The Boy’s birthday was on the Tenth, but schedule conflicts prevented us having a party until the Nineteenth. The Boy was so excited. We had a manageable amount of boys there, and since boys do act the way they do we planned to some activities that would use some energy up before we got to the cake and ice cream. I was afraid that a Balloon stomp game would get rough, so I wanted it in the grass. It was so windy that day, and cool. It would have gone differently had we had the games inside. So to try to curb the violence, I had the boys hold hands in a circle to stomp balloons. I figured if they had to hold hands it would take away from the idea of chasing each other around the yard. It worked at first, and then they separated. So we went for round two, and it worked for a shorter amount of time. But it worked. Unfortunately for some the ground popped some of the balloons before the boys could pop it for them. This worked against the Boy because when it came down to the last two it was the Boy and Ryan. As the Boy went to run away he popped it on the wooden planter, and Ryan won. He was so upset I felt bad for him. He has a very selfish, competitive streak in him, and Ryan is a best friend/nemesis from his church class. When we saw it was down to them, several of us imagined it would be a slugfest at the worst, but that situation could only end in tears. This time it was the Boy’s. Plus when that was all over, they got to melt Army Men out of the ice. What boy doesn't like that, and they soon figured out, you can break the ice on concrete a lot faster than wait for cups of water to be delivered. I told Kelly we needed a flame thrower for the event, but we decided I couldn't buy one. Pity.
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As for his presents, he got some very cool items. Since it was a “Ben 10” theme, he got a DVD set of the episodes, several Star Wars and Iron Man figures, a Foam Rocket Launcher, and an Air Hog remote control plane.
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As a Subplot to this story, a character was at the party that Kelly did not expect. She wanted to make a cake that looked like a Omnitrex from the show. It’s kind of this special watch that allows ‘Ben’ to become different aliens on the show. Kelly had run out of time and did not get it made, so I volunteered to go buy a cake with the Boy that morning at Wal-Mart. She told me to see if they had a Ben 10 decoration pack I could pay for and decorate at home, which they had but wouldn’t sell. I think the Boy’s whining that it wasn’t going to happen worked in our favor as an employee just gave us the decorations. I picked the largest Happy Birthday cake on the shelf (a half sheet) and went to the register. The Boy did not say one word or complain about it at all. Immediately upon arrival home, Kelly heard the story of our trip, and said, ‘That’s great, but why did you get a pink cake’. To which I could only respond that is what happens when you send a color blind person shopping for food, and it looked off-white in the bakery’s bright lights. The cake generated several comments from the women but it tasted just as good as any other stupid color.
A friend from church took Alexis shopping with her and her daughter, which was so nice also. Alexis was getting a bit stressed from all the commotion, and her being able to go out certainly kept one less variable away from the organized chaos we had. But of course as it is in a lot of families with children, jealousy raised it masked head. It was a light day for arguments thankfully.
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