The Barri (more than one Barrus): Brandt Turns Seven

Seven years ago our lad Brandt was born. I can't believe it. He is tall and beautiful, smart and funny, and at the moment, he is so tan his bum looks like he's wearing tighty-whities even when he doesn't have anything on. Was that sharing too much information? Our boy is entertaining, largely obedient, kind, and interesting. He is a good worker, an organizer, and has a wonderful imagination. He still loves to cuddle up next to me while we read, and although I can't snuggle him like I used to because there are longish body parts all over, I still love to pull him onto my lap and give him little kisses. He likes to wrestle, ride his bike, swim, read, play with his Legos, and pester his little sister. I am so grateful to have him as our very own son.

As I lay next to him in bed this evening, I told him about the day he was born and how excited Kent and I were to welcome him to our family. His dimples were immediately obvious and his ears were squished, and I was instantly in love. Still am.

In honor of his birthday, Brandt felt like he should be granted special privileges. He wanted to be able to play his Kindle Fire without having to do two pages in his workbook, and he felt that he should be able to have french toast for breakfast. These were reasonable requests. So while I made french toast this morning, Brandt played on his Kindle.

Before school ended, Brandt told me that he wanted to have a pool party for his birthday and invite all this classmates. I agreed that would be a great idea. Although putting together a party for 25 seven year olds doesn't sound like a treat, inviting kids over for a swim and giving them cake and ice cream is doable. However, as his birthday approached, Brandt decided he didn't want to swim with all his classmates, he wanted a Star Wars party. I was unwilling to try and put something Star Wars themed together for lots of people, so we had to limit the guest list. In the end we had DeMartini cousins Blake, Makenna, Luke, Collin, and Crew, plus neighbors Britton and Paul, and classmate Marissa. Guy and Mikayla came too, and Guy, being young at heart and a Star Wars fan, participated in all the games too.

Putting together a Star Wars themed party required lots of internet consultation, and based on excellent suggestions of others, I put together five "games." First we had an obstacle course, at the end of which everyone got a lightsaber made of pool noodles. I asked Kent to do the obstacle course and he enlisted Brandt to help him. Brandt organized all the stages and went first at the party. The kids fought each other with the noodle lightsabers, whacking away at eat other. Fortunately, foam can't do any real damage. I also had them use the lightsabers to bop balloons in the air. Marissa won, but mostly because she held onto her balloon longer than anyone else.

We played "pass the Death Star" or hot potato to fantastic Star Wars music, and then we played "Who am I?" which was sort of a bust. I pinned a picture of a Star Wars character to everyone's back and then they were to ask each other yes/no questions and try and figure out who they were. I chose characters that Brandt was able to identify and ones I thought everyone would know. Several of the kids, however, didn't know the characters, and even if they did, they had a hard time with the whole question thing. Oh well.

Last of all, we did a Death Star pinata. This was a soccer ball I spray painted black. I figured that would be adequate until Brandt looked at it and said, "Where's the grey?" I had Kent pull up a picture of the Death Star to see if I could do something more. Turns out, the Death Star really is grey, not black, and my large black orb just looked like a big black ball. Rather than try and be creative, Kent said, "Why don't you put a sign on it that says 'Death Star?'" I ran out of time to do anything interesting, and as most of the party attendees didn't care at all what it looked it, I didn't even bother with the sign. The kids wailed away on the big black ball and were happy to do it, especially as there was candy inside.

Brandt got fun things for his birthday. He got two Lego Star Wars sets, plus Kent and I got him a Lone Ranger "silver mine shootout" Lego set, and Britton and Paul both got him guns that shoot little disks. He was happy to have had people over, and then happy to have them go so we could begin building Legos. I didn't want him to open the boxes with all the little pieces when lots of people were around, so as soon as his cousins left, he said, while dumping out bags of Lego pieces, "Mom! Help me build this set!" We spent the rest of the evening--with the exception of a birthday dinner stop at Panda for orange chicken--under construction. We didn't get the silver mine finished, and Brandt wanted me to work on it after he had gone to bed. I saved it for him and we'll finish in the morning.

All in all, I think it was a happy birthday, and we were certainly glad to celebrate our lad.