Party Time

I hate beginning my posts with a disclaimer, but bear with me....It has quite literally been Birthdayapolloosa at our house ALL month! Just when I thought it would be over, something else birthday has come up. But what fun we have been having! I wanted to post everything in a series of posts, because there has just been so much, but that is proving to take a bit of time, so I'm just going to get posted what I've got uploaded so far. So after this post keep watch for many more birthday posts.

Birthdayapolloosa actually started in June. Since Kaden and Jase's birthdays fall over the 4th of July it's hard to get friends together for a party, because everyone is out of town or busy. So I planned ahead this year and actually got both boys together with their friends and did individual parties. I loaded up as many of Kaden's friends as I could fit in the back of the car and we blasted Poison on the stereo on our way to McDonald's for lunch. It was so fun to hear the boys trying to sing along and watch them bob their heads to the beat. I was pumped to share Poison's legacy with a new generation.

After 5 double cheeseburgers, 20 chicken Mcnuggets, a monster pile of fries and probably a gallon of soda the boys were full and we headed down the road to go skating. Wait...these pictures aren't of skating....yeah, because no one told me the stinking skating rink wasn't open during the day! How lame! It's summer, you would think they would be open, but apparently not. So we busted over to the bowling alley instead. The first 4 frames were ridiculous. It was literally like trying to herd cats to get the boys to all bowl. They would take their turn and then something shiny would catch their eye and they were off wandering around the bowling alley. Finally I wrangled them all together and they had a great time bowling.

Gage (who I just adore, because he reminds me of my brother when he was little) was so cute when he bowled. He would move his arms and body the way he wanted the ball to go. I think it worked!

Brenner was pretty interested in watching the scores come up on the screen and kept me informed of who was winning.

Gage's attempts to straighten the ball out finally paid off and he bowled 2 strikes in a row!

I think Isaiah had bowled before, because he completely dominated the game.
Kaden did pretty well too. I think bowling was certainly designed for boys. What's not fun about throwing a heavy ball and trying to destroy the neatly set up pins at the end of the lane?

The final score. Nice work boys!
After bowling I took the boys to a park to run around for a while. I had wanted to get pictures of Kaden opening his presents, but while I was figuring out where to take the boys because the skating rink was closed the boys helped Kaden tear open his gifts. Boys! Kaden's friends were all very generous and it was clear they each know him pretty well, because he got all of his favorite things. What a great day it was.
Jase's party was a bit more low key. Jase only wanted his two "bestest" friends to come. Again I picked the boys up and took them to McDonald's for lunch. Because these boys are 5 they were completely content to eat their Happy Meals, play in Playland for 2 hours and eat ice cream. It was actually a really relaxing afternoon for me. When we left Mickey D's I asked them if they wanted to go with me to wash the car and of course they did. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a car wash so much. They all giggled and laughed the entire time. I'm not sure what was so funny, but something sure tickled them.
We then came back to our house to have some cupcakes and soda and open presents.
Jase had been dying the entire time to open his gifts, but like a mean old mom I made him wait. And he was not disappointed. The boys played with Jase's new present for a while and then we took everyone home. The parties were a great way to kick start the birthday festivities.