman didn't like Hayden's games...he always got good food!

Hayden is the second kid there chasing after the ball. And yes, it's pink.

At his favorite post - goalie. He wore special gloves and loved kicking the ball as far as he could away from the goalie. He only let 2 or 3 balls in the whole season.

And yes, because his team was so good, there were several times during a game that this is what he was doing. Just hanging out.

At the end of each game the parents from both sides would make a tunnel for the kids to run through, I rarely got to do it because I had the other two kids and Jeremiah had already gone back to work, or I was taking pictures of the other parents being super cool.

I didn't feel like spending $12 for a team photo, so I got my own :) There were two girls on the team but I'm telling you, they were awesome.

The after-season party was at Chuck E. Cheese. I got the kids a few tokens to use because I was still feeling cheap :)

My gambler :)

Hayden with two of his teammates.

Cool trophy, right? It's a bobblehead. I love it.

I'm really proud of Hayden this year. He was such a good sport and would help the other team if they fell down. He'd give them a high five at the end of the game and say good job. He didn't care if he had to sit out for a bit and, instead of playing around like he used to, he insisted on sitting by his coach to cheer on his team. He may not be the best yet, and he might not ever be, but he finally found a sport he loves.