8, 8 Year Olds; or Losing My Mind

Ethan playing with a birthday present (I'm not sure if the game was the best present or me giving up on trying to keep our house relatively video game free)


Ethan is 8. I can't believe it. Some how my baby boy is old enough to be baptized. This seemed to be the birthday that wouldn't stop, kind of like our Christmas celebrations. Next year needs to be more low key, or my brain is going to burst.
Ethan's birthday was on Sunday, so the day before we went and got his big present: 2 fish and 2 crabs. Our kids "helping" to get the aquatic life situated

The next day church was at 9, so you can imagine what time we had to get up to open presents and get everyone ready on time.
Later that night we had the Bagleys over for cake, and a little bit of playing.
Saturday (yesterday) we had his birthday party. We only have friends over for parties on even years, so this was the dreaded..er...wonderful year Ethan could have a party. I let him invite 8 friends (plus Maddi for Ella) so we had total 8, 8 year old boys. It lasted for 1 1/2 hours, which was about 1/2 hour too long (for me). We played Jedi training with light sabers, pinned the light saber on Yoda and ate pizza and cupcakes.
It was actually really fun, and Ethan had a great time, and that's what matters...but... I get a little sad when one kid comes up and asks "Why is your house so junky?" and another tells me "Your kids rooms are too messy." Ah the problems of moving into a higher socioeconomic area and school. I want to laugh it off, but I tried hard to have the upstairs totally presentable and clean, but I didn't pick up the play room. Shame on me.
I have a migraine and a sore throat this morning and I'm not sure if I'm sick or just tired, but either way I'm going to curl up in a dark room, listen to a book on tape, and put off cleaning until Ella's party in May. I'm going to need my energy if I'm going to have the house acceptably clean.

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

We gave in. I swore we would never again have pets (okay, more like forcefully told Eric I didn't want to) but somehow the kids saved up enough money to buy some fish (they are $0.28 at Walmart). Eric and I bought the aquarium, but the kids bought the fish, the decorations, and the food. Eric took Ethan and Ella to Walmart to pick out the fish. Eric said the whole time they were at Walmart Ella kept saying "I can't believe you are letting us get them!" They came home, set it up, and for over an hour everyone sat around and stared at fish. No joke.
Ethan drew up a key so we could tell the fish apart. Ella named three of them, and so did Ethan. Their names are: Deade (pronounced Dead-ee), Silly, and Cupid (Ethan's) and boy, Pea-pea, like the vegetable, and Julian (Ella's) I know it's pea-pea and not pee-pee because it was Ella, not Ethan who named it.
Unfortunately we have already lost 3: Silly, Deade (ironically), and Pea-pea.