Wii Winter Wipeout Tournament.

Lately, Brigham's been talking about all these boys at school that I'd never met before.  In bed one night, I had a brainstorm.  I thought it might be fun for the two older boys to have a party.  I thought, Let's get all these boys together, some old friends, some new.  A crash course in Get-To-Know-My-Kids'-Friends.

We tossed around ideas that would be fun for 9/10 year-old boys.  Lots of them.  Together.  Under one medium-sized roof.  For 3 hours.

(Ben and I want to create a home where our kids WANT to be.  WITH their friends.  Especially as they get older.  Doesn't every parent want their house to be the hang-out?  Come to think of it, maybe not every parent does:).  But, we do.  However, we also want our home to be a place where the fun is GOOD fun.  A place where other parents feel safe letting their kids go.)

We came up with a Wii Winter Wipeout Tournament!  Doesn't that sound fun . . . if you're a boy?!  I'm not a major Wii-wonder, so I needed Ben's help on this one.  In fact, the idea may have been Ben's in the first place.

I'm pretty sure Brigham lost sleep over this party.  He was oh-so excited.  He's my guy that needs LOTS of friends.  That's important to him.

This was very telling from our invite-list.  Brigham had twelve boys (he was "keeping it small."), William had three.  The funny part is that William didn't want anymore than three (this was once a source of worry, but I'm learning that it's just a difference in personality.)  To keep the numbers even for the tournament, Brigham had to trim his list.  So, we had 12 boys, including our own.

The boys were great!  All of them.  Because of the sheer number, it was crazy (I was crossing my fingers for the safety of my white furniture).  BUT, I was so impressed with how good these boys are.  Winning and losing, taking turns, having good manners, being polite and helpful (asking if there was anything I needed help with).  Some parents are doing a GREAT JOB raising those boys!

   

We were bound to have some type of wrestling match.  I was fully prepared for that.  And it happened.  But it only lasted a minute.  No tears.  Just some really-red-faced boys, laughing.  Thank goodness.

The winner went home with the Wii Winter Wipeout trophy, a much-coveted prize.  We went all-out on that red ball from Walmart!  $2.  Big-spenders.  I didn't get a picture of the boy who won.  He hid it underneath his coat too fast, keeping it safe from the other boys.

Surprisingly, I had a great time.  I'd thought the crowd control would be exhausting, but my job was much easier than expected.  I loved watching all these bright-eyed boys.  They were all so different and yet they got along so well.  I sat on the couch watching them, imagining what they'd look like, be like, in high school.  It was so easy to pinpoint who'd be a jock or a brainiac or a joker or a limit-pusher.  We'll see.  Maybe they'll surprise me!  

I think Ben had fun, too.  He was smiling and laughing and joking with the boys the entire time.  Ben is so good with boys.  He teases and jokes and cheers them on.  It think they liked having him around.  The big-boys were on cloud-nine.  And Lincoln felt like a million bucks hanging out with all the big boys.  Annie had fun watching Barbie movies with Grandma at her house.

I finally got to know those mystery boys from school.  And, I approve:).

Later that night, the trouble began.  Stomach flu.  Hence, my lack of blogging for a week.  I was on my death-bed.  Seriously.  DYING.  Okay, maybe I'm a little dramatic, but it was BAD.

It's good to be back.