Par-TAY!

Jayden's birthday party was Saturday, September 10. It was at BounceU, which is a bounce house place. It's a pretty popular place for kid birthday parties, and it's so awesome! They do everything for you. I had to show up with the cake, a few decorations and favors. And they did everything else. I loved it. The place has two rooms - the kids get a quick intro and then bounce in one room for about 30-40 minutes, and then in the second room for 30-40 minutes. Then it's in to the party room for lunch and cake. So much fun!

The excitement for the day was overwhelming! But seriously, isn't this the best smile ever?!?

Pre-bouncing Happy Birthday wishes!
(it is SO clear that Jayden does not like being the center of attention. The minute it was over he tried to sit back down and our hostess had to call him back up to the front!)

Dakota tried out the slide a few times, but mostly spent her time in my arms. I almost couldn't straighten my left arm by the end of the party.

Fun on the slides. Apparently they had just waxed the slides, so they were really fast. The kids were flying down them, often right onto the carpet at the bottom. They all loved it.

Slam DUNK!

Lorenzo, Maxwell and Jayden.
Not sure why Jayden's teeth look so ridiculously white in this picture - maybe the flash?

Jayden and his buddy Alexander. They were both at Children's Village until a couple weeks ago when Alexander left for another school. Jayden was pretty bummed about it - he, Alexander and Noah were the "three musketeers" in their classroom. Next year will be an interesting transition. Hopefully we can keep in touch with some of the kids.

Jasmine - her and her brother love the Ninja turtles, so this party was right up their alley and they came dressed for it!

The whole crew - friends and siblings.

Marti and Jasmine's brother (I don't remember his name) are in the circles. In the back row: Jasmine, Emma, Desmond, Nayely, Jayden. In the front row: Kian, Ryan, Lorenzo, Greyson, Bennett, Maxwell, Grant, Alexander, Jackson, Noah, Seena

Missing are Dakota (she screamed if I even tried to put her down) and Emma's little brother who was passed out!

The Ninja Turtle birthday cake. Just from our local grocery store, but it was AWESOME! And it tasted good too, which was a total benefit.

Blowing out the candle!

Greyson wearing a boxing glove as big as he is!

Kian and Seena (and Bard and Jody) drove all the way from Encinitas to celebrate. We tried to get them to come over and play after, but the kids needed to get home. They are true friends.

The table set up. TMNT everywhere!

Donatello, obviously!

The party got a thumbs up - I think that's a win!

It was a really fun party. The only kids who really cried were the littles. The big kids were all awesome, all played together and all wore themselves out. I love having people over, but the amount of work it takes is so much more than having a party somewhere else. I'm hoping I can convince Jayden to have his party off-site for the next few years - just not at Chuck E. Cheese if I can help it! I loved BounceU because it was just Jayden's party in the rooms, so all the kids got to play together for two hours straight. And there was no leaving people out, because everyone was just running around, sliding and being crazy. I also really like Jayden's friends - they are such great kids, and so funny. Some of them even get my sarcasm, which is really just a bonus.

Also, just a quick point - just because it was somewhere else doesn't mean I didn't have any work. Friday afternoon I was running around like crazy, picking up 25+ balloons (of which I lost 4-5 of them trying to get them in the back of my car - oh well!)

I apparently looked so desperate some random woman stopped in the parking lot to see if she could help my stuff balloons in to my car. And when I mumbled something along the lines of "uh - I'm okay," she quietly picked up my sunglasses that I had dropped in the parking lot and went on her way. Yep, that's how "good" it was.

Jayden got a ridiculous amount of presents. He is a very lucky kid. Carmen and I had originally bought a couple more presents, but cut them out because he just didn't need that much stuff. At least Christmas is soon - it means a few less things for me to worry about for him! I actually have two boxes in my closet - one for Jayden and one for Dakota - of presents that they have been given or that I have bought for them, but that have just been too much. I slowly empty the boxes out over the course of the year, but it pretty much always gets filled back up again.

After the party, Carmen said to me that we really need to work on teaching Jayden to be grateful. I have been working on that with him. But he's five. Right now he's materialistic. That doesn't mean we can't try, and I do. I talk to him about how lucky he is, about how all some kids want are socks, or a shirt that fits them, or pajamas - or food! And that sort of blew his mind. I am definitely going to institute a thank you note rule. I think it's actually going to be harder on me than on him, because I will be writing the notes and I'll just make him sign them. But I think it's necessary. What I liked is that Jayden enjoyed the experiences as much as anything, and that's mostly what I want. I want him to understand how important it is to get to have these amazing fun times - and that it would be amazing and fun whether or not presents came afterwards.

And this was just celebration number one. There are 17 more to come! (not actually 17 - but a few more at least!)