Alex turns 10!!!

 Wow! Alex turned 10 years old! I can't believe we've survived this long. This year was the first that he wanted to have friends over for his birthday, so it was kind of a big deal. We handed out invites the last day of school and then took reminders over this last week. Alex looved seeing all his friends again!! Here go lots of pictures with not too many words. (I hope!)

                These were the goodie bags, which were really fun to put together!

They had fun stuff like sticky lizards and pop candy and snaps and Pop Rocks and water yo-yos. They reminded me of GrabBags from toy shows when we were little, which made me like them!

Alex was so happy when his friends started coming!

 A little picture of the world's coolest cake!! Alex loves Nightmare Before Christmas, so James and Nicole Cook and her sister Jannie helped us (for like 3 hours!) to make this totally awesome cake! The tombstones and pumpkins are rice crispies and the tombstones have the names of the kids at the party on them!

We told the kids we would be doing fun science, so to wear clothes they could get dirty in. We started out with making dry ice bubbles in a bowl. When you make a soap bubble on the top, then it fills bigger and bigger with the gases until it pops and the gases come pouring out. Cool.

We did more bubbles with the vacuum hose and blew up and balloons and watched them pop from the gas.

Holding soapy dry ice bubbles. When they pop, smoke comes out.

Then we did the classic Diet Coke and Mentos explosions with our awesome Geyser Tube, that screws onto the 2-liter of pop and then you load up your Mentos. There is a pin on a string that when you pull releases all the Mentos and it explodes out the top. We got in 5 groups, because that was how many things of pop we had, and then counted down from 10 and they pulled the string. It was---- AWESOME!

The kids enjoyed the challenge of getting as soaked as possible! They thought it was sooo cool.

 Then we let all the kids do sparklers and then did some fun eyeball and fountain fireworks.

Cake Time!!

Their faces when they saw the cake.

Alex loved the cake, and afterwards lovingly washed each of the figurines and has them in a Superman lunch tote he got that he can carry around.

 Presents! We started out with the thing he has been asking for nearly a month now. (Since he found it hidden under my bed.) A full body skeleton costume.

The mother hens getting him dressed! 

 He had to wear it while opening other presents. His friends are all sooo sweet and totally get that, of course, Alex would wear his costume now.

He got really awesome presents like- sidewalk chalk and car, Angry Birds coloring book and 3-d puzzle, Superman lunchbox, Angry birds backpack (from us), Legos and $20!

 Okay, that was a little too hot.

The complete ensemble. Notice the backpack, into which went most of the presents.

 Then Grandma and Grandpa Campbell, who had very kindly taken Emme and Irelyn during the party, brought them back and gave Alex a huge flashlight and an Angry Birds game that he has been wanting. (The best part was that we told them Alex liked Angry Birds, but when they went to the store they couldn't remember what we had said. They almost left the store without anything because they thought we said "Crazy Cats" and they couldn't find any of that. Luckily, they saw this and remembered what it was!

The kids had cake and ice cream inside where it was cool. They all thought it was cool to have their names on the gravestones and fought over who got to take them home.

One of my favorite moments at the party, was when Alex took most all the kids downstairs, so he could play the piano for them. I came down the stairs and they were all gathered around Alex watching him play. It was soooo cute. I tried to get a picture, but it barely turned out.  You can barely see them here. As we were coming up the stairs, one of the kids who had missed it asked, "You play the piano, Alex?" and one of the other kids said, "Yeah! And he's really good!" They wanted him to play more for them later, but he said he was done. That's Alex for you.

 It was such a fun birthday and I wish you could meet all these sweet, kind kids. When I did reading with them in class, I always loved being around them and left feeling so happy from them. They are each so kind and really very motherly towards Alex. They probably help him too much, fought over who got to sit next to him and mostly just let him be himself, without feeling uncomfortable about it. Oh, how grateful I am for them!

They were all excited about their Goodie Bags and all said they had a lot of fun. I heard a few, "That was the coolest party ever!"s, which was satisfying!

By the end, Alex was totally worn out and just wanted to play with his toys. He loved having his friends over and is talking about "2013, July 28." I told him we can just have them over to play and he seemed happy about that.

 I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has always put the right teachers, Primary leaders and teachers, and friends in Alex's life at the right time to help him. He has grown so much and is such a joy- most of the time! He is turning into a real little person, but is still Alex through and through. And wonderfully, that's a good thing! We love him so much!! Happy Birthday, Alex!