The Birthday Party

It's the beginning of birthday party season around here, and we kicked it off last weekend with our friend Trey from playgroup's third birthday. It was held at a local gym, which was genius. I mean, do you know how much energy three year olds have? They don't walk anywhere, they run. It's always a bit of a gift when you can burn up some of that energy in a nice, non-destructive way.

We got there and I realized with horror that not only was my camera not in my purse (where it usually resides), but I had forgotten my phone as well. All of the following photos were taken with my husband's cell phone. I was pretty glad he upgraded it a couple of weeks ago right about then!

I wanted a photo with the birthday boy. Aren't they cute?

As everyone arrived, they were led to a bounce house with a slide. Two of Bubba's very favorite activities on this Earth are jumping (he spends a lot of time in time out for jumping on the couch) and sliding, so this was perfect. No parents were allowed in the gym area, but I don't even think he noticed once he figured out what was going on here.

He's on the slide in the photo. It's like Where's Bubba?

After everyone had arrived and they had jumped for a while, all of the kids were led over to the big mat area. While one of the staff members kind of fruitlessly explained to the wiggly, not paying attention anyway toddlers what they were supposed to do, this is what MY kid was doing:

Yup. So proud. We were watching from a gallery upstairs and I honestly felt so helpless and embarrassed because I couldn't do anything about it. Fortunately, after a couple of minutes a few more boys got up and joined him. It's funny though, because all the little girls stayed sitting and listening nicely on the rug.

Finally they were all allowed up and they proceeded to do laps around the circuit that had been set up for them.

After playtime (which also involved a HUGE trampoline - YESSSSS!!!) was over, all the kids came upstairs for cake. The party had a Thomas the Tank Engine theme. Aren't the decorations cute? I loved the detail of using the wooden tracks to hold the balloons.

That cake was massive, but it was SO GOOD. How cute are the cupcakes too? She even had Thomas cake pops shaped like little trains. My favorite thing though were the drinks - they had juice in plastic soda bottles with custom labels and cute striped paper straws. Right before the kids came in they dropped something (I really need to ask what) into them to make them fizz and smoke. I don't think it was dry ice because he was doing it with his bare hands. It looked really cool though.

After the kids were all properly loaded up on sugar the adults attempted to herd them all together for a photo:

They're not all looking at the camera, but I have to say that I am pretty darn impressed that they are at least all together and facing the same direction! Not bad for a room full of toddlers... or are they considered preschoolers now?

Oh, and yes, my kid is the one flipping the bird. Yay for making Mom proud again, Son!