NERF party

Can't believe that it is already that time of year again for our summer birthdays.  It is always interesting to find fun things to do working with the 110* weather and this year with Mom not feeling totally up to par.  Hunter decided that he wanted to have a NERF gun party and I thought that sounded swell.  Every boy I know has one and loves it and it is not hard to figure out some activities to go with it so NERF it was.....

So we made up some invitations......

Set up some fun obstacles for the boys, we decided to make it competitive and have all the events be points based with the winner getting a surprise package at the end.  I figure they are all nine and they are old enough to handle this now.  In fact having it be a competition made it even more fun.  Had to take all my picture frames and breakables down and off the walls and move the furniture out of the family room to make room for the boys to be able to run around.  Indoor NERF party, very fun yet has the potential to break something so I took extra precautions.

No fancy cake this year just some quickly whipped up homemade cupcakes with makeshift targets out of pull n' peels.

Packs of gumballs for "ammo" and sour straws for "gun powder" for the boys treat to take home.

One event involved the use of a sniper riffle to hit targets placed strategically around the house by dad, which is why they were in tricky places such as this arch or on a fan blade with the fan spinning on low.  

Another was a balloon shot where they were given a allotted amount of rounds to hit as many of the balloons as possible.

I loved that when the boys started arriving some came with protective eye wear, all remembered to bring a gun.  Tyler came wearing this sweet ammo holder around his neck that made me laugh.  Each boy brought a different gun, I have never seen so many different NERF guns.

I loved listening to them as they arrived discussing the different  highlights and special features of their chosen weapon.  Trying each others guns out and practicing shooting.  "Ohhhhh, sweet! That's awesome!"  and other such comments to each other noting their approval of each weapon and its abilities.  Boy stuff, it is really fun.

They were given a five minute free practice to get warmed up and then we started with the balloon shoot.

We then moved on to the sniper targets which took a lot more time and practice aiming.  The boys all did a great job though and were really cute about cheering each other on with words of encouragement.  Though occasionally a competitive jeer would be exchanged, still playful yet clear that they all wanted whatever prize was to be had.

Next we moved on to the tower shooting.  The boys of course loved this one because it made a lot of noise when the cups knocked over.

Then they did a lazer evasion activity sort of similar to Catherine Zeta in the movie Entrapment.  They were given 20 points and if they could get through the hallway without touching a lazer they got all the points.  Each touch was minus one point.

The loved this activity and after everyone had gone kept wanting to take turns trying it again and again to see if they could get through it without touching any.  None of them were able to do it.  Avery actually came the closest of all of them with only two touches.  We totaled up the points, awarded a winner and then handed over the prize of a new air dart launcher.

A break for some good ole sugar intake....

Opened up some presents....

With a cleared out living room they had to take advantage and have a little free for all shooting practice.

Before they headed outside to battle in teams in a nice field that dad had set up for them.  Including boxes to duck and weave behind and snow sleds to use as shields.  They LOVED this.  It was hilarious to watch and they played until they were all cherry red and too hot and we had to drag them inside.

They all played so hard they had to be exhausted.  Hunter had a lot of fun, it seems like his year from eight to nine has flown.  I can't even get my head around him being double digits next year, it doesn't even seems possible.  Happy Birthday Bug, to the seriously most awesome, fun, smartest kid ever.  Love you, Mom and Dad.

Hot pink cast....

Poor baby.  I have to admit it I always thought Ave would be the first broken bone in this household.  Ave is always running not walking and constantly lives on the edge.  She has take quite a few spills that I thought for sure would end up in stitches or a break.  So it is crazy to me that Emma, our most mellow kid got the first break.  You would think trampoline or some other crazy activity to break an arm, how about playing on the couch after church on Sunday and falling off about a foot and a half to the ground.  She wasn't even standing she was sitting and just lost her balance and put her arm down to catch herself.  

When she landed she started crying a really hard hurt cry and just wouldn't settle down.  She kept her arm straight down at her side close to her body and if I would try to touch it she would scream at the top of her lungs, not cry, scream.  She had dislocated that elbow playing with Grandpa a couple of months ago so I figured she might have popped it back out of place.  After twenty minutes of hard crying that wasn't stopping I knew something was definitely wrong.  Deke got home from work and headed to the urgent care with her to have it checked out.  Around ten thirty that night I laid in bed waiting when I heard Deke come through the door and he came around the corner with Emma in his arms.  A bandaged up arm in a tiny sling, a container of chicken nuggets and both of them with their eyes puffy from crying.  She had broken her arm and it had been a pretty rough visit for both Em and Dad.      

Deke laid her on the bed and she started telling me about it.  "Doctor broke my arm" she told me and then started telling me all about all the things that happened as I assured her that it wasn't the doctor that broke her arm that she had fallen off of the couch.  Deke was emotional because she had cried really hard the whole time and was in a lot of pain and after working all day and then spending hours in urgent care watching his little girl in pain he was exhausted.  She laid on the bed and ate her chicken nuggets and talked to Ariel.  My poor baby girl.

I couldn't believe she had actually broken it.  It was a long night up every two hours crying and I would go in and stand by the crib and rub her back and talk to her until she would fall back to sleep.  She was just super uncomfortable.  The next morning I heard her over the monitor tell Avery "the doctor broke my ankle."  Deke and I were cracking up.  Watching her try to manuever the sling and still try to play was so sad and very frustrating for her. A few days later we headed to the orthopedic specialist to get a further opinion.  The second they called us back she started flipping out saying "no doctor, no doctor."

The tried talking to her and even put a little cast on Ariel but she was not having any of it.  They had to have two guys hold her down on the table while a third guy put the cast on.  He kept trying to talk to her about her nail polish and her hair flowers and Ariel and she just kept screaming at the top of her lungs "Help me Mom! Help me Mom!" it was not fun.  Not to mention the two older siblings were sitting across the room both in tears.  I felt like I had eight children at that moment.  They got her cast on and then the doctor talked to me telling me that she broke it in an area that is by the growth plate and that she may need to have surgery.  He told us to come back in five days and they would x-ray it again and see what his recommendation would be.  Great.

So I headed out of the office with all three kids in tow, all with red puffy eyes from bawling and thought well they probably don't see this everyday.  She has been so good about it the way kids are but it is so sad to watch her with it and I am praying that she can avoid surgery.  I figured that if there was ever a good time to become official Dream Lite owners it was now, so straight after getting her cast we headed to Walgreens to pick one out.  When we got to the aisle she started taking them all off the shelf talking about each one and trying to decided which one was going to be hers.  She kept saying "Look Mom, Dream Lites!!!" she has been wanting one for months.  She decided on the unicorn.  As we headed up to the check out she walked behind me talking to it, "Hoocorn, want to come home with Emma?" "Play Dream Lite in my room?" then she pet it and kissed its nose.  Continued talking to it the entire time in line it was so sweet. I love that she can't say unicorn so she calls it hoocorn.  When I got her buckled in the car we started pulling away and in the most genuinely happy voice she said, "Mom, thanks my Dream Lite Hoocorn"  and my heart melted.

She held it close all the way home and then once home with batteries in we spent the rest of the day trying it in different rooms of the house.  It is actually really cute and the stars it puts on the ceiling of the girls room at night are really fun.

A pic of Ariel sporting her mini cast in the name of emotional support...

Big brother and big sister have been helping her with things.  Hopefully we will get good news and everything will just heal the way it needs to over the next five weeks.  Hang in there little miss.