Jack's Birthday

Jack had a great actual birthday! He got to choose breakfast, lunch and dinner for us - as well as open presents and have me bring in cupcakes to his class! He chose pancakes for breakfast, his favorite noodles for lunch (with an applesauce, rolls, pretzels and then cheese and crackers for snack) and Papa John's pizza for dinner!

I made fun 3-colored cupcakes with chocolate icing and sprinkles, picked up Kylie 15 minutes early from school (since she gets out at 1pm and I needed to bring in cupcakes at 12:45) and we celebrated in Jack's classroom! The kids were so excited it was his birthday - were so thankful for the cupakes - and sang him Happy Birthday in English, Arabic and then Spanish! I tried to get them singing in Arabic on video - but was too late.

The kids were literally cracking me up - apparently they don't see homemade cupcakes ever. They kept saying "How did you get them to be 3 colors?", "How did you get the little colored things (sprinkles) on top?", "How did you make them?", "Where did you find the sprinkles?". Thankfully they thought they were so yummy :) Jack said the rest of the day, they kept commenting on how good they were! Oh, and one little boy whispered something in his teacher's ear and she said he could say it aloud - so he said shyly, "You and Jack have the same smile." I thanked him :) I think Jack had a great birthday!

Pancake Breakfast!

Presents!

The Birthday Boy with his 2 sisters

He really wanted a magnifying glass to play with and examine things!

Think he might be excited for his new xBox game?

How to Train your Viking by Toothless the Dragon
(Jack's read all the How to Train your Dragon books - and we found this one, which is so fun)

Jack's cool shirt from Mom Mom and Pappy

The cupcakes :) FYI - it's hard to make cupcakes without a muffin tray. I borrowed one from a friend, but had to guess how much batter to put in 12 then wait until they were baked to make the other 12. And carry them in an amazon.com box :)

Jack's classroom

Kylie enjoying herself

Me and the Birthday Boy

Cesar, Jack and Talib

Jack and his teacher

And presents from Grammy and Grandad!

Hi, My Name is Jack vol. 4

...And I'm the Birthday Boy because today I turn 8!!!

Here's a little bit about me:

Job: I am in Second Grade. I am a good reader. I have an hour on the bus in the morning and an hour on the bus in the afternoon, so I finish a book each day with 2 hours of reading. I am great in Math and have become a better speller. I like PE and Computer - I can type all the letters on the home row. I don't love writing. I have a hard time figuring out things to write about.

What I like to read: I've read through all the How to Train Your Dragon books and all the Magic Tree House books and all the Geronimo Stilton books. Mommy just got me started on the Boxcar Children. I've made a deal with the Librarian that I can check out more than 2 books at a time because I read through them so fast. I run by the library on my way to recess to pick out a new book for the ride home. I also like comics and my goal is to be able to read The Ranger's Apprentice books by 3rd grade.

My Favorite Things to Do: Play video games (xBox 360, iPad, DS, computer), legos, read, drive remote control cars, wrestle Daddy, drive things (go carts, dirt bikes, 4 wheelers, lawn mowers, electric scooters), swim, pet dogs and play soccer.

Least Favorite Things to Do: Eat Vegetables.

Favorite Foods: Macaroni and Cheese, stuffing, pad see ew, hot dogs, spaghetti, pizza.

Favorite Sayings: I'm bored. Can I play xBox? Can I get a snack? I can't get to sleep. Mommy, Kylie's crying. Aw, man! I don't want to go shopping! I don't like this dinner - oh, yeah, I do.

Things I learned to do while I was 7: Ride my bike to Villa by myself with Megan. Ride to school by myself. Ride a mini dirt bike and shift it into 4th gear. Ride the waves at the beach all by myself and have fun getting pummeled by them. Read chapter books all the time. Tie my shoes. Move to a 3rd country. Moved into the 5th house I've lived in. Ride an elephant. Fall out of a tuk-tuk. Swing through the trees on a zip line course.

Closest Friends: John, Ethan, David, Lyan, Jake from Bangkok. Cesar, Gun ha, Talib from Kuwait. Cole and Josh from the States.

Favorite Shows: Clone Wars, X-men and Good Luck Charlie.

Games I like to play on the xBox: Lego Games (Star Wars/Pirates of the Caribbean/Indiana Jones), Cars 2, Star Wars Battlefront 2, Toy Story 3.

What I want to be when I grow up: Work like my Daddy does because you get to travel to cool places for free. It's cool to go to new places and get to know them better.

Why Mommy loves me: Because I am sweet and smart and strong and handsome and kind. Because I am a good friend and mostly patient. Because I can explain to new people in our house how to use the many remote controls to work the TV, xBox and WD box. Because even though I complain about doing it - I get my homework done well and help out around the house with dishes or filling up ice cube trays or folding clothes or picking up. Because I love my sisters even though they aggravate me sometimes. Because I want to be like my Daddy. Because I still love playing with my Mommy's hair and I still sleep with Cheetah every single night. Because I am me!

