My Baby is 8!!!!

I cannot believe it, but my baby is 8!!!! It is just amazing how quickly these past 5 years have flown by since we moved back to Maryland. It seems as if someone has hit the fast forward button on my life, and as hard as I may try, I can't stop it. Does anyone else feel this way?


Why is it that when your kids are babies and toddlers, the time seems to move EXCRUCIATINGLY slow, but just when they get a little older and things finally seem to get a little easier, the time flies by at the speed of light??

I mean, for Pete's sake, in 3 1/2 years we will have a kid in COLLEGE! I digress, this post isn't about her, it's about my baby, my Little Buddy. So let me get myself back on track. (We've called him "Little Buddy", since he was born. It's always "The Big Kids" and "Little Buddy." He'll probably be a 6 foot tall, 30 year old, married man....but he'll still be my "Little Buddy!")

All right, now I'm really going to get back on track. This year he really wanted to have a sleepover. We tried and tried to convince him to do something else. I tried to push the laser tag party on him, but he wasn't interested. Finally, B & I sat down and talked about it. Why were we trying to convince him to go somewhere for his party? We'd end up spending $250-$300 for a party, and it wouldn't have been what he really wanted!! So, with fear and trembling, we decided to let him have the sleepover.

Because he has an early January birthday, we usually wait a few weeks to have his party. It turned out that we are so dag on busy time(isn't this supposed to be our easy time of year?) that the only time available was on a Sun to Mon when the kids had off school for MLK's Bday. That was fine, but Bri had to leave first thing in the AM to head to a meeting in the Bahamas. I'd be on my own for breakfast and the boys departure. Yikes!

Actually, the party was great!

He had invited 9 friends, but one couldn't make it. So it ended up being 9 boys total, including him. They did a cool Amazing Race type scavenger hunt. The boys were divided into 2 teams and they were given a clue to lead them somewhere in the house. When they got there they had to complete a task and then they'd get their next clue, etc, etc, until they were finished the race. Both teams got prizes. (I have learned something over the years and years of parties!) Thank goodness for the big kids. They were both great helpers! Then, they played lots and lots of football, the two teams were supervised by B.....just to make sure there wasn't any rough tackling going on! We did gifts and cake. The boys played video games and watched 2 movies. Then, they all went to sleep....well, all but one. The last kid stayed awake until after 4AM! (Thankfully, it was my nephew!) Most of them were asleep by 12:30AM. They had a blast.

Here are some pictures. The first one is from his real Bday. His gift from us was a BMX bike. Now he's just like his Big Bro!

Check out the pix of B's Kick-off by finger. Funny!