Life with the Ball's: Happy Birthday Ethan!

Ethan is ten years old! But that's not really the exciting part. The exciting part is that he finally got to have a real deal birthday party. I have nixed the whole birthday party idea in years past because I hate the over-the-top parties, the awkwardness of interacting with the parents of the kids who I don't know, and coming up with cute themes and games. Totally not my thing. I've enjoyed the fun family activities we've done instead and don't regret how we've handled things.
But then I realized my older boys are past the age of themed parties and high expectations. Getting together with their friends for a late night party is all they want. So I sent out a few emails, (no cutesie invitations), ordered some glow sticks for night games in the backyard, and picked up some pizza a few minutes before the kids showed up. It was so easy! And we even had leftover birthday cake so no fancy cupcakes were necessary.

The boys ran around in the backyard playing zombie tag or something and I overheard one of the boys say, "I'm going to be a werewolf vampire. The first one of it's kind!" Whatever that means.

After the zombie apocalypse ended, I taught them how to play the flour game, which was a huge success. I remember playing this game when I was tween. You put a coin on top of a tower of flour and each person takes a slice out of it, without making the tower collapse. If it falls down, that person has to retrieve the coin from the flour without using their hands. The boys were begging to get messy so we had a lot of towers collapse on purpose.

Ethan cutting into the flour tower with much anticipation

Austin had to look long and hard for the coin

After that game I gave them a bunch of glow sticks to put on however they wanted and boy, they got creative! Then they ran around in the backyard, jumped on the tramp, swung on the rope swing {which looked really cool since you couldn't see the rope so they looked like they were really flying} and told scary stories in the tree house. Before I knew it, it was 10pm and time for everyone to go home. It was a snap!

Ethan decked out in glow sticks

These boys are the greatest! Ethan is so lucky to have these kids in his class and at church. They are kind, smart, polite, and LOUD!

Ethan is a great kid. He's got a ton of imagination, loves reading, building Lego creations, and loves to make everyone laugh. He's a hard worker, loves to snuggle, and handles being the middle child pretty well. Mostly! But we sure love this good looking boy and can't wait to see what the next year brings for him. We made his actual birthday extra special by surprising him with breakfast in bed. The little boys and I picked up some MOD Pizza and surprised him at school for lunch, and then we celebrated the warmest day of the year {80 degrees!} by swimming at the lake. Not usually an activity we get to do on his birthday.