Michael's Nerf Birthday Bash

Michael turned 8 this week (April 3rd to be exact) and chose a Nerf theme for his party. He wanted to have a big Nerf war with his best buddies, and they all had a blast playing "Capture the Rag" across the street at the baseball field. To make the war even more exciting, God caused snow to fall on the troops, adding a whole new level of manliness and determination to the game :) After the big battle, in which the Birthday Boy's team emerged victorious (how fitting), the boys returned for pizza, ice cream cake from Dairy Queen (I gave up baking for Lent), and the opening of presents. Michael received a few new Nerf guns, a Nerf football, the Military Combat DVD series from the History Channel, season 2 of MacGyver (OK, I admit I picked that gift), a die cast airplane, some fishing lures, and a very special St. Michael necklace from Grandma Theresa (which was the smallest but favorite gift of all). All in all, it was a boy's dream birthday come true. How Michael wishes every day could be so fun, and how glad I am that every day is not...a mother can only handle that much chaos and testosterone in her house once a year! :)

Michael, we love you more than all the Nerf darts in our house, minus the ones that our cat has eaten, times the number of Nerf guns we own, plus infinity...squared! Now that's a whole lot of love! :)

Michael with his "Nerf Master" ice cream cake from DQ...

Michael with "The Last Supper" puzzle from his friend Brendan...

Michael with a new N-Strike Nerf gun and some extra darts...

The Nerf war party after the "Capture the Rag" game was complete (notice that they don't seem to mind their frost burned cheeks one bit)...

Joseph and Michael getting all set up for the big battle...laying out all the guns with baggies filled with 10 of the correct darts for each gun (to keep the game fair, each soldier was given the same number of darts even though some guns hold more and some hold less...the boys thought of every detail)...

Michael proudly showing his new St. Michael medal, which he has been wearing faithfully and probably always will...

Dear St. Michael, please defend our Michael in battle until the real war is won and he joins you in Heaven to praise God with all the angels and saints forever!