And Riley turned 8!

I need to give big props to my sister, Muffy. She and my brother-in-law Chris came to Riley's birthday party with us to Chuck E. Cheese, and then afterwards, made this picture collage. They are both troopers and when I innocently invite them to things, they come. Regardless of the fact that they know I will ask them to help me out. So, thanks Muff and Chris, for all you do. I don't think it would have been as fun or organized, without you guys.

Anyway, Riley turned eight! (Get ready for your question to be answered, Keri). Her birthday was actually on the 14th, but we celebrated her party on the 12th, as that was a Saturday. I told Riley she could invite a lot of friends, but by the time we weeded out the kids whose feelings would be hurt, and thinned out the girls that Riley really likes verses the ones she says are, "kinda mean", I reneged on that plan and said that she could invite one friend. It turned out better that way, because then they could have a buddy to go around to all the games and stuff with, but they wouldn't get into the little cliques that always seem to occur at birthday parties. Riley chose her best girlfriend from school, Olivia. Olivia brought her younger brother, Henry to come as well. That way, Cole would have someone, too. They all had a fun time, and were funny to watch. Riley and Olivia went out and played games like mad....and Cole had Jeff go around with him for a while, so that left Henry by himself, and he didn't really know what to do, as he hadn't been there before. He came over to the table with me, and told me it was time for him to go home because his birthday had been yesterday and his dad was putting together his Star Wars Lego Star Fighter. I told him to take these two tokens, and go have Jeff show him how to play one of the games. He did as I said, and quickly became a junkie. Each time he ran back, breathless with a handful of tickets, (a thousand, according to his count), and would ask for "Just two more....", tokens. I'd give him a little handful, and off he'd go. He was at the same game for the entire time. Riley was a skee-ball expert. She and Olivia spent the majority of their time there and Cole basically wanted to ride all the jeeps and spaceships and other little rides that I never let him ride when we go into a store.
After Riley opened her presents, and we had exhausted all the tokens, and gorged ourselves on pizza, it was time to get Olivia and Henry home, and time for my nap. The night before I'd tossed and turned, and I could only take two hours of screaming, playing kids. So we all headed back to Springville and dropped the friends off. Then we got to go home, and I told everyone I had to take a nap, in order to avoid being seriously grouchy for the rest of evening. (Oddly enough, I heard no protests). Jeff and Cole and Riley all got a trampoline from Grandpa Steele this year for their birthdays. Since we go to Canada tomorrow morning, I told them it would be better to set it up when we got back. Jeff gave me a "yeah, sure", and I practically ran to my room....lusting after my bed. After a couple hours, I woke up to a quiet house...highly unusual for us. I grabbed some pajama pants and a clean shirt and went down stairs, wondering where my children and husband were. To my surprise, they were in our backyard with the trampoline two-thirds finished. I have to say, it's enormous. I tried telling Jeff this before he put it up, but he couldn't appreciate my actual honesty until he had started working on it. So we all played on the trampoline for about three hours, and it was time to go to bed. Surprisingly, for my kids, they were out within ten minutes of laying down. But before they were out, Riley told us that this was the best birthday she'd had in a long time. This made me feel good, especially since I'm that crap mom that has to take a nap on her special day. But she said that she had so much fun, and that she has the best parents ever, and that she loves how we play with her, because that means we love her when we spend time with her. That actually kind of broke my heart, because it's hard to make time for my kids. I am with them practically all day long, but not WITH them, I've got all this other stuff going on. So I was happy that she'd had a good birthday, sans birthday blues. The trampoline turned out to be a great gift, not only because it's tons of fun, but also, we really have family time with it...we play ball, and we bounce, and we laugh. It's been so nice to have something that takes us outside to all play together. Okay all, I have gotta get my last-minute items packed, including this computer. We're on our way to Canada tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get to post while I'm up there, as well. Later!