Luke Turned 8

Our Luke is now another year older... yesterday July 26th our oldest turned 8. What a fun age! Toby will tell you that 8 years ago I woke up and literally willed it to be our first child's birth day. My due date was actually July 25th but I had told Toby that if I could make it to my due date I'd like to go one day longer because the 26th sounded like a "cute" date. Like he has had to do with me so many times through the years...he just rolled his eyes and walked away with a smirk. Sooo, 5:00 AM I awoke on the 26th with back pain and contractions....and walllahh, we had our first baby on the 26th... a cute date indeed for a cute little boy. Actually I have to add this little side note...during labor we watched both part 1 and part 2 of Father of the Bride (my favorite movies)....this was all part of the "birth plan" you know :)... along with Andrea Bocceli playing in the background. Anyway, as we were watching part 2 we came to the part where Diane Keaton announces to Steve Martin about Anne's due date..."I am so glad Annie is due July 26th, that is a nice even number". I had never remembered that part but it stopped Toby in his tracks and he had to rewind to hear it again....and again, that familiar roll of the eyes and smirk...and a "you sooo willed this!!!" :)

Well, more rolling of the eyes and smirks were had by both of us yesterday as we tried our hand at parenting six 7 and 8 year olds. We decided to do a good old fashioned party, like the ones we grew up with. Luke invited just a few friends from school and we took the boys frisbee golfing, then on to the tennis courts, then back to our house for swimming and a BBQ with some Wii and lego creating thrown in the mix. It was lots of fun, but we had to laugh at one point when we were looking at 6 sweaty and red faced kiddos running like the wind after their frisbees, wondering when they would catch on that really all they were doing was playing chase. Then during tennis I thought we were in for it when I realized none of the kids could volley the ball back and forth more than once... and I could see the anciness and frustration settling in on their faces when Toby came to the rescue and his coaching genes went into full gear as he rounded everyone up and started doing drills with them. One of the drills included hitting the ball over the net and if they hit me...a moving target, they got extra cake...let's just say "fast footed mom" did not need to relinquish any extra cake....or gargantuan cupcakes as it was.

Here are some photos from our day of good old fashioned fun! :)

Toby laying the ground rules... :)

Mom had to try her hand at frisbee golf too.

The kids decorated their own "king sized" cupcakes.

No party is complete until someone looses a tooth!! :)

How cute are they?

Of course little Mr. Reid had to show off some dance moves during the party.