Alex's Birthday Party

Greetings Blog Fans.  Short and sweet this week.  No grand adventure to report as the weekend was dedicated to Alex's party.  He turns 11 next week and we celebrated by having a party and sleepover on Saturday.  As you can tell from above, a good time was had by all.

Football kit and cake (and, er, dirty laundry room) before the party.

We ended up going back to the Willows Sports Centre again this year.  They got two 20-minute halves of football (soccer) and a 20+ minute round of laser tag.  18 boys all together with 4 from the neighborhood and 13 from school (plus Alex).   The indoor football was a little crowded but they had fun.

Photo-op at intermission (half time).  You can see Alex's team was up 3-2 (and they would go on to win 4-2).  Alex's pre-selected team was slightly stacked and quickly went up 3-0.  The staff member referee then joined the other side; first as keeper/goalie and then on offense to even things up.  He did a good job of helping without trying to take over.

Both Kuk and I commented how well the party went even with a mixture of neighborhood/school friends.  Last year was fine, but this year seemed better (and more relaxed for us).  His school friends were different this year (recall, new school) but perhaps it was simply another year of maturity.

Here's Alex scoring a penalty kick during the competition at half time.  He actually netted 3 and made it to the final round.  He's improved quite a bit since last year.

Here he is lined up in defense.  I was pleased/surprised at how well he did.  He was holding his own.  He even stole the ball from the staff member one time who jokingly picked him up and pretended to carry him off.  He had a great time and I think the others did as well.

action shot (at least for most)

 lighting the cake after the laser tag and lunch (chicken nuggets, chips and pizza)

And blowing out the candles -- they have a different (and I would say odd) tradition here.  The cake is not consumed at the party.  They take it back and slice it up, put it in a napkin and then in a gift bag with all the candy, etc. that you would expect.   So, it comes home all smushed up and I imagine rarely eaten.  Oh well.  Seems odd, but maybe that's just me.

After the party, the neighborhood boys (five now as one couldn't come to the party) joined Alex for a sleepover.  This is the next morning and as usual they all (save one) have their iPods out and are playing away.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well they did.  They all got along fine, listened reasonably well and didn't break anything!  Well done, lads!  I imagine they crashed around 11 and got up around 6 (ugh, but expected).   No issues whatsoever.

I treated them to my usual special breakfast of crepes ("pancakes" in UK-speak) with nutella, strawberries, bananas and whipped cream.  They were impressed and Alex was proud so that was a winner too.

Meal of the (Last) Week

 

new J.O. dish this week -- spicy chicken with lentils.  Turned out more brown than the photo in the book which hurts the appearance but the taste was pretty good.  The chicken was seasoned with cayenne pepper (and probably a little too much).  The lentils have carrots, tomatoes and spinach with a little rosemary as well.  Smoked pancetta, asparagus and yogurt on top to round it out.  Yum.

Have a good week everyone.