13th Birthday Party

Tucker asked to celebrate his birthday a day early so we could do it on Saturday instead of Sunday, which was also father's day.  I like to get all the celebrating done in one day whenever possible so we obliged.  

It was nice not having to wait for Bob to get home from work.  Tucker requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and later Pappa Murphy's style stuffed pizza for dinner.  We woke up, ate, did their chores, and then it was present time.

Bob and I got Tucker skateboarding shoes, in hopes that they last longer then two weeks before ripping apart like his last tennis shoes, and a new skateboard deck.

I had to take a picture of Bob trying to carry all the balloons upstairs at the same time instead of just making two trips.

Our shelter in place just got lifted a couple days before so Tucker put together a last minute friends party.  It was last minute and he only had two friends come, we also needed the party to be completely outside because of covid-19.   He only wanted to invite the kids that he plays with all the time and was totally fine about it being a small group.

Everything was centered around the show, "Avatar the Last Air Bender."  They started with a drawing contest, which I didn't get a picture of.  The cake showcased all the four elements and they did an activity to master each type of element bending.

 The first was water bending.  For this we had a water balloon toss.

 Next up was earth bending.  To do this the kids threw rocks at a target of Fire Lord Ozi.

To practice fire bending the kids played a game Tucker made up.  Tucker covered some balls with orange and yellow construction paper imitating flames then they threw the balls at one person who was designated Soka.

For air bending the kids were supposed to make balloon rockets and launch them.  They didn't really work so I told them they needed more practice.  I didn't get any pictures but they set up army guys and had a race as to who could blow them over the fastest using a straw. 

After each mastered element Tucker passed out laminated cards he made.  Each card had the specific element drawn on it.

 We had some issues lighting the candles and had to move the cake inside.

 It was nice having Tucker plan his own birthday party and afterwards he told me he had a lot of fun.

That night we told the kids we had a special surprise for them.  They were so excited.

We drove to Ikego where we watched an outdoor movie.  It was really fun.  I thought the movie, Sonic, was ok but the kids really liked it.  The whole thing reminded everyone of how we used to go to the drive in movies in America.   One nice thing about an outdoor movie here in Japan is that it is dark enough to start at just 7:30.  In Washington they started around 10pm.