It was Kanyon's turn to have a friend party for his birthday this year (we alternate years between friend and family parties). I have decided as I've gotten older that I would rather PAY for my child to go somewhere with his friends for his birthday rather than PLAN a birthday party and have kids come over to the house. The cost is so worth it to me, because there's so much less stress involved! For Kanyon's birthday in February, he invited two friends (Keagan and Aiden) to come with us to Blast Off! Family Fun Center in Idaho Falls the Saturday before his birthday.
Since it's a 2 1/2 hour drive away, we got some movies to watch in the suburban so there would be something to do while we drove down and back that day. Jonah and Micah also came, so the backseats were full (which is why we had to limit his friends to just two). We had a wonderful day!!! We left Salmon around 9:00 that morning, and when we got to Idaho Falls, we went to Sam's Club first because I had a little bit of shopping to do. I bought some of the hot deli food for the boys there and they ate lunch as I shopped, so it all worked out. Then we went to the Fun Center, and we had a great time! I was stress-free, and simply enjoyed watching the boys having a fun time together!
It wasn't busy at all when we first got there, so they were able to do all the activities without a line.
They went through the jungle gym twice:
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| Can you see all 5 boys here?! (Aiden is hiding his body!) |
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| This was the hardest hole: trying to hit it up the ramp and into the basketball hoop at the end |
They were each given 10 tokens, so they played arcade games until all their tokens were gone, and then they turned in their winning tickets to receive prizes.
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| Kanyon won 300 tickets on one game! It kept shooting out the tickets for over 5 minutes straight, and it made him so excited and happy! |
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| They bought candy with their tickets |
They played 4 rounds of Laser Tag which ended up being their favorite activity there. The first and second time we didn't have to wait in line, but the longer we were there, the more people came, so the last two times they had to wait to play.
They also went climbing on the rock wall. There were three different sections on the rock wall, and three levels of difficulty on each section. Micah and Jonah accomplished almost all of them. They are really good climbers! Kanyon and his friends did good climbing on the easiest climb on each of the three sides, and made it to the top as well.
We left around 3:30 (none of them wanted to leave yet, though), and made it back to Salmon after 6:00. It had been a really nice day, and I was so glad that we went!
The next day was Sunday the 8th (the day that we had to talk in church), and although it wasn't Kanyon's actual birthdate, we celebrated it with the family that day because Josh was going to be gone to golf meetings on Kanyon's birthday. He requested steak and mashed potatoes and creamy corn for his birthday meal. Grandma and Grandpa T., and Uncle Tim and Barb and cousin Anika joined us for dinner, gifts, and dessert.
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| He was SO excited that he got to open his gifts before his birthday!! |
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| Grandma P. always wraps her gifts SO well before she sends them in the mail, so they require scissors to open! |
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| He's been asking for a new laptop for 2 years. He was EXTREMELY happy when he discovered that he FINALLY got a "half-laptop/half-tablet" for his birthday! He'd been saving up for it, so he contributed to part of the expense. |
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| He couldn't figure out what this was. He thought it was a toaster!! It's actually a dock/charging station for his iPod because he's always losing his chargers! |
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| He loves the Despicable Me movie, so when I saw this shirt, I knew he had to have it because it reminded me of Kanyon!! |
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| For his birthday, he got clothes, the "half-laptop/half-tablet", air soft gun & pellets, iPod charging dock, scout book, money, and chocolate bars. |
On his actual birthday, February 10, he took mini cupcakes to share as his birthday treat with his class at school. After he helped me hand out all the cupcakes to them, the class sang happy birthday to him before they ate the goodies!
As an 8 year-old, these are some of his favorites--
Food: chicken nuggets and steak
Color: turquoise
Friends: Keagan, Abby W., and {girl}friends: Hestyn, Rudi, Brylin, and Scottlyn
Games: Telestrations, Chess, and Minecraft
Sport: golf
School subject: art and math facts
He is doing good in school, although he doesn't enjoy going lately, but I don't know why. He is good at reading and lately likes the Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He is excellent at math, and loves when math homework is the 100 facts you have to complete in 5 minutes (he ALWAYS completes it WAY before time is up!). He has recently started drawing and coloring pictures on the backs of his math work, and he likes art more (he used to hate it in kindergarten). He plays basketball a lot, and likes shooting hoops at home and at recess, and has become quite good at it! He's also been learning to balance a lot more recently, so he practices on the skateboard and took snowboarding lessons this winter. He loves golf, and wishes he could play it all the time. He was getting antsy at the end of winter, because he just wanted the snow to melt so he could play golf again! He doesn't jump on the trampoline as much anymore, and he recently sold his small indoor trampoline because he no longer needs it. He likes writing notes to his girlfriends, and to do nice things for them. Also, he's started going to scouts now that he's 8 and he absolutely loves it!
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