Semantically driven

  • Home
  • About
    • Privacy policy
    • Archives
      • Reviews & Giveaways
  • Photography
    • Project 365
  • Contact me
You are here: Home / Parenting / Birthday extravaganza

Birthday extravaganza

June 29, 2009 by Jen

On Friday morning I heard him get up, go to the toilet and go back to bed. I lay in bed for a bit and then yelled out ‘Good morning birthday boy’. He came into my room and when I asked why he hadn’t come in earlier he said that he didn’t want to wake me. It doesn’t bother him most other mornings and his birthday is one of the rare days in the year that I don’t mind if he does wake me.

I gave him his presents and he read the card first.

Birthday card

He then opened the main present.

First look at Nintendo DSi

He then realised what it was. He’s been hassling me for a Nintendo DS for ages and I finally caved in. I even bought the DSi.

Realisation sets in

He opened the second part of the present which included a game.

And the DS games comes with it

And before too long he was occupied playing it. I realise that now that he’s got a DSi he’ll be hassling me to play it all the time. It’s not one of those things that he can have whenever he wants and so far I think he accepts that. He asked me today if we can take it away with us, and of course we will be.

Just a small technical note about the DSi. It accepts an SD card so you can store music and photos on it. I would have expected that you could put the SD card into the slot and it would be recognised straight away like in a camera but this isn’t the case. You have to connect to the internet before the DSi will recognise it. I’m fairly technically savvy but I had a bitch of a time trying to connect it to the internet using my wi-fi broadband at home.

I’ve got my security setup with WPA and the default for the DSi is WEP – ie two different kinds of security. The documentation I found said that you could setup the internet with WAP security but damned if I could find it. The manual didn’t mention anything that I could find and then I finally (after nearly two hours) found that if you used connections 4-6 on the DSi you could select more than just WEP security. Finally I connected to the internet which I hadn’t really wanted to do anyway. I just wanted the thing to read the SD card.

Playing Lego Starwars

My lost two hours could have been much better spent organising the birthday party for the Sunday. JJ hasn’t had a birthday party since his fifth birthday and that was a huge one number wise but this one felt more stressful – probably because it was at home and probably because I wasn’t quite sure how I would entertain these children for two hours.

Nearly half an hour after they arrived I was still the only adult there and I was starting to freak out. My friends were supposed to be there for two o’clock and they were seriously late. One of the fathers offered to stay but he had to go on a quick errand before he came back. By the time he did come back my other friends had arrived but he still stayed.

We started off with Pass the Parcel which was surprisingly hard work. The kids (five boys) were really over-excited and very hard to control. It was JJ times five. Note Monty in prime patting position!

The birthday party - Pass the parcel

We then did musical statues outside which was great to get rid of some of that energy.

I found a game called Mummy Wrap on the internet and I really didn’t hold out much hope for this game because it required standing still. The boys paired up and had to wrap each other like a mummy.

To their credit they all did a really good job with a bit of help from some adults.

Mummy wrap game

Here’s one nearly completed.

Finished mummy wrap

Here’s me directing some toilet paper pickup after the first round. The toilet paper I got came apart quite easily so it was a little bit hard not to rip it.

Picking up the rubbish

They then swapped and we judged the best wrapper, although they nearly all won a prize.

To get the toilet paper off they had to do star jumps.

Breaking free from mummy wrap

And then wrestle each other to the ground.

Now they can move

After some food, some more jumping on the trampoline it was time for the birthday cake. JJ wanted me to make my cheesecake (the Superb Cheesecake from the Quick and Thrifty Readers Digest recipe book). I bought some Smarties so the boys could decorate their piece.

Birthday cake (my superb cheesecake)

And then they all left and I sat down and breathed a big sigh of relief. It was all worth it though because JJ had a great time and I’m pretty sure his guests had a great time too.

Submit to StumbleUponShare on Tumblr Share

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: birthday, birthday party, birthday party games, Nintendo DSi

« Racing time
Want presents? »

Comments

  1. Kim says

    June 30, 2009 at 6:54 am

    What great photos. The ones where he is opening his gift….the look on his face is priceless!! Looks like the party was a big hit!

  2. jeanie says

    June 30, 2009 at 9:57 am

    Oh great birthday!! Pity about the technical wizardry required, and if it was difficult for you I can only hazard a guess at how hard it would be for us more plebian adventurers.

    BTW – a gift for you on mine.

  3. PlanningQueen says

    June 30, 2009 at 10:37 pm

    It does look like JJ had a great time. I actually gave up on pass the parcel a number of years ago. With young excitable boys, I have found it too stressful for me!

  4. Jen says

    July 1, 2009 at 8:42 am

    PlanningQueen, I wish I had consulted with you about games before I embarked on pass the parcel.

  5. Farmerswife says

    July 2, 2009 at 3:04 pm

    Happy birthday big guy, and it looks like a great party. I have never heard of the toilet paper game, but I have it in memory now, what a hoot!!

  6. M & B says

    July 4, 2009 at 1:29 am

    Happy Birthday, JJ. Well done Jen on your successful party throwing 🙂

  7. Single Mom Seeking says

    July 6, 2009 at 3:38 am

    Love, Love the photos! Happy birthday! You’re such a great mom.

    The mummy idea… wow!!

    I got a Nintendo DS for my kid on her 8th birthday, so this joy is very familiar…. thought I’d never cave in!

  8. Joy says

    July 8, 2009 at 2:26 am

    OH NO! I missed JJ’s birthday! I’m so sorry Jen. I was busy with Bastian and Bella in town all that week. I never even went on my blog.

    What great pictures! It looks like he had a wonderful time. I love the Mummy Wrap. And Bella has the Nintendo DSi….and just LOVES it. You are a really great mum sweetie. Happy Happy Birthday JJ. Gosh, he looks SO grown up. Congrats to everyone! Love, Joy

Popular posts

  • Making tomboy stitch
  • Camping
  • What do you say to someone who says they hate themself?
  • Just Disgusting
  • Damn mosquitos
  • Once upon a time
  • Editing photos on the iPhone with Snapseed
  • What my life could have been like in the 1970s in Canberra
  • Cup of tea anyone?
  • Dib dib dob dob – it’s official

Looking for something?

Categories

My photos

Copyright © 2023 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in