rescue festivities

Today we hosted the Rescue Hero Birthday Party, and 11 of Dennis' friends (8 friends + 3 cousins) came along with their adults! We had a house and yard full of revelers. A good time was had by all, I think.

After eating, the kids completed 2 rescue missions. First, they had to take the "rescue wagon" to find four sheep that had wandered into an abandoned castle (tent) and had gotten trapped. Then, we heard about Sock Monkey's terrible accident: he flipped his Jeep (the old and largely decrepit Power Wheels jeep) and was thrown out into the woods. The rescuers mounted a search and brought him back to the porch for medical treatment (they covered him in Band-Aids). He feels much better. Soon it was cake and ice cream time, followed by (Dennis' favorite) Present Opening Time. He loved EVERYTHING he received, but tonight when we checked on him after he fell asleep, he was lying on his side with his arm stretched out and his hand was resting on Sam Trap and his dune buggy (which were just beside his pillow). Sam is one of his new Rescue Heroes. The kids completed their final mission after the gift time: a tree was "on fire" (had a piece of plywood with fire painted on it attached) and their job was to prevent a forest fire and put out the tree fire using water balloons. This was the clear favorite of the activities. They spent the rest of their time playing on the swing set and tower, playing in the sand box (what the tornado left of it), and riding the kiddie ATV. After the party guests left, Dennis and Chloe had a lovely frolic through the sprinkler. Dennis said the day was awesome until the car broke down later tonight when we took it to get gas (after Dave and David had already fixed it today). I agree. Fortunately, we had rescuers (the theme of the day, I suppose), and the car is back in the shop to see why the belt keeps slipping off.

I would love to be relaxing in the glory of my recently cleaned home and freshly painted and reorganized den, but I developed a migraine late this afternoon and must get up early to work at preschool registration tomorrow. Bedtime for me! The guys (both human and canine) are already snoozing.