11/11/11

It was kind of cool that Alex's 16th birthday landed on 11/11/11.  He decided to have his 16th birthday party on Thursday the 10th until Friday the 11th.  He made the decision to skip the soccer mandatory dinner in lieu of his 16th party and sleepover.  It meant he had to do 50 push-ups the next day before the game, but the coach said he wouldn't penalize him as far as play time in the tournament.  He felt it was worth it, so we let him make that decision. 

He invited 7 boys over for pizza, games, and a sleepover.  Two of them were not able to make it due to family travelling and work, but the other 5 came.  I think they all had a good time.  Some of them were not able to come until late because of a football banquet that night, so the real fun didn't start until late.  They had fun playing Wii Mario Kart, especially.  That is a game that never gets old no matter how old you are.  It is always fun for all ages.  They also played some other games like Apples to Apples and other video games and did the typical rough-housing that boys do.  Eric was downstairs for awhile, and I asked him to take some pictures.  He gave one of the boys my camera to take pictures.  Here's what we got:

Patrick and Josh

Josh

Bryan (the one Eric gave the camera to)

Unfortunately, some of their rough-housing resulted in this.  I felt bad because this was a vase my parents brought us back from Cancun that was on the fireplace mantle.  They felt really bad afterward though, and were more careful after that.  Alex has been trying to piece it back together.  They liked having the basement to themselves.

The next morning we got up and I made homemade cinnamon rolls (because that is what Alex wanted), and Eric made some scrambled eggs.  They boys enjoyed it.  They stayed a little longer and then some of them had to leave.

Hugh and Jared were able to stay a little longer, so I got a couple of pictures of them playing some more Wii:

We had to leave for the soccer state championship by 4:30 that evening.  It really was a great accomplishment that they made it to the tournament because in addition to just making it, their coach had moved them up a level bracket this year, so we were very proud of the team.  Jarem and Tessa came (Jesikah had an activity she went to with a friend) with Eric and I and we headed to the location of the tournament (which was 30 minutes past Nashville). 

Traffic was heavy, but we made it on-time.  They had a good game, but lost by a small margin.  Alex had a good game and got a lot of playing time.  It was very COLD at the game, but we had dressed warm and stayed pretty warm.  Jarem and Tessa were quite disinterested in the game, however, and were continually trying to draw our attention away from the game (especially Jarem).

We didn't get home until around midnight.  We didn't have a chance for Alex to open his presents from us, because his friends stayed almost until we left.  Then we got home and it was so late that we were all just beat.  So his presents were still waiting for him the next morning on the table.  He got up early and was ready to open them.  (As you can see in the pictures, he slept in his soccer attire he was so tired).

He mostly got clothes, which was what he asked for.  He loved the navy sweatshirt and the khaki shorts.  That said though, I think he kind of disappointed to only get clothes.  He did get some money from his Grandma and also from his friends.  After trading in a couple of shirts that were the wrong size, he ended up with enough to buy Star Wars the Clone Wars, Season 2 and 3.  He ended up a happy.  (Above: Jarem built a lego creation for him and included some of his favorite guys as a birthday gift for Alex)  It was very sweet.