Happy 8th Birthday Jackey Boy!!! We love you!!!

Cesar and Jack going to the Universe #100

As one of the presents, Cesar made this book for Jack - It's Magic Tree House #100 - Cesar and Jack going to the Universe! It is the sweetest thing and so thoughtful of Cesar to have made this for Jack! He did a great job on it, as well as putting it all together in plastic coverings and then tying them all together to make the book. I almost cried when Jack opened it and flipped through it. So, you all can see how sweet it is - I think the author of the Magic Tree House series should think about this as a definite possibility for book #100 - adding in a good buddy and sidekick to go on adventures with Jack and Annie (the main characters)!

Jack and Cesar reading the book about Jack and Cesar :)

Table of Contents

One time Jack and Cesar were friends. They were in the same class too. One recess we found a house.

We went inside the tree house and we saw a billions of books then the tree house started to spin.

Then it stopped some and Jack went out but it was space so put helmets and Jack said: it is the universe and we found some holes.

Jack said: let's explore the universe. The holes were little volcanoes and crystals so shiny and dead bones, too.

So we kept looking but there tons of holes but one had magic surprise and it is the only Jack and the surprise is a big star.

Jack, I am gonna catch that big star but it was flying away and it fell in a little volcano but Jack saved it with a grappling hook and I got it said Jack.

Jack lets go back to earth so we went to earth in our tree house.

Let's go back to my house and we saw our friend Gunha.
The End

Jack's Magic Tree House Party

Our Family

Jack had a great birthday party! It was better than I thought it would be - I wasn't sure if the boys would be into the whole "Magic Tree House" theme or if they would behave - or even if they would show up! But they loved the theme, were great participants and we had 6 of the 8 boys we invited come! They were so cute and excited to be a part of Jack's birthday party! A couple of them dressed up so nice with ties and they were all great listeners. There was one kid who needed to stay involved in an activity or would wander, but in Jack's defense - he said right before we were handing out invitations that he didn't want to invite him anymore because he wasn't really friends with him anymore. I asked if Jack had already told the boy he would be invited and Jack said yes, so we said he had to be invited. :)

SIDENOTE: Our house is super hard to find by directions. If you've been here before, it's the easiest house to find - but we don't have a "normal" Kuwaiti address for our house because of the area we live in. Normally someone would have a Block #, a Street #, a House # and the Area and you can use the GPS to drive right there. Most streets in Kuwait make total sense as to where things are and you can find them easily. Our area, however, is this super long thing strip that has a Cooperative #, a Street # and a Villa #. It's so hard to explain to anyone (drivers/delivery guys/etc) where we live. But, once you've been here, it's an easy, easy house to find.

Okay, so the plan was to have 5 activities planned that corresponded with 5 Magic Tree House books. Dan, Megan and Jack built a great fort upstairs that was our Magic Tree House and one leader would take the book I gave him, lead everyone upstairs to the Tree House, climb in the Tree House, they would all point to the book and shout "I wanna go there!" and then I would say, "The wind started to blow and the Tree House started to spin and it spun faster and faster until everything was still...absolutely still." (which is what happens in every Magic Tree House book). So, then we would come back downstairs and do the activity that went with that book! We had a dinosaur egg balloon popping time that went with Dinosaurs After Dark, a toilet paper mummy wrap that went with Mummies in the Morning, a game of "Pass the Parcel" with the surprise inside being a foaming volcano for High Tide in Hawaii, relay races for Hour of the Olympians, ate cake and ice cream, unwrapped presents and then did a treasure hunt for Pirates Past Noon with their goodie bags being the prize at the end! I think they all had a blast - it was so fun to have them here! They were well mannered and really like Jack - which I am so thankful for!

We asked every kid where they were from and here were their direct answers: Venezuela, Detroit, Kuwait, America, Toronto, Venezuela. Too cute!

Our front gate!

Birthday sign on our front door!

Decorations in the house

The awesome "Tree House" Dan, Megan and Jack built! The lamp in the center definitely made it!

Yet more decorations :)

The table - set with fun fabric and Magic Tree House books!

The boys colored for a bit while waiting for everyone to show up - Knights, Pirates and Dinosaurs!

All the Boys :)
Talib, Daniel, Aaron, Jack, Cesar, Chris and Essa

Dinosaur Egg balloon pop

Talib was the best! He could pop them right away and did a great job!

The boys in the Tree House pointing to where they want to go

Wrapping mummies!

The final product!

Pass the Parcel - All the boys won gum during the layers of wrapping paper and Cesar won the erupting volcano inside!

Relay races - Hopping down and back!

The Tree House cake - not great, but doable - Jack loved it, which is what mattered. And it tasted amazing!

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday!

Jack blowing out his 8 candles!

Opening presents!

Opening more presents!

Pirate treasure hunt! Clues were placed all over the house - they had to read them and then run to the next place!

Waiting on parents, we had the kids play a quick round or 2 of Cars 2 :)