Race on In, Zoom on By... Come and See Who Just Turned...

5!!!!!!!
Yep... that'd be BRAEDEN!!! We can't believe it's actually been 5 years since he joined our family! Sometimes he's a total stinker, but usually he's very loving and has a HUGE heart.
He's a hard worker, a major tease, full of laughter, full of the SILLIES... (meaning he has a WILD, WIIILLLLLDD imagination... he used to have kids named Skeegly, Skagala, and Boom-Boom, but they're dead now. Nice. He makes up stories all the time. He sings to himself at the top of his lungs in the bathroom. And much more!) And we all know that he is "the world's BEST HUGGER!"
We love you, Braeden! You make us laugh, smile, giggle... you bring out the happy in us!


Our happy, little boy on his HAPPY day!
He got to go on his Daddy Date ON HIS BIRTHDAY!!! Damian took JUST him to Universal Studios right after the Husky Hero award was given to Lexi in the morning at school. I guess there's not a whole lot there anymore... I don't know, but I do know that after the tour on the tram, they spend a good 2 out of their 4-5 hours in the park in the Curious George busy ball center thing! They could rocket balls out of cannons, shoot them, throw them at each other, put them in a ball volcano, etc!! Braeden seriously had the BEST time there!
Hmmm... only Damian would do this and then make Braeden take a picture of him! Boys will be boys... eh?
He is just giggling his heart out! Fill it with balls, push the button, and it RAINS out balls on your head!
This is classic!! We LOVE Scooby-Doo around here!
And this is lovely. ICK! I'm pretty sure I would still jump out of my seat when the shark comes around and out of the water with its JAWS wide open ready to CHOMP me! ;)

I'm not sure what this is from, but it is a serious mess. I think it's a plane crash... yikes!
And when they were finished there, they made their way to Colleen and John's, where we met them for birthday dessert, presents, and a sleepover!! We went to lunch the next day to celebrate not only Braeden's birthday, but also John's... which was on the 11th... the day of Braeden's Friend Party here at home!
Colleen made us milk shakes... vanilla or chocolate... and we added crushed Oreos to them! MMMMMMmmmmm. Then we quickly sang and let him open his gifts! The following shows how it usually goes around here!


Imagine that... they got him just what he wanted! The funny thing about it is that we had just been up like the week before and gone shopping all together so that Colleen had an idea of what he REALLY wanted. They couldn't believe that she remembered! Silly kids! We actually bought the gift that day we were all together. I hid it in the basket in and under all of the crap I was buying and she took them out to the car while I checked out. The beauty of innocence!

And speaking of transforming... he got a transforming Batmobile. It goes from an awesome car to a jet, and all you have to do is pull a little lever. None of that real transforming that takes half an hour to do! Ha! He loved it all! He has lots of Transformers now!
_______________________________________________

And for his friend party, which happens every other year (on odd years so that when he turns 8 and gets baptized it will be a family year... as with the others, too!), we rented a bounce house and put it in the back yard! We planned a race car theme party and had a blast! He was allowed to invite as many children as he is old... and that's the rule, HOWEVER, there is a veto on that rule when there are children in primary/school classes that would get left out when he chooses the absolute 5 that must come... SO... we ended up inviting 8! Not too many over the limit, but... still over the limit! They had a hoot, though, and it was worth it to have him surrounded by all his friends!

The anticipation while they set it up was almost unbearable for these two, but they waited patiently while they got it secured and cleaned out.

And the MINUTE the guy stepped out and said that it was ready... they were IN!!

So... since we had a race car theme, we had lots of races! We got the skitters out in the culdesac and had races on them. The kids got pencils or tattoos for prizes! This is James, Kimber and Ty racing.

Luke, Scarlett, and Vinny

Sarah, Audrey, and Braeden

Ty, James, and Kimber again.

Then we had a race to see who could pop the most balloons in 20 seconds.
They tried sitting on them, laying on them, they even tried it with 2 people, but they still wouldn't pop. I didn't blow them up enough...

It just would not work, so...

...we resorted to letting them use a pencil... not sharpened, to pop them! Much better success, as you can see! Braeden ended up winning, but gave the prize to the next highest popper!

And I didn't even get a picture of anyone swinging at the pinata! Braeden and Vinny were the only two that hit it before it just completely tore open and dumped candy everywhere! I'm making my own from now on!

See... if you look closely, it just ripped backwards... like it's a convertible car now! UURRRHHH!

All I can say is that it's a darn good thing we had a bounce house there. I wouldn't have been able to keep them entertained for 2 hours without it!

These three didn't leave the table very much after they had gathered up candy in their bags. They just sat there and ate as much as they could before their moms got there!! :)

Kimber and Ty even compared, shared, traded some of their candy! Silly kids! I have a picture of Kimber's face that is just priceless... she had red candy ick ALL OVER!!

Then we sang and ate cupcakes, and opened presents!

Braeden with Luke

...and Kimber

...opening Bakugan's... which were his FAVORITE for the day. And I might add that he got LOTS of them. He also got Star Wars figurines that he has not let out of his SIGHT since he got them. He loves playing. He seriously has the BEST imagination!

... with James and his little brother, Ryan!

... and Audrie...

... and Scarlett...

...and Sarah...

...and Ty...

...and, of course, Vinny!

And back to the bouncy house... where we found that it was MUCH easier to pop balloons! They took all the leftover balloons from the game, shoved them in here, and had a much better time jumping on them to pop them!!! And it was much louder this way, too!

They had a riot! And one of the moms even told me that she had her window down on her way to pick them up and could hear us just as she passed through the light down the street. Yikes! That's loud! BUT FUN!!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Braeden! We hope it was the best one EVER!!!