9th Birthday

 Months ago, Erik and I decided to plan a virtual party for his birthday celebration. My kids all love to celebrate at parties with their friends. Austin and Victoria lucked out with their live parties, but I didn't think Erik would be so lucky. Plus, he still hasn't even been inside any of his friends' houses since before the original shut down, nor have they been in ours. His best friend had moved to Connecticut. Soon after that, I thought, why not have a virtual party and then we could still invite Desmond and even Victor from Colorado (who moved from here 2 1/2 years ago and whose family is really close to ours) and his cousin Nikolas from Utah? 

 Turns out we had great timing! His party was on the 21, two days before his birthday. Five days before that, they announced that the elementary school kids would be going back to full virtual schooling, due to very high numbers here. I think all the boys were so happy to have something to look forward to!

 We sent out three packages to the out-of-state friends and delivered party bags to the friends here- 9 friends in total. The bags included Bingo cards, journals and pens, a balloon, some candy and gum, a bag of microwave popcorn, a packaged birthday cupcake, and a Hot Wheels car (becasue they're Erik's favorite!) 

 The card in the bags said: 

Even Though We Have to Stay Away a Bit, 

 We Can Still Make Erik's Party Just as LIT! 

 We hosted the party via Webex (Jason has an account through Ford). We played a get-to-know-you-game including what state each kid is from, how they know Erik, what they like to do, and what food they want Erik to try. They suggested breakfast burrtios, pizza a few times, salad, burnt marshmallows, dragon fruit, shrimp, octopus, and cookies. Erik reminded the pizza ones how much he hates pizza and I don't see him really trying any of the other things. Maybe a burnt marshmallow, definitely the cookies! 

 We played Bingo next. Austin was our score keeper for all the games, though everyone opened up their cars after the first game, so I could tell them they all got prizes! We did a scavenger hunt. They found and brought back to the screen random things, like something red, something round, something that reminds them of Erik, a leaf, and a pet (stuffed or live). We played pictionary. They drew pictures in the journals we sent them for everyone to guess. We didn't require gifts, but most of them shipped or dropped off gifts, so he opened gifts next. Then we sang and ate cupcakes. Let me tell you, singing Happy Birthday with a bunch of 8 and 9-year-old boys over the computer is very interesting! After that, they all had a chance to pop their popcorn and get settled and we streamed Toy Story 4 for them to watch together. They looked so cute on their couches wrapped up in their blankets to watch the movie! 

When it ended, we had 15 minutes left, so we played charades with the remaining time. It went so well and I'm so glad we could all celebrate together! Some of those friends, even ones that live right here, we hadn't seen for 7 months or more!

It's hard to get a virtual party picure!

Watching the movie.

Friends all cozied up for the movie. Some of them disabled their videos so the movie would work better, but they could all hear each other laugh, etc.

Bingo cards and journals that we sent.

On his birthday, I made French toast sticks for breakfast. Erik opened up a few gifts before his siblings got on class. He has class in the afternoon, even with it being virtual now, he still meets with the teacher from 1:15-4. He has asynchronous work to do in the morning and specials, just as he did when he was meeting at school. So he worked on his morning work while I went to work. Victoria made him lunch. She had to go to work that evening, so that was nice. He opened the rest of his presents before he got on class so Victoria could be there. He talked with grandparents in the morning as well, which I know made his day.

Austin gave him a Dairy Queen gift card.

Victoria gave him a coupon for a date when she gets her license next week. He's very excited to go out with her by himself!

He wanted Wendy's for dinner, but didn't end up eating the chicken nuggets becasue they were the spicey kind, on accident! So he had french fries for dinner, though I did give him a hard boiled egg and string cheese so he could have protien before cake and frostys. As you can see, his eating habits haven't changed much, but he eats his usual and does a good job getting in all food groups.

Second round: Karissa gave him a Marvel Drawing book.

New hat and sweatshirt from Jason and I.

His favorite gift from his friends, a Rubix game.

All his gifts!

He wanted a corona virus cake. This is how he wanted it to look.

Goofy boy!

After dinner, we played a balloon volleyball game and then watched Zookeeper. It was a fun day! Erik loves to play with all of his toys and they are all over the house, which is annoying, but fine because it keeps him busy, since he has a lot less work than his siblings. Part of the reason for less work is becasue he's still in Elementary school, but it's also because he's very motivated to get his work done right away. He's very prompt and timely and likes to get everything done right away. Another reason is that he's very advanced. He reads a few grades above his level and his math skills are a grade or two above as well. His teacher gave me some extra things to assign him so that he can be busy with school work longer.

Schoolwork on his birthday.

He's so excited to read the Percy Jackson series!

He loves playing games, doing puzzles, playing Among Us, doing anything with Austin, playing outside, reading, and watching Boss Baby: Choose Your Adventure. He likes to be funny, sometimes it's about bodily noises, but sometimes I truly find it funny! 

 Love this kid!