Happy Birthday Theo!

Tonight was Theo's first birthday sleep over. Leah has been invited many times to sleep overs and all he wanted this year was to have the same thing. Now, we had the family party but, since that involved an all girl list, a sleep over with all boys was a huge deal to him. I thought I knew how the evening would go. Jeff and I carefully planned out activities related to construction per Theo's request. It was pretty simple. Build a cardboard structure and paint it.

Hammer some nails.

Knock over a tower of blocks with a wrecking ball.

But then, Jeff told the kids that he'd help them build something with some scrap wood he had been collecting. That was all it took. Most of them decided right away what they wanted. Noah built a table. Jack built a bed with Leah's help. Jacob watched for a while and then decided he wanted a table too. Even our helper, Leah, decided to get in on the fun and made a t.v. They helped make the cuts, did all the sanding and some even painted their works of art.

I thought I'd never get them out of the garage. They were having so much fun they wanted to keep going. Well, most of them. Michael and Theo were in on if for a while and then they decided that the new lego set was too much to resist. But, if you think about it, it was another building project that I hadn't anticipated but that they thoroughly enjoyed. :-)

It is now 11:15 and all is (finally) quiet. Theo and Noah were snoring in no time but a storm blew through and riled everyone up. Noah woke back up. Theo and Leah were the only ones asleep. There was a lot of tossing and turning and even some restless pacing before all of them settled down. And now..... I think I'll follow suit.