Luke's birthday was Tuesday. He's a fan of birthdays, you see, because he
knows two things: cake and presents. Mostly cake, really. Jessica made a dinosaur cake, which went over huge with the three-year-old crowd (which happens to be Luke's new scene, luckily.) All day long, from the time he woke up, he wanted cake and to see Jaden and Zane (Zimm's kids). We would play for a while, and he'd say, "Have cake?" And we'd say again, "We'll have cake at your party." "See JadenZane?" "They're coming to your party." "Okay. See JadenZane and have cake at party." This was the conversation we had at least 400 times before the party. We also set up the present that my youngest sister sent for Christmas, which was an inflatable tent with plastic balls inside. Ronin enjoyed this as well, as you can see . So with a ball tent, dinosaur cake, and pizza, we were all set for a birthday party.
The guests (Zimm and family along with Zimm's brother- and sister-in-law and their two kids) arrived at about 5:00, and the party was on. We started by watching the end of the Michigan-Florida Bowl game (the Michigan people were in the house, after all). There were four kids (Luke, Jaden, Zane, and Matt & Nikki's daughter Kieli) who were mobile enough to enjoy the ball tent and roam around the house playing, while the other three (Ronin, Keegan, and Kieli's brother Grayson) stayed with the parents. Once the game was
over, we all headed to the kitchen for pizza and cake, and then came the presents. Luke is always excited to open presents, but it got to a whole new level when he got to the one from my mom. Contained inside the wrapping paper was a moving and roaring dinosaur toy. This was the hit of the evening with all of the kids. (See exhibit A.) I don't think I've ever seen four kids of that age group all enthralled with the same thing without somehow beating each other up. They all took turns and pushed the button to watch the dinosaur move and roar. I have to say, too, that the thing is pretty cool. Every day since his birthday, Luke will wake up in the morning and from his nap, and ask "Where's the dinosaur?" Then he marvels at the fake reptile for at least 10 minutes. Good times.So after the presents came the real fun. As you may have read on Zimm's blog, Matt and Nikki have a game for PS2 called Singstar. This is the best game ever. As Zimm explained, it's basically competitive karaoke. You get points for holding notes the appropriate amount of time and singing in tune with the song. And not to blow my own horn, but I'm pretty awesome at it. We played guys against girls for two games of seven rounds each. The rounds consisted of either a battle (where a representative from each team takes the mic and lays down the lyrics in hopes of getting a higher score than his or her opponent), a duet (where each team takes turns having two representatives who sing a song simultaneously in hopes of achieving a high combined score), or pass the mic (which is what it sounds like). This game was so much fun, I could have played all night. My favorite part, however, came in between games when Zimm and I went toe-to-toe and scream-for-scream on "Best of You", by the Foo Fighters. He edged me in that one, but I want a rematch. My score suffered when I looked down and saw the kids staring slack-jawed at their dads screaming, muscles clenched, eyes closed, into microphones. It was hilarious. And as a side-note, I don't know how Dave Grohl does it. Just doing that one song took it out of me. I was literally flexing every muscle in my upper body trying to force the growling and yelling out of my lungs and keep it in tune. Good times. So it is now my position that Xbox 360 needs a karaoke game. And really they've already got Guitar Hero and Rock Band, so why not?
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