Adventures R Us

Avery turned 7 years old last week! Wow! He was sooo excited! He was counting down the days a month in advance. He knew it exactly. He even made himself his own calendar on a little notebook he found.

He woke up on his birthday to presents and blowing out candles. I even brought him lunch at school and spent the afternoon with him. He was loving it. Then.... towards the end of the school day we had terrible storms. We ended up having a tornado warning, which means everyone has to go into the hallway and crouch down with their heads against the wall. We did that for a few minutes and then the power flickered on and off over and over and over. Finally it went out completely. Which made it hot in those hallways. Hundreds of kids, curled into a ball, whining and complaining, in the hotness is not too fun. Wellll, we had to stay that way for an HOUR! In the middle of all that Avery said, "This birthday isn't so fun anymore!" It ended up that a tornado formed right above the school (teachers in the 4th grade hallway and parents outside saw it)! It hit some houses down the road and knocked down tons of trees and fences, but we were all good. We had no power the rest of the day and we got out of school very late! That night we took Lindsay's family and went to IHOP to celebrate his birthday. He was DYING for the restaurant people to sing to him. His wish did not come true, however. :( There were only 2 workers there, they were very busy, and they just couldn't do it. They did at least bring him cake.

The next morning Avery woke up asking what fun thing we were going to do for his birthday that way. I had to break it to him gently that birthday festivities do not happen for a whole week. :)

His party was on Friday. He was DYING to have it on a Friday. This kid knows what he wants!! The present he wanted the very most was an Ipod. I didn't want to get him one! Sam has one and it has the exact same music Avery would want, so WHY would I get him one?? Plus, he is only 7! Why does he need an Ipod. BUT he has been wanting one since his last birthday. Do you know how long a year is for a 7 year old?! LONG! He was DYING and POSITIVE he was going to get one. I finally decided we would get him a fake Ipod (mp3 player)as long as it didn't cost over $30. Welllll, I looked for 2 weeks, but he wanted one with a camera so he could take his own vieos, like Sam did. There aren't any cheap music players with cameras! I spent the whole afternoon before his party, going to SEVERAL, different stores and the cheapest I could find was $70. No way! That night AJ went to get his hair cut. Right before bed, Avery got soooo excited. I asked him why and he said, "I can't wait to get my Ipod tomorrow!!!" Ummmmm. I asked him why he thought he was getting one. He was sure someone at the party would be bringing one as a present!!! I then had to gently explain to him how party presents don't cost more than $20 usually and that no one at the party would be bringing him one. He BURST into tears!!! I have never seen him do that before! It was terrible! He said, "But it's the ONLY thing I want. I have wanted it FOREVER! I have been waiting a LONG time!" He cried for like 15 minutes. No matter what I said, it wasn't helping. He really didn't want anything else. I felt bad. :( I told AJ to stop after his hair appointment and see if he could find one at stores I hadn't been to. He finally found one. It was $50, so more than I wanted to spend, but geez, how could I make him suffer any longer?! Let's just say, we have made his YEAR! He has gone everywhere with that thing. He always has it with him and is always listening. It's really cute. He sings right along and knows every word. I don't really think he realizes that he is singing quite loud when it is in his ears. Thankfully, he got my singing genes and not AJ's. He's a good little singer. :) Cute, cute!

Now, on to the party! He wanted a swimming party at the YMCA. We invited all of our good friends and neighbors and only 3 people from his class, two of which happen to be girls. Hmmmm. :) The entire first part of the party he kept asking where his teacher was. She was late. :) That is all he cared about. he kept telling me to call her, or text her, or email her. :) He couldn't wait until she got there. She was obviously going to be the life of the party. :) She finally got there, thank goodness. :) Well, as we were eating pizza, one of the little girls said that she felt like she was going to throw up. Our hostess went to find a bucket. Well, then Syler (Lindsay's baby) actually does throw up. He always does, it's an allergy thing" so we weren't worried. Well, then Avery's teacher's baby starts to throw up too!! What?! What was going on with out party?! We get them all cleaned up. The little girl went home, and everyone is feeling good. Avery opens his presents and then we all go get in the pool. We were in there about 20 minutes. Everyone had just finished their swim tests and had just gotten in to play when guess what. Some random kid, not with out party, threw up in the pool!!!! It just wasn't our day!! What a fun party, huh?! Everyone had to get out and they told us they were not going to open the pool back up since there was only an hour left before it closed anyway. Ugh! We got the party lady to blow up the bounce house that they use for other parties. Whew! Party saved! The kids all loved it, even though it was craziness! Now, parents are telling me that their kids want to have parties at the Y. LOL! Little do they know, their party probably won't be so adventurous!

That little boy had a great birthday and is so proud to be 7! I took pictures, but haven't uploaded them yet, so when I do, I will post them.

Also, the same birthday week, Avery had some exciting stuff happen at school. They take a timed math test every day. The goal is to get a certain number of problems right in a short time frame and then they get to move up to the next test. Well, Avery moved up 5 days in a row. No one in his class had done that, so it was a momentous occasion! His handwriting also improved a TON and he can spell like an expert! Go Avery! Obviously 7 is a great age!

Sam has also grown up so much in the past month. How did he get so big! He is super responsible (except for leaving his clothes all over the house every day!!!). He is going to be a GREAT babysitter! Boys can be babysitters, right?! Syler LOVES him and whenver he is around, Sam take care of him. He also helps all the little neighborhood kids. Although, now he is "too old" to play with them. They are too young for him. Which is trues, they are all 7 or 8, but it isn't too much fun to sit inside, is it, Sam? ;) He just really has matured lately. Sigh...

Besides all that, AJ broke his foot. I wonder if I already posted about that??? Hmmm. Oh well, here it is again, if I did. He was playing dodge ball at church and tripped over a kid. He thought it was just badly sprained and went on a 20 mile backpacking trip a week later. Well, after 2 weeks he went to the doctor and nope, not a sprain, badly broken! Nice. He is in a boot. Broken bones must run in the family.

School is almost done for me! Yippee! I only have 3 classes left! I will have done 45 credits this semester. Craziness! I just got my scores from my state Praxis exams I took last month. I was 4 points away from having a perfect score on one of them! WOAH! I couldn't believe it! I was so worried too! It happened to be the one, where I messed up the essay questions and had to erase 2 pages of writing and then rewrite it! See my last post for details.

Our house is wild and wacy, but I love it. Well, most of the time. :) :) :)