Dog Party

Maysen was pretty worried that she lost Zeke.  She lets him roam around while she sits by him.  She looked away for a few seconds and then could not find him.  She called Jorja on the intercom.  Jorja couldn't find him either.  Mike and I went down to look, after a few minutes Mike found him.  These pictures look totally obvious, but that is because the flash is on.  Zeke was completely camouflaged, especially against this wall!

Little lost Zeke

Preston signed up to read to a dog at the library today.  He is also having his birthday party today.  Yesterday he told Mike, "I'm so excited!  Tomorrow I get to read to a dog!"  Haha!  Preston read the classic, Go Dog, Go! to Tucker.  He gets to read to the dog for 15 minutes, and Preston was pretty speedy.  He picked out another book to read.  He still had quite a bit of time left, so I convinced him to read Go Dog, Go! in Chinese.  The book he brought had both the English words and Chinese characters on each page.  It was so cute to watch him.  He knew many of the words, but he struggled on a lot of the pages.  He read more of that book than he has ever read before! (In Chinese)  What a perfect thing for him.  He definitely doesn't need any help with his reading in English, but to get him to work so hard to read Chinese was great!  Plus, I bet Tucker has never heard Go Dog, Go! in Chinese before!

Preston and Tucker

 Tucker's very interested

As soon as I brought Preston home I started working on his cake.  I knew I was cutting it close, but he was so excited to read to a dog!  How could I resist?  While I was trying to figure out what frosting to get a Smith's worker started talking to me.  He told me that he always buys his frosting from the bakery.  It is about the same price and tastes much better.  I never knew you could just buy frosting.  I had been trying to decide if I should make my own, but I didn't think I would have the energy for it.  The baker at Smith's was so nice.  She even gave me a giant pastry bag.  She told me that she squeezes the frosting on and then smooths it out with another tool that she gave me.  It worked great!

Stephanie

Preston chose a Candyland cake.  I let him design the board himself. We had a Candyland board to look at and an example of another Candyland cake.  Preston thought it was the greatest thing ever and said this was so much better than just buying a cake.  Jorja couldn't look sometimes.  Preston wanted to make up his own path.  He had it split in two and end in two different spots.  Jorja did not like that at all, she could barely watch.  So funny!

Preston decorating his cake

The cake turned out really cute and all of Preston's friends thought it was amazing.  The best part is, all the left over candy I can use for gingerbread houses!  You can never have too much candy for that!

The birthday party was fantastic.  The best part about it was all of Preston's siblings were involved.  They volunteered and made the party wonderful.  Preston wanted to do a Webkinz party.  Mike helped them with gem hunting.  They would cut into the flour to find gems.  He didn't make any of them get the gem out with their face.  They turned the gems into Kinzcash at the end.

Mike's station

Terrible picture, but it is all I got.  Stockton had the kids play Flippin' Frogs.  They earned Kinzcash for each frog they got to stay on the tree.

Stockton's station

Maysen had a trivia station.  I think it is just called Trivia Corner in Webkinz, but I'm not sure.

Maysen's station

Jorja and Jazzie had a game where you could spin the Wheel of Wow. They earned Kinzcash or a chance to play Plachinko.  (I can't remember any of these names, I'm sure I'm butchering them!)  The Plachinko game is kind of like Plinko on Price is Right.  The picture on the screen isn't the Wheel of Wow, looks like I took it at the wrong time.

Jorja & Jazzie's station

Once everyone had played we had an auction.  Preston, Jorja and I had picked up 25 Webkinz at Seagull book.  This was their gift bag, but they got to spend all their Kinzcash on it.  Mike started the auction, but the kids soon took it over and did a fantastic job.

We finally got to cut into the cake!  All of the kids each wanted different things.  Mike cut randomly and did the best to let the kids have what they wanted.  Preston is so happy with it.

Preston and his cake

I am so thankful that my kids all help Preston have a special party.  He loved everything about it.  This is his first birthday party he has ever had!  On a side note, I thought starbursts would be discussing on cake, but they tasted pretty good.  I didn't like the dots though.