Unexpected hiatus

And I'm back! My annual summer workload got the better of me and I had to focus solely on surviving until after August 25. I was successful at that, but by then, school had started back up, things were still backed up at my office because of the renovations, and I was so unbelievably tired. But I'm back, and feeling refreshed, looking forward to the new arrival of Fall-ish weather in Texas! (Yes, we call mid-80's Fall weather here.)

Aaron moved up to teaching 8th grade this year, so we had to help him move classrooms before school started. He was so excited to finally be teaching the subject matter and age group he's always wanted - to him, 8th grade US History is as good as it gets. Bless him for thinking so, because I know I could never do it! His new room came together nicely:

 

Not long after school started for everyone, Z had his 11th birthday. (ELEVEN?! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?) He asked for only one thing for his birthday - a Wii U game system. Our original Wii system died back in April, so he had been video game-less for several months, and all the while had his eye on this thing. He did chores and mowed lawns to help save up money to pitch in half of the cost - that shows you how serious he was about wanting it. The rest of us family pitched in and made up the other half, and made his dream a reality for his big day. He was so, so happy.

For his celebration, he asked to have a big slumber party. And by big, I mean 8 friends. We agreed, foolishly thinking "how bad could it be?" -- WOW. Live and learn, as they say, right? Never. Again.

Snacks, picked out by the guest of honor.

I went disposable EVERYTHING - do you realize how many dirty dishes 9 boys could make?

Thank you, HEB, for cheap soda.

For the first time since his 2nd birthday, he asked me to make his birthday cake instead of a fancy, fun one from our pastry chef friend. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting - a classic!

Can't have cake without ice cream. (Also in disposable cups ... yesssssss.)

A "before" shot of the backyard movie theater Aaron created. This was a huge hit.

An "after" shot of the screen, in action. The picture was awesome! We ended up actually watching Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Dog Days instead of The Avengers, though. (Some kids said their parents wouldn't let them watch The Avengers.)

Most of the boys, chilling out watching a movie. (A few opted to stay inside and have alone time with the brand new Wii U. You would think that thing had a pair of boobs, 

the way the boys swooned around it.)

A "before" shot of the living room, after we cleared it out to maximize space.

"After". Still gives me shivers, remembering how loud it got.

The most important thing I remembered to do while party prepping -- programmed the coffee maker to brew for me at 7:30am sharp. And Lord, did we need it the next morning.

Overall, the party was a huge success. I think the kids would've stayed up the entire night if Aaron hadn't gone out there and finally told them to pipe down around 1:00am. The quiet didn't last long, though -- at exactly 5:31am I heard laughter and the blinky-boppy sounds of a swarm of Nintendo DS systems. I went out in the living room and every single one of them was already awake and playing a game. I whimpered back into my bedroom and laid back down, but never really fell back asleep. Needless to say, once everyone was gone and the gift cards he got from everyone were spent, we took a family nap. And yes, even Z passed out, which is equivalent to pigs flying.

So, our little party animal is now a full-fledged, flag-football playing 5th grader. This is his first year being allowed to play an organized sport for his school, and boy, was he pumped to finally get the chance. He has practice after school twice a week, and games every Friday.

His team, minus one dear friend who got injured this season.

Z pushing his injured friend around in PE, and this apparently made it on the school's Facebook page. Glad someone told me, since I don't have FB anymore!

The team after Friday night's INCREDIBLE game! They were the underdogs and were down by 3 touchdowns in the beginning, but they pulled together to win it by one point! It was so exciting, I almost couldn't take it. Me and another Mom were pacing up and down the sidelines, there was no way we could sit still. Z made a great play and stopped their QB from running the ball back to score on the 3rd to last play of the game (which would've made them win), and his teammate told him, "wow, your Mom jumped to MARS when you did that!" Ok, guilty as charged.

He's already looking into the future, and let me know that he wants to do basketball next, then after that, soccer. Whew! Looks like I've got a bonafide athlete on my hands, and I'm going to become quite intimate with the bleachers at his school over the next few years.

As for Aaron, Cody, and me, we're all doing well. We always knew Cody was getting big, but he is now officially a horse:

His weigh-in at our last trip to the vet a few weeks ago. Gulp.

I think that catches us up. I'm excited to have some free time on my hands again so I can blog. Hope everyone out there is doing swell! Until next time ...