Friday play dates...

In January, I decided to start hosting play dates here at my house every other Friday of the month and invite 3 of our friends little boys, who happen to be the same age as Noah (4), over to play.* These play dates would give all the boys the opportunity to get to know each other and build friendships that otherwise may never have developed.

I like having guests over at our house, and more especially enjoy seeing my boys have fun playing with other kids their age, but I'll be completely honest, I was a bit nervous the night before the first play date because I wasn't sure what to expect with four 4 year old boys and one 2 year old boy the following day. Would they misbehave and break things? Worse yet, I knew they were all potty trained, but were they going to be the kind of boys who pee all over the toilet seat, the wall and the floor?! YuCk! My mind ran wild that night with possibilities of things that could go wrong that following day.

I'm happy to report that for the duration of time while the boys were here the next morning/afternoon no one broke anything and the bathroom floor and walls remained dry. No one stirred up any trouble; there was no name calling, no pushing or shoving; all the boys shared toys and got along really well!

The play dates usually last for 2 1/2 to 3 hours (I like to have them during the time my two youngest, Bentley and Cohen, are taking their morning naps- that way I'm not distracted by babies who NEED me). I like the play dates to have a little bit of structure to them; in other words, 3 hours is just TOO LONG to let all the boys run around wild and do as they please (I like my house to remain some what in tact when they leave). I usually have some sort of art project or hands on craft prepared for them to do: i.e. painting with marbles, finger painting with chocolate pudding...

left to right: Ian, Tate, Logan and Noah

It took all the boys a little while to feel comfortable playing with the chocolate pudding...

At least my own boys were both hesitant to touch the chocolate with their hands

because they knew it would make a mess, and usually I don't like them to make those kind of messes.

Noah and Ian actually ate most of their pudding...

they like to think with their bellies.

Below are Ian, Tate and Logan.

Logan got a little CR8ZY with the pudding;

Tate was more careful applying the pudding to the paper.

The boys also used cookie cutters to cut out various animal shapes from jello and once, for lunch, they made their own mini personal pizzas.

left to right: Adam, Logan and Noah. 

They're were ready to cut out jell-o jigglers!

Along with art projects, I like to have science experiments ready for them to do together. On the first play date I tried to make 3 Diet Coke bombs using Mentos (click here to read about Diet Coke and Mentos bombs); all 3 Coke bombs just fizzled a little each time and that was that; I wasn't very impressed HOWEVER the boys all thought it was SO cool! I've learned it doesn't take much to impress a group of 4 year old's. They didn't have any clue that I just BOMBED their first science experiment. During another play date we tried to pick up an ice cube in water using only a piece of string and some salt. I managed to pick up an ice cube briefly, just once, but all the boys were distracted for the moment and looking at something else; by the time I caught their attention the ice had fallen back into the glass of water! I tried and tried again to show them how to pick up the ice with the string but I didn't have any luck in doing so. I BOMBED our 2ND science experiment! I suck as a science teacher- I need to watch more Bill Nye the Science Guy reruns. For that matter, Spencer is an excellent science teacher. During one play date he showed the boys how fog was made with dry ice; they LOVED this experiment and it went off without a hitch! Thank goodness, or otherwise they might have started to believe that every science experiment we tried was a total waste of their time.

left to right: Ian, Adam, Logan and Noah

Below is a little video we took of the boys doing one of their science experiments... (hint: If you decide to watch to watch the video and want to listen to it,it's probably a good idea if you scroll down to the very bottom of my blog page and mute or pause the other music).

After eating lunch together, doing science experiments and making arts and crafts, the boys still have plenty of time to play upstairs in the toy room or downstairs with our puzzles or dress up. They like to dress up as Buzz Light Year, Woody, Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Cowboys and Indians then chase each other around the house with light sabers, swords, poppers (toy guns) and bows and arrows.

Noah was Peter Pan with a light saber,

Adam was Mickey Mouse with a light saber

and Logan was Buzz Lightyear with a laser disk shooter.

The last time they were here they were all playing a game of "Dragons", running through out the house hiding and chasing after each other (they made up the game). They like to pair up and go on treasure hunts using the maps I've laminated for my boys; the hunt somehow always brings them back to treasure (goodies) that I've put out on the kitchen counter (they're clever little boys). They all have BIG imaginations! When the weather has been nice, I've let them go out back to play freeze tag, race around the track, jump on the inflatable bouncer, ride bicycles, Razors and skateboards. Together, they have A LOT of energy!

3 hours always seems to pass pretty quickly while the boys are here. My boys really do love the time that their friends can come over to play and seriously the boys are all such good kids. They're all so very polite and friendly. It's been fun to get to know all of their BIG personalities. The stories they tell! Oh jeez... they crack me up! They all crack each other up any time anyone mentions "boogers" or "pooh"... yeah, they're boys, and boys like to discuss that kind of matter. It's for this reason that "NO GIRLS ARE ALLOWED" at the play dates!

More recently I decided to throw a "Wii party" for all of the boys... that is because one of our little guests is a HUGE fan of the Wii and one afternoon when he discovered that we own a Wii he asked to play it. He REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to play it so I promised him and the other little boys we'd have a "Wii party" at the next gathering.

Originally, I meant to have the boys play the Wii Toy Story game using four remotes, but for some reason or other we couldn't get all four remotes in sync with the game, so the boys settled playing Mario Cart with 4 players. That was seriously some funny stuff watching the boys race each other! Every other 20 seconds one of them was accidentally hitting the home key, which in result paused the game; the boys would then all blame each other of course. Some of the boys never even made it past the starting line (ahem! NOAH) and the others who made it past the starting line never made it to the finish line because they were driving in circles or driving off the course!

Snacks for the "Wii Party"...

A bucket of Tigger Tails 
(click here to read about what they are and how to make them), 

popcorn  

and Tropical Chewy Lemonheads and Friends candy.

I made snack food for the boys lunch...

Hot dogs.

Noah was more interested in the snacks than he the actual video games.

Like I said before, he thinks with his belly.

Tate, Logan, Daniel (Noah's cousin) and Ian playing Mario Cart.

The gang:

Logan, Tate, Ian, Noah and Daniel (Adam couldn't make it to the party this day).

*Regretfully we didn't have any play dates here in February. I had to cancel the first play date because I was absent for almost a week when I flew back east to attend my grandmother's funeral and when I returned, all my boys were all sick! Not one of them got any better until the first week in March.