Our Block Rocks!

Today we had a really fun summer block party. The festivities started at 4 and lasted until about 7:30 just before it started dumping rain. We all had a great time. Here is a cute picture of my boys just before we left the house. Note the three bigger boys are all wearing Talbots polos which we got in three separate sets of hand-me-downs. How cool is that?

The first activity was bike decorating. My boys were really into this. They got to use SCISSORS! And TAPE! What could be better than that? David John was really not sure at first what to do. I asked him if he wanted to put some decorations on his little ride-on firetruck. He replied with his typical, "Yeah, sure." He brought over a roll of orange crepe paper. I asked, "Where do want this on your truck?" He put the whole roll on his seat with a satisfied, "There." then stood back to admire his handiwork. Stashing it in his seat didn't work any better, and I convinced him that the way to go was to tear off pieces and tape it on. After we finished he wasn't sure about actually riding it but got over his trepidation when he saw all of the other kids lining up for the bike parade.

After that we had a delicious dinner with food to spare. The boys loved the fact that they could get just about any adult at the party to pour them a sugary beverage. By working the crowd, I'm pretty sure they each drank an entire two liter by knocking back plastic cups full of soda in rapid succession. This was in addition to the two capri suns they each had. They skipped all of the yummy and semi-healthy foods that Marc and I enjoyed. We couldn't get them to eat the baked beans, variety of green salads or even the all-beef amazing hot dogs. No, they were too busy finding people to get them items from the loaded dessert table. Oh well, kids need to have an entire meal of sugar every once in a while right? I can still hear them running around in their room. I'm hoping the sugar high ends soon and leaves them in a complete stupor. Maybe they'll sleep in tomorrow.

The real highlight of the evening arrived after dinner- the firetruck. A police man with police dogs and some of the firemen came with a police car and a firetruck. My boys were in total awe of the fire truck and weren't shy about touching everything. Thankfully they were not strong enough to open either the oxygen tanks or the water reserve tanks since they tried to do both. The firemen were very patient with my curious little people and even let them open and shut doors and sit inside the firetruck.
The experience ended abruptly when Gabe announced that he thought David John was poopy and decided to confirm this by sticking his finger in David John's diaper. Gabe was right, as evidenced by what was on his finger when he pulled it out. Marc rushed David John home to get a diaper change and I took Gabe to wash his hands. Several neighbors had hoses out and we also located some hand sanitizer. Earlier in the evening the mayor and other city council hopefuls had stopped by with election petitions to be signed and of course some freebies. One person was handing out little bottles of sanitizer which our neighbor dubbed "Political Purell". It seems kind of ironic to use a politicized product to wash your hands but Gabe didn't seem to mind.

Other activities our boys enjoyed were throwing water balloons and applying rub-on tattoos. Our boys refer to the tattoos as "attitudes". They each got a couple of piratical attitudes and Elijah put a sparkly butterfly on my shoulder. I might have some explaining to do at church tomorrow since I'm not sure it will be entirely covered by my short sleeves. Marc put a compass rose on his hand. He says it's his moral compass. I'm glad he finally has one. Maybe now he'll end his life of crime and do some good in this world.

The party ended with a special birthday cake for our neighbor who turned 81 today. We helped get everything cleaned up just before a big storm blew in. The winds were blowing hard as we walked home. It scared our boys, especially Elijah but Marc and I thought it felt great on such a hot day. As soon as everything was put away the rain just poured down. I think the weather holding off was a little miracle. The timing was too perfect. Speaking of blessings, did I mention how much we love our neighbors? We just couldn't ask for a group of nicer people to live around. Our block really does rock.