Harry – I mean Nathan’s birthday party.

Nathan loves Harry Potter.  He has watched most of the movies and we have read some of the books.  He wanted a Harry Potter birthday and so we had one.  It was busy but fun.

Gathering for the party.  We had a mix of family and friends.  Kathie’s older kids, Shelly’s 3 in the middle, and three church friends.   We were sorted into houses.  I made each kid a badge with the house on it.  After we sorted into houses then we either had our picture taken or went out to start the Wizard’s Shoot out.

We took pictures of everyone as Harry/Hermione and it was fun to dress up.

 

Sammy being Harry – side note we had three Sammy’s at the party.  Sammy A, Sammy Ricks, Sammi Turpin!

 

I think Caleb’s pose was the best.

 

 

 

 

Potions class – it was great fun.  We had Technicolor foam and bubbles and a concoction you could drink after you mixed it up!

Drink it, if you dare! Jessi, Lizzy, Nathan, Hannah and Thomas at the end of the table.

 

The mixture started out purple and then changed to blue and then foam up.

 

Katie blowing her bubbles.

 

 

 

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere!

Sammy getting ready to shoot in the Wizards Shootout!

We had them shooting at a hula hoop that was hung from a tree and then swung around.  It was fun.  Katie was the winner of the Tri Wizard shoot out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not the greatest picture but his expression is priceless.  The cake was Harry, Hermione and Ron on broomsticks with a bright moon behind them and clouds.    Afterwards, we had cake and ice cream and presents.  It was a  great party and everyone  had a good time.

Happy Birthday, Nathan – you are officially in double digits!

Fall of 2011 (catch up)

First, I wanted to thank everyone that responded with help for my teaching questions.  They did help but I have a feeling that this will be one of “those” years.  For some reason 8 years old seems to be a hard year – not the child and the parents!

Like the title said this is a catch up with several things put in at once.  First there is Mandy’s birthday party.  She wanted an art party and it took some drama for me to pull out what that actually meant.  As it ended up we had a fun party tie dying t-shirts – splatter painting on the drive way and decorating very colorful cupcakes.  Everyone left paint spattered and happy! Now for the pictures – I guess we were too busy to take pictures of the tie dying (Kathie if you have some would you send them my way).  The paint spattering was fun - Lizzie and her picture

Mandy preparing to paint!

Katie  her and her painting.

Lydia and her masterpiece.

On to the cupcake decorating -

Jason looking over all of the icing.  At one point, we thought all of the icing was going to blue.

The finished masterpieces.  Everyone loved the white flower cupcake that Ms. Chloe gave to Mandy.

 

 

Mandy’s cupcake.

 

 

Opening presents.  How fun!

 

Happy 8th birthday, Mandy, We love you!

On to football – Nathan has been practicing football since the first part of August.  He has practiced through the 100* + temperatures and now we are playing football.  After yesterday, we are 5 and 3.  I think they must have a fairly good team as there wins have been knock outs like 33 to 0 and 28 to 0.  The first game they lost by 6 points in the last few seconds and the second one they also lost by a touchdown.  The third loss was bad and the only game Nathan didn’t play.  It was a make up game because of the wildfire and they played it on a Sunday.

Here is Nathan in all his glory - There team is called the Magnolia Mustangs.  The coach even went to the extra yard and had their helmets painted gold and a mustang painted on them.  It is hard to get a picture of just Nathan playing as he is on the line and usually in the middle of whatever play is happening.

Waiting for the play to start.

I got sidetracked and took a picture of the sunset.  It actually was prettier in person.

 

The boy walking toward Nathan is named Colton and he is 5” 4” and weighs around 150.  They have faced opponents that top over 230 and they are 10 years old.

After the game pep talk.  One thing I can say for the coaches is that they are sincere about trying to help the players.  Nathan has learned a lot about football this season but also about good sportsmanship.  One of the coaches lost his temper with one of the opponents coaches and they had a yelling match on the sidelines.  The coach apologized to the team and say it was not something he should do.