Maxwell's 5th Birthday Party

Maxwell loves the show American Ninja Warrior and wanted to have a Warrior Ninja party.  He was REALLY excited.  :)  For the first time, we did a birthday party at a location other than our house.

 

Doing his best to get up the big warped wall (he didn't make it)

Luckshya, Maxwell, Joshua K (Maxwell calls him JK), and Preston.  These boys all went to preschool together.  They were really excited to be back together.

My crazy girl jumping off into the foam blocks.

Preston

Landen and Emmalyn (man - she's so tan!)

Sadie

Hayden swinging out over a foam block pit.  Maxwell really wanted to do it but he just wasn't tall enough...

...So he just jumped instead.

Everyone wanted to conquer that warped wall!

This is his starting position.

Running his hardest.

Avery

Still working on that warped wall.

Preston, Maxwell, and Joshua

Emmalyn hanging out with Grandma Donna

The birthday "cake" and the party favors.

He only wanted a doughnut cake.

The food!  (plus pizza)

Right before it was time to go in for the food, I went to check on Maxwell and found him on the couch with an ice pack on his ankle.  Oh man, not good.  Apparently he hurt it somehow but thanks to the ice pack and a gatorade (a special treat), he ended up being okay.  It stinks to have anyone get injured at the party you are hosting.

All the kids - Clockwise

Preston, Maxwell, Owen, JK's brother, Avery, Hayden, Landen, Luckshya, and Joshua.

We had this huge room all to ourselves - they upgraded us for some reason.  It was a great set up!

Avery and Emmalyn were good partners.

Carter and Sadie

"Happy Birthday"

He blew them all out!

He was clearly thrilled.

The whole group.  They had a ton of fun and were worn out!

Silly faces

The party was a great success.  

At home we let him open his presents.

Love this sweet, smart, funny, observant, handsome boy!

Legos!

Transformer toys

Water guns are always fun

An Uno twist game

So earlier this week, we came home and Joe was teaching Landen how to ride his bike without training wheels.  Peter and Maxwell decided to give it a try as well today after the party.  

Starting out

Pretty wobbly and needing dad to keep him up

Within 20 minutes though, he was doing great and had ridden up and down the street with Peter running next to him in case he started to fall, but not touching him.  It was awesome how quickly he got the concept!  He still will need to practice with dad right there, but we will count this as the day he learned to ride a two wheel bike.  It's been a memorable and fun day!

Max also invited the twins from his soccer team but they couldn't make the party so we went down to their house to play for a little bit.

Memorial Day Weekend - Operation Disappearing Tree

Despite the rough day previously with the color run, we still had a great Memorial Day weekend with the Kenyons.

Playing dress up

Such a benevolent princess

Richard is a man of many talents so we were randomly talking about how I wanted to get the dead tree removed.  (Especially since I learned that the nice big green plant/weed that was growing up around the base and giving the space some green was actually poisonous.)  And he offered to go remove it.  I took him up on the offer.  :)

Comfortably watching the pre-action outside.

Video - The great tree take down.  It's pretty entertaining.  :)

Richard and his conquest

Hm...now there's a big dead tree in my yard.  What should we do to get rid of it??

The house behind us wasn't completed and still under construction so there was a ton of trash in the yard.  I often picked weeds and threw them over the fence.

These two were play buddies this weekend.

And these two were play buddies this weekend.

Eventually Emmalyn would let Natalie pick her up.  :)

That poor lump under there (Richard) was a good sport

All gone!  It's so fantastic!

Richard and Peter also capped off the old sprinkler that went to the old tree and ran a new sprinkler to the new tree and this great sprinkler in my garden.  I am incredibly excited about this.  My garden is the real deal!

We cut some cilantro from the garden to use in our fresh salsa

Makenna and I went next door to help Mary Ann decorate for our swim party

Happily playing with the cars

All the kids having fun together

Let's swim!

The boys hanging out

Double rainbow for good luck

The swimming was cut short by thunderstorms

I LOVE summer food!  I am looking forward to more grilling, more veggies, more salad!

The rain REALLY came down.

Since swimming was off the table thanks to the lightning, Maxwell and Makenna played Battleship.

Hanging out before bedtime.  They all get along so well.

On Memorial Day, we headed to lunch at Zoe's and then went to a new place by us that is an obstacle place for kids to play - similar to the obstacles on the show "American Ninja Warrior", which Maxwell loves.

Trampoline fun

Climbing over things

Cargo net

The kids worked HARD.  We bought 1 hour passes and half an hour in the kids were exhausted.  Maxwell was dripping sweat.

So tired she's just hung out on the ground.

Unfortunately, the Kenyons had to drive home after we were done.  We sure loved having them here!  It was a memorable weekend!

We finished up Memorial Day with more grilling and time outside.

Water guns and umbrellas

It's not exactly a pool but it works in a pinch.