A Very Successful Birthday Party Indeed...

Aaron's 10th birthday party came and went without a hitch and judging by the smiles on the faces of the 24 kids that joined Aaron and Daniel (26 total kids), I'd say they would all agree it was a great day of fun at the water park. The kids devoured two cheese pizzas, a pepperoni pizza, a sausage pizza (all of them larges), seven pitchers of pop, and half a sheet cake that normally serves 35 to 45. Aaron received half a car load of gifts from his guests in addition to half a dozen gift cards and money, so now he's probably thinking of where to spend all the gift card money. He received two basketballs, a football, hundreds of baseball cards, action figures, and a radio-controlled F-16 fighter plane to name just a few. He appeared to be having the time of his life in the pictures I took. I'm posting a picture of "most" of the gang he invited, though you will note the guest of honor is not there, as he had disappered at just about the same time I had gathered all the kids together I could find and given how antsy they were to get back to swimming, I had to take the picture when I had the chance. At least he'll have the picture for future memory and I got a number of other pictures with him in them as well as some video. We got there at 2 pm and were supposed to be there until 4:30 at the latest, but due to one boy's mother not being called to pick him up until late, we didn't get out of there until 7:00, so it was a rather long day for us. Aaron's friend, Jeff, from the Wednesday night youth group spent the night with Aaron for a slumber party that night.

We enjoyed a day of lounging around on Monday given the holiday and no school for the boys. It was 0.1 degree outside that day and Aaron, bless his little soul, decided that was perfect weather for a football scrimmage on the front snow-covered lawn, so he picked up the phone and called Samuel (Daniel's best friend), Austin (a 9-year-old about four houses down), and Blake (an 11-year-old fifth grader in Mr. Schafer's class about four blocks north on Arnold Ave.) to come play. Of course they managed to get me to throw a sweatshirt on and head out with them for the game and it didn't take long before we all had cheeks redder than Rudolph's nose. Our fingers would go numb within seconds of removing them from our gloves to throw the football. I found 40-gram Thinsulate gloves satisfactory for throwing a junior football, but the 100-gram gloves are far too thick for handling the ball. The younger kids couldn't grip the ball at all with gloves, so they were constantly taking them off and putting them back on immediately afterward so they could catch the ball. It was a little more entertaining than our summer and fall games to say the least.

The past couple days have been a little more low key, as Daniel came down with a high fever Tuesday morning and I kept him home from school. The doctor said he tested positive for "influenza type A," which was sort of a moot point, as you can't really do anything for it anyway. That brings me to my soap box for today: The way pharmaceutical companies draw on the subjective emotions of parents with sick children. I was at Hugo's that morning to pick up medicine and was about to pick up some cough/cold medicine in a bottle for Daniel when I thought back on the research they've published in the last year that it's of no more benefit to a child than sugar water, so I put it back on the rack electing to keep $5.77 from the drug companies and got him some Children's Advil instead to deal with the most important problem (the fever). It's funny how years of habit and the heavy marketing with the pretty packaging on children's over-the-counter medication can sway a parent's buying decisions, particularly when your child is miserable and you would do anything to make them feel better, but on this particular day, science would trump impulse. It's gotten even more difficult for parents to resist the new ploys of drug companies as they keep coming up with more and more "convenient" and "pleasant" medication delivery methods such as "Meltaway" Tylenol that dissolves in the mouth, Benadryl and cold medicines that are impregnated in thin strips much the same as those Listerine breath strips (what's wrong with chewables????), etc. I think that's about enough proselytizing for now, though...

We had more snuggle time than usual as he convalesced at home in bed, on the couch, and on the beanbag and he seems to be on the mend after taking a lengthy nap this afternoon. He did have to miss his third basketball game today and the Wolverines had to do without me as one of their coaches, but that was the first practice or game he's missed all season. Hopefully he's able to return to school tomorrow or at least can watch Aaron's game in the afternoon. We had a rather cold snap around here since late last week with daily temps a good 5 to 15 degrees below zero and today was about 22 above, so it would be nice if that trend holds for a while so we can enjoy the outdoors a little bit more. Now to start thinking about plans for Daniel's birthday party... One of the parents at Aaron's party said I was going to have a hard time topping this year's when his next one rolls around.