Jamie's 9th birthday

For Jamie's 9th birthday party we had family and friends over for a combination birthday/new year's eve party. First we played kickball up at the school. Then we had families over for dinner (taco bar) and some cake (german chocolate). We also turned on the music and the disco ball for some dancing fun. After a bunch of people left, we tried to stay awake until midnight but the kids had fun with all the noisemaker fireworks that I had purchased long before we rang in the new year. Tristan got so tired that he went into our bed and fell asleep (because there were too many kids in his room). Then just before midnight Tristan woke up and had peed the bed (luckily not much) but he was wet and crying and we were trying to get him to bed and the extra mattresses set up for Kristy, Pat, Ruby and Lulu. Needless to say, we missed it when the clock struck midnight :) But Jamie says it was a great party so I can call it a success.

1st try

2nd try

3rd try

I love his expression - we got him trick candles!

5th try (with gusto)!!

Kickball

Where's my orca?

So the story with Orca started like this:

In October, Tristan came down with a nasty case of croup.  And since it was Saturday night, all the urgent care facilities were closed and so I had to take him to the ER.  Now my copay for the ER is $125 (vs. $25 for a doctor's visit), BUT my $125 fee included a very special stuffed Orca.  Tristan did great in the ER and we were seen right away since he had respiratory issues so we were out of the hospital in less than an hour or two.  And Orca is now king.  Sometimes, when he is looking for him, Tristan will be like "where my orca?".

You can just see the top of Orca on the other side of him.

So...Christmas was approaching and I wanted to get each of the kids some sort picture/scrapbook.  Jamie got a framed  picture of him on the rail on one of the recent sailboat races.  Abby got a photobook of her 1st year pictures since she loves looking at her baby pictures.  So for Tristan, I thought I would make him a photobook of snapshots of him - with an Orca included!  The name of the book became "where's my orca" and he totally got a kick out of it.  I simply downloaded a clipart of an orca and photoshopped (sometimes not very well) into several different pictures from the last year.

Take a look:

This is actually a Nemo shirt.

And here's the video of him opening the book Christmas morning: