Xander 5.0

On Saturday we hit the beach for Xander's birthday party. My beach day started a bit earlier than expected; we headed over to Goleta beach around nine to scout out spots and seeing that one prime spot was already taken I decided to stay behind and guard a table. I only had to sit there for an hour and a half without much to do, but it was worth it as another table camper showed up about 20 minutes later and was bummed that I was holding the table that I was. Had I not stayed we would not have had the nice shady table that we ended up with.

We ended up with about 13 kids, two "big kids" (as Xander refers to them, otherwise known as Kent and Rudy), and around 25 adults. Having so many adults there definitely made watching the kids much easier; as you can probably imagine, there were kids running every which way between the playground, bird chasing, the beach itself, and the party favors (bubbles). And once the presents were open there were plenty of new toys to test out as well. The cake -- another Lisa "Ace of Cakes" Oglesby show-piece -- and pinata booty helped to fuel the festivities. By the time four o'clock rolled around we were all exhausted and there was a very happy birthday boy.

As usual there are lots of pictures over at Flickr.

Birthday King Visits the Pizza Guru

For Xander's birthday he wanted to go to Pizza Guru for dinner so we had a little family celebration down there. The crown was part of his haul from the birthday celebration at school; though I don't think the meaning of a crown soaked in very well as he was only as demanding as usual, not more demanding as one might expect from a king. And when we were done eating Xander insisted on clearing the table, very un-regal type behavior. While eating pizza and cup-cakes are hard to top I'd say the highlight of the dinner for Xander was doing graffiti in the bathroom.

As usual there are more pictures at Flickr.

It didn't quite go swimmingly

Xander had his first swimming lesson today over at the recreation center on campus. He was excited to be there until he actually got into the water; after about ten seconds he was screaming his head off and despite the teacher's, lesson coordinator's, and my best efforts we couldn't get him back in the water again. Maybe we needed a fourth person like they needed the last time he got shots at the doctor's office. The most he was willing to do was sit on the side and dip his toes in. He has promised that next Sunday he will get in the water and I have a few ideas on how to make things go smoother so hopefully he'll spend more time in the pool next weekend.