Ryan turned 7!

One of my babies turned SEVEN Saterday! Where does the time go?

Ryan turned 7 on Saterday. It is usually a hectic time of year as Easter is right before or after his birthday. And, you never know what to expect of the weather. It wasn't great weather, but it was nice enough that we went outside for the pinata. this year we decided to have a lego party. I thought it would be more economical than the Pump it Up and Bouncetown of birthday's past. Of course there is more planning involved and more cleaning (before and after) involved. We had never done a lego party or gone to one, but it sounded like fun. Ryan and stephen both still really like legos and are always making stuff with them.

We had 7 boys (8 if you include Ryan, 9 if you include stephen) at the party. We had a lego party. The boys seemed to like it, but there were a couple of boys that were hard to manage (easily bored and wanting to do other things while I am trying to let everyone finish building their tower/structure).

We did have the birthday boy in time out. He got mad when after the pinata broke, we had him step back because he was in the mud. Other kids went and got candy that was by his spot (so he decided it was his candy and they were stealing it). He was yelling, crying and so upset over a few pieces of candy. He wouldn't calm down and was accusing kids of stealing, so I had to put him in time out and every 5 mins I went over and asked if he was ready to join his friends - all he had to do was not talk about candy - but he continued in time out. Finally when he was out of time out, he was next to the boy he accused of stealing and I said lets be friends again and next thing I know the other boy is crying and Ryan is again raising his voice insisting he has his candy. The poor little boy had even given him a couple of pieces of candy to try to make it better. These are the moments that I just don't know quite how to handle. I told Anthony that Ryan was sorry and had ryan say he was sorry. And then I asked Ryan wouldn't it be better to be friends than to lose a friend over a peice of candy. And I explained it is much better to talk it out as he accused someone of stealing adn teh other person had no idea what he was talking about. i had them shake hands and hopefully it is all forgotten.

Kids birthday parties are supposed to get easier as the kids get older right? Doesn't seem to be happening here.

Anyhow, I would recommend a Lego party. They did enjoy the building of the legos. We used small legos for a build whatever you want session. Had a contest to see who can build the biggest tower in 30 seconds. Guess how many legos are in a jar. We also got out the big Duplo legos and they had fun with those for a while. We had snack time and present time and then pinata time. The party itself would have been good, but there were a couple of kids who were hard to keep interested and wanted to keep wandering off (like into the front yard while we all were in the backyard).

Now I have 2 months till Stephen's party (and 3 months till Trevors bday) - maybe we will do something even simpler than legos!