Today my girls left and in their place four boys came over to help Lee celebrate his 8th birthday. Perfect in every way, they started the day playing hockey (which happens to be Ray's newest favorite word), then off to the big sledding hills, back home again to check out the new 4-wheeler. Everyone took a turn sitting on it, and although I was watching this from the kitchen window, I could tell they were winning the biggest race of their life. Cold, they came in for lunch. We had Portesi pizza, cucumber slices, carrot sticks, licorice and root beer. DH and I joined the boys around the table; wow, is that different compared to a girl party. The boys tried to contort their fingers to match Lee's disgusting finger trick. One boy, realizing he would never be able to compete, chimed in with, "See, I can make my eyeballs disappear." DH talked them into watching a caribou hunt on his newest hunting video. One boy questioned, "Are we gonna see some violence?" The professional BINGO caller in me was able to come out from hiding for an action packed game of BINGO. I went all out with prizes, gum and individual boxes of Kellogg's cereal. Everyone was gunnin' for the Apple Jacks, even the Special K went. One 8 year old proudly walked away with 6 boxes of cereal and 8 packs of gum. We had just enough time to have hockey puck brownies and cookie dough icecream. All the boys left with smiles. It was a perfect celebration.
Now, later in the day, it was time to prepare for the family party tomorrow. The menu: BBQ pork ribs, green beans (Lee's special request), Milwaukee's Midgets, more cucumber slices and carrot sticks, cheese and crackers and pumpkin pie with candles.
