Party, Party, Party

Gavin's big birthday party at Pump it Up was this morning. We had mostly friends from school and a couple of other family friends join us for the celebration. Gavin told us a long time ago that he wanted a party at Pump it Up with a "Mickey and the Roadster Racers" theme. Which was fine by us, but Gavin is a keep-to-himself kind of guy, and I was real curious about how it would go. I think he's starting to come out of his shell a little bit, though, and it was great to see him have fun with his friends.

Graham holding his own with the big kids.

Gotta love a homemade cake! Not my best, but not the worst, either.

Birthday king!

Graham kicked off his shoes and then dropped his pizza on the floor about three times and kept eating it. NBD.

For this photo, I said "Gavin and Luke, say cheese!" And the only person who said cheese was that precious little photo-bomber up front.

The apple certainly doesn't fall far from the tree because I was very nervous about hosting a party for a bunch of people that I hardly know. Luckily, the parent presence was very dad-heavy. Since Dylan is an expert in socializing, he took care of getting to know everyone while I did the best I could with some small talk with the moms. By the time the party was over, D was able to give me the run-down on where everyone lives and what they do for a living...including the dad who quit his corporate CFO gig to start his own company selling men's underwear. (Uh, so cool!)

In the end, it was a really good thing. After a year at the school, I still felt like an outsider at class events. Now, I feel like I might actually know some of the people and can be friendly with them. Gavin really did have a great time. He spilled his lemonade, which made him sad, and he ate his pizza while sitting on my lap. But other than that, it went off without a hitch! My only regret is that I didn't get a family photo of us in our matching "Gavin is 4!" t-shirts.

I highly recommend Pump it Up for a birthday party. The kids go crazy for it, and the staff makes it super easy for the hosts. They even finished stuffing my party favor bags for me! They forgot to hang the banner that I worked so hard to make, but I'll let that slide. I'm sort of over the Pinterest-perfect birthday parties...and birthday parties in general. If I can bribe my kids with something special for their birthdays other than parties in the future, then I will. But I doubt that will happen. Oh well, I can suck it up a couple times a year!