Nine is Fine

Monday was a teacher's in-service day.  So the kids were all home and it was G's actual birthday.  So 3-5pm I had his birthday party.  We invited his cub scout Den and a few family friends.

He wanted a nerf war.  I am not opposed to nerf wars.  Honestly my nerf policy isn't super thought out.  It's conflicted, is what it is.  So I settled on a dinosaur type e-vite and then settled on Bey Blade tournament with some nerf target practice.

I mean lets be real they shot each other ... but it wasn't mom sanctioned.  Get it?

The kids were so excited about these trophies.  I think they were $8 on Amazon.  I super glued titles on them.  There were six legitimate trophies (1st, 2nd, 3rd place for both Bey tourney and Nerf tourney).  The other six were fun (and arbitrary) that I handed out so that most folks felt good upon departing.

And everyone took home a $9 bey from Target.  With the Target app I had $20 in free gift card so they were pretty economical to me.  Even though money spent isn't really money saved and I could have also bought milk with that gift card but hey, how is that fun?  Plus I was a hero.

Our Arsenal.

It just so happens that Friday before this party was our spring carnival at school.  For the first time this year the silent auction bidding was on your phone.  I have never bid on an auction item at this event.  I made up for that this year.  I bid on six, was out bid on three, and won three.  Which is not what I intended.  It was just so easy to bid!

Anyway.  One of the baskets I won was a nerf basket.  And if you see the video of him getting it he says to his dad "How did you get mom to agree to this!"

I don't think he really believes I bought it.  But hey, I did.

Anyway, that's where some of this comes from.  David also got some star wars ones for his birthday.  So we had plenty though we still had to share.

They bey tournament.

This was the big event though.  And we practiced and practiced and then we had our tournament.  In no shock, the two boys that have played with Beys a lot were in the finals.  But I think everyone had fun.

This is another fun game to fill time.  You have to get an oreo cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands.  It kills some time and it's funny to watch.

After pizza and cake they did this.

All in I had somewhere between 15-17 kids at the house.  There were some siblings that didn't play much and stayed inside.  There were also some 9yo that hid and didn't want to participate too.  Social stuff in third grade is different, I'm learning.  And some of our closest friends are introverts.

I love the friends he has chosen for himself.  They are marvelously fun and sweet and funny.  They all look out for little kids (mostly) and are patient to siblings (in public and to a point) and pretend they are so cool in front of older kids.  They are all very into competition so the tournament style games were a big hit.

What to say here ... I really don't even have words.  Just big feelings.  He is great to spend time with and dependable.  They boys walk home from school and I rarely worry.  Grady won't leave his brother.  Not for anything.  Yesterday David fell and scrapped his knee and Grady had to comfort him.  I wasn't there so no clue how that went but it must have been successful because they made it home.

As is typical of 3rd grade boys the world revolves around video game time.  The standing rule in our house is you can't play during the week, and on the weekends only if it's raining or if Julia is asleep.  We talk about addiction and him and his brother being so much more interesting than just video games.  They like soccer and camping and cars and blocks and legos and dogs and movies ... can we talk about any of that instead of video games?

Current favorites are Minecraft and the Xbox One games.  He got Disney Infinity for his birthday.  He's very excited about it.  He also got more legos (God have mercy on my feet) and a new set of army guys (please God my feet).  It was kind of eye roll inducing that all the gifts he really wanted are the toys I have to yell and scream about (my feet) or excessively limit.

He is very bright and smart and while I've had to tell him that reading comprehension tests are graded and you have to answer all the questions and yes you have to go back to the text and find the answers for real and not just guess ... he does great.  The biggest take away from public school I have is that you still have to home school if you want As.  Teachers will let your kid get Cs and Bs (even in third grade) and call it good.

Which is why home schooling has gained so much traction, I feel.  Especially in my demographic (every day I meet new parents who homeschool).

He is great at Math, Science and History.  He is a great reader and reads every night.  He read Tales of the 4th Grade Nothing this year and really couldn't get passed the fact that Fudge ate the turtle.  Its kind of put him off Judy Bloom.  He got Double Fudge for his birthday.  Also Matilda (thanks Matt!),  Hardy Boys, the next How to Train your Dragon (#4) and something else I can't remember.

He's finished the Wild Robot series, is current on Last Kids on Earth and Dog Man.

He's fun to hang out with and watch play sports.  He's a good kid.  He has a mouth problem.  But that's common.

While I can totally believe he's 9.  I can not believe we're almost finished with 3rd grade.

I'm glad he is growing and doing so well.  We love him so.  Happy Birthday kid!