Alastair Turns 7

I can catch up.  I will!

Alastair, as you may know, celebrates his birthday in early September.  Let's celebrate it again in February, shall we?

For the first time ever, Alastair's birthday fell on a school day.  I asked him if I could bring him lunch from his choice of restaurant and he was adamant that he wanted a Lunchable.  Nitrate/Nitrite laden grody processed meat product over Chick-Fil-A?  Sometimes I don't get this kid.  He requested pizza and cake for dinner and I was happy to comply, having recently completed a triathlon, like the day before.   

No birthday is complete without a party!  The following weekend, Alastair picked ten of his friends to come over for a dive-in movie party.  We did swimming, dinner, and then a movie with his very favorite flick of all time:  Wall-E.

Kim lent us his boot for decor.

Uncle Bill gave us his time as our stationary pool monitor.  I know how busy parties get and I wanted one person on deck who would not have to find anyone a towel, a drink, or arrange anything, thus diverting their attention away from the water.  He got very into the pool monitor role though with some seriously crazy kids and was at one point putting kids in time out.  I think the power got to him.

Little miss of course was in attendance and all the moms enjoyed passing her around.

 Alastair requested his favorite, chocolate cake, and I began a cupcake baking spree that lasted all fall.  We have a lot of fall birthdays around here, you may realize.  It would seem only my parents had the good sense to have kids in the middle of summer, which is six months from Christmas, and quite reasonably spaced for both calories and presents.  

Wonder what he was wishing for.  Knowing my boy, probably a year without having to leave the house.  

At seven, Alastair is a total homebody.  He goes to school, but once he is in the door, the only place he ever wants to go is next door, where I swear he is avidly pursuing adoption.  He is an independent lad, sure of his ideas and schemes to the point of argument at times.  He can be very sweet and gentle with his sisters and still has an incredible imagination for thinking up Lego designs or adventures to lead his backyard buddies on.  Smart as a whip, this kid.

Emery was delighted to be in the company of big kids.

I finally had a reason to buy the projector I wanted to get since the day our realtor took us through the house for the first time.  I ran out of time and energy to string fairy lights from the trees, but those may come by this summer.

 The kids loved watching the show and running around in the dark wearing their glow necklaces.  The mosquitos were absolutely terrible that night, despite spraying the yard in preparation for the party and copious amounts of bug spray.  According to my seven year old, it was totally worth it.

In the movie, Wall-E rescues the very first plant on earth to grow after humans wrecked the planet and had to evacuate.  Total tree hugger movie, of course.  We sent each kid home with a pot/dirt/seeds and a little baggy of candy.

Birthday party #1:  check.