Filed under: The Buffington Southern Experience | Tags: 10th Birthday, Birthday Party, First Haircut, Minion Showdown, Taekwondo, Tournament, WWE Backyard Games, WWE Backyard Ring, WWE Birthday
We had a big weekend! It kicked off on Friday with “Rydanmania,” Rydan’s 10th birthday celebration. It was an evening of WWE style fun, complete with six rounds of WWE-inspired games inside of a ring we created in our own backyard.
When the boys arrived, they each had to come up with their own WWE Superstar name (either made up or borrowed from a real wrestler). In attendance we had Jeff Hardy, The Flash, Rey Mysterio, The Rex, Steve The Third, The Freak, Bob, and Shining Warrior. The boys were divided into two teams and then came up with team names. It was “The People” vs “The Un-Named.” Round One began with some good ole thumb-wrestling.
Round Two: The Royal Rumble – a race against your opponent to grab a water balloon placed in the center of the ring. If you were able to grab it without it popping, and hit your opponent with it, you received an extra point.
Round Three: Extreme War – tug of war on top of milk crates. First person to fall off or let go of the rope loses.
The face of defeat.
Round Four: The Battleground – to win, remove the clothespin from the bottom of your opponent’s shirt.
Round Five: SummerSlam – each boy was given a single water balloon. To win, be the first to successfully hit your opponent with it.
A smile from the audience.
Round Six: The Main Event – each team had five minutes to come up with their own WWE performance.
The results…
Regardless of who won, I think they all had a pretty fun time. This is my favorite picture from the entire evening.
After all of the games, the boys ate hot dogs, Rydan opened gifts, and they ended the night with some cake and ice cream, and one last water balloon fight.
The next morning, it was off to the hair salon for Lily’s first ever haircut. She was very adamant about wanting to keep her hair long, so she only got her ends trimmed. I love the look on her face in this first picture. I kept reassuring her that she was fine and nothing was going to hurt, but no matter what I said, that’s the look she continued to give me.
After a few minutes she did relax, but she kept a close watch on every move the hairdresser made.
I think what got her through was the basket of Dum-Dum Lollipops she spotted when we walked in the door. The only words she uttered the entire time were when we first arrived – “Mommy, can I have one of those when I done?” And then when the haircut was over – “Mommy, can I have one of those pops now?”
By lunch time, we were on our way to Independence, Kentucky for the Minion Showdown Taekwondo Tournament. This is a tournament with just two Taekwondo schools, so it’s good practice for the upcoming national tournament in September. As with all tournaments, students compete in forms and sparring.
Rydan just recently learned his Probationary Black Belt form, which consists of 42 moves, so he was very excited about earning a Bronze Medal in something that he was still learning to perfect.
For Rydan, the highlight of this tournament was being awarded his very first Gold Medal, which he received in sparring.
And yesterday… we rested.
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Marshmallow Mondays 
Bridgit…thank you so much for this blog. I love seeing Rydan so happy and having fun at his party. I hope he has a great day on his actual “birthday” too and tell him we love and miss him and his card and gift are in the mail.
Annette, Bob and Brett…
Comment by Annette 07.28.14 @ 11:20 AM