Eight!

Jaxon is Eight!
We had a fun camping party. I have decided that Jaxon has too many friends. He talked me into inviting 10 friends. That way it was 13 when you added Jaxon, Tanner and Alex. Then Chase needs special attention too. So we had our hands full. It was a good thing that Aunt Joey came to help out. It would have been impossible without her. I took a lot of pictures so I will show you what we did instead of a play by play.

We did a few camping crafts: making God's eyes and wristbands with leather tools.

Then we had cake. We had cupcakes and the kids decorated them. They built little fires with pretzel sticks and candy corn fires. I forgot to get out the mini marshmellows- they could have pretended to roast the marshmellows over the "flames". They were sitting right there for me to get out- but I was thrown off by all the kids singing. They sang part of an Iron Maiden song at the top of their lungs over and over and over. (Why? that is the question and what 8 year old knows Iron Maiden?) That was exciting. I could barely get them to stop long enough to sing Happy Birthday. They all had fun making the cakes. Here are some examples:

Then we had some games. We had a relay where they put on a camping back pack (with very little in it, but it was heavy) and Andre's hiking boots. Then they ran around the tents and rolled up a sleeping bag. We timed them all to see who went the fastest. They really enjoyed that.

Then we had water balloons. We had targets, but it turned into a -if you want to get hit by a balloon then stand by the target- balloon war. Some of the balloons did not pop right away so I could tell they really hurt. But they loved it. I didn't get any good pictures, they were all moving too fast I guess.
Then we sat around a "Campfire". Thanks to Joey for playing her guitar and singing some really fun camp songs. We had s'mores and open presents. I was surprised that the kids sang so well. See some pictures of the kids below. I guess Joanna is amazing in her leading songs ability.
We all got into the Tent of Terror and told scarey stores. Some of the kid's stories were really long and boring but they all sat and listened anyway. Joanna got them all good with an ear peircing scream that freaked them all out.
Overall, it was somewhat organized chaos. The kids had lots and lots of fun and I don't have to do another party for a long time!

Oh ya, One of my favorite things that happened at the party, I didn't even see. Joanna was holding Chase and she was getting a water balloon for Alex (or something- I wasn't there). She got distracted and Chase was focused. He was focused on the balloon. He grabbed it and you can guess what happened. Two very wet people and a startled baby. Actually, I bet Joanna was startled too.