Turtle Turns 8!

Turtle turned 8 about a week ago! For me, it is bittersweet. I'm so excited to see how mature and grown up he's becoming in his little own way. But it's sad to realize that yet another year has slipped quickly away, never to return. I miss my little boy of the past as much as I enjoy the big boy I now have.

Since it's his 8th birthday, we let him have a party. We were thinking of doing a slumber party with 2 kids, but his friends don't do sleepovers, so we decided on Chuck E. Cheese instead. Now, the main reason we chose Chuck E. Cheese was that I don't have time to put together a home party while doing student teaching. Home parties are cheaper, but a lot more work. He also wanted to do the ticket blaster at Chuck E. Cheese.

So Turtle got to invite 5 friends to come to his party. The first concern (after doing invites) was how on earth was I going to do a cake. The party was on Friday and I was busy every night before then with something or another. I told Turtle his cake would be plain this year. Usually I make fun decorated cakes, but I couldn't imagine trying to do that this year. He wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I told him I could do something extra with the cake and he decided we would put marachino cherries in it.

Then I was at Wal-mart to get supplies and lamenting the fact that I had no time to do a cool cake when I decided to look for little Mario figures so I could make a Mario cake, but none were to be found. Instead, I came across some Angry Bird Mash-em's! So, I was able to do a fun, creative, but simple cake. It was a surprise and I wish I had gotten a picture of his face when he finally saw it!

 While we waited for the pizzas, the kids played games all over the place! Marshmallow had fun with her dad, and I even caught some of the boys together for a bit!

    

 

After games, we managed to keep most of the kids at the table for short bursts of time. They had fun though, so I can't complain.

Then it was time for Chuck E. Cheese to come out. I'm not sure if Turtle was scared or not.

 
 This was pretty much the standard issue turtle face for the evening. He never looked like he was having fun if the camera was present...

 You can see how much he's enjoying the party here:

 

Then it was time for gifts. He got lots of cool presents from his friends, his grandparents, and from his sister.

 

Marshmallow's gift was a Nerf sword. It was the hit of the party. Here's Turtle and a couple of his friends playing with his swords!

 

His birthday actually happened 2 days later and we celebrated with a present and root beer floats. I never knew there were so many ways to eat a root beer float.