Wow - 9 years old!

TJ's is turning 9 this year.  He even has the look of a solid grown-up kid, on the cusp of the tween years.  Right now, he refuses to let me cut his hair, except for around the ears.  He reminds me of some of those actors from the 80's - I think he has Kirk Cameron hair.  (You know, the teenage heart throb from Growing Pains?)

Well, a date for his birthday party snuck up on us, since we will be out of town the last two weekends of May.  So, we scrambled to put together a small party at a new place called the Gaming Preserve, which basically is like an old arcade from the mall, again from the 80's, with all the old time games as well.  You know, like Joust, Ms. Pac Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong, even Skeeball!...best part is, you pay one entry fee, and then you never have to put a quarter in the machine!  So, we headed there with 5 of TJs friends and could barely drag the kids out of there almost 3 hours later.  They could barely focus on the pizza or cake.

Mikayla found herself the perfect game.  (Skeeball didn't work out so well, with the balls ending up all over the floor.)  She kept sitting in this little truck, and it had a bucket of tokens sitting in it.  Too bad we didn't realize that the tokens were to make it work until 20 minutes before we had to go.  I could just never imagine how much of a thrill it is for a 3-yr old to insert a token to make the truck move over and over and over again.

The party was so last minute, that I didn't even get to plan enough ahead to come up with a theme.  I was just going to let TJ pick out a dozen pre-made cupcakes at Kroger.  When he finally got out of bed at 10:30 that day, and told him we needed to go to the store to pick out the cupcakes, he was very upset and said he HAD to have a theme.  Uh oh.  Ok...did you have something in mind?  Basketball.  Specifically, a "picture of a kid shooting a ball into a net."  Ok - that seems easy enough.  Let me call the Kroger bakery real quick.

After being overly friendly to the bakery lady, who was overly friendly back, she told me she had only one basketball picture, and it was of a "kid shooting a basketball," with "Nice Shot" in the background.  I figured it was for winning a big game or something, but I was crossing my fingers that TJ would approve.  Add a quick "Happy Birthday TJ" in orange frosting and it would instantly become a birthday cake.  If he didn't like this picture, I did not have a plan B.  So, we went in to take a look.  One hour later, we walked out with a beaming kid who was thrilled with his basketball cake.

I guess I've set a bit of a precedence with themed birthday parties for my kids, but I'm glad if they appreciate it and think that is special, and that they would miss it if they didn't have it!  Sometimes I think we don't have many of those family traditions; and some of my best memories as a kid are around the traditions and coming to appreciate and expect them with a slightly different twist each year.  (On a side note, Party City has a ton of basketball party supplies, thank goodness, because not like there was time to order anything online!)

 

Last but not least, the day after his birthday, (and once Dad got home to help celebrate) TJ got a new BMX bike and dad brought home some donuts all the way from VooDoo donuts in Portland, OR.  Wow!  I think Dad had a hard time choosing which ones to get...