Surviving the Birthday Party

Friday was a big day for us. First off, it was the BIG day, the day of my eldest son's 13Th Birthday party.

We have never really been able to have his party at home before because it has always been much to small to accommodate that many children all at once.

Since our move to the new house, however, we hoped to be able to arrange a sleep-over for his party.

I very cautiously made out his invitations on the computer a week ahead of time and gave them to him to hand out to his friends at school the next day.

By the next Monday, RSVP calls starting rolling in. I was so excited that someone would actually be able to come to the party for once!

Because Bregon's birthday falls during the week of Thanksgiving each year, people are usually out of pocket and have a difficult time finding time to come to his parties.

This year, I planned a little ahead, and asked my fellow Red River Mom's what type of party and time-frame would be best for my son's age-group.

I was able to get all sorts of helpful advice and ideas on everything that really helped me to plan everything out!

I would like to thank all of the ladies on the RedRiverMoms.com for all of their advice on putting this together!

All in all, we only had one friend not be able to make it and that was because he was having to fly out to his Dad's for Thanksgiving.

All the of the little boys were excited about getting to come over and they planned and plotted all week which games they would bring and trade at the party.

On the very same Friday, I ended up buying a mini-van from a friend of the family who was getting a new car.

It ended up that we met at my house right before the party started to get everything signed and the deal sealed.

I had a pretty new minivan sitting in front of my house, and all of Bregon's friends (save 1) coming over within an hour!

Bregon very diligently stayed with the babies while I signed paperwork.

He caught the flying food from the babies dinner and somehow managed to keep the living room picked up & devoid of the babies' toys.

I was very distracted with the idea that I had this new toy parked in front of my house and couldn't even begin to check it out.

I don't know how I was able to think enough to get ready for the part, but somehow I managed to get the cake topper out of it's package and on to the top of the cake without any problem, and even remembered that I needed to set out the food.

In a rush, I managed to get all of the hot dogs and buns and chips set out just in time. I even remembered plates and napkins!

Over all, the party was a smash. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time trading and playing video games in our living room and playing with the bopper swords in the backyard.

We brought down all of the televisions in the house and set them up in the living room so that they could all play games at the same time on different systems if they wished.

Nobody dropped any flaming hot dogs or marshmallow goo on the floor at all. The rug is safe for another party!

Bregon's best friend managed to somehow stay up ALL NIGHT LONG only to fall dead asleep about the same time as the babies were waking up.

It was funny because the babies had gone to sleep before the boys had arrived for the party so they didn't even notice that anything was going on differently until that morning when they all came down for breakfast.

Kian so wanted to be a big kid that he attempted to slide under the baby gate and follow the big boys upstairs.

We had a few tears, but I knew that cake and ice cream would make everything better.

Yes, I actually gave the babies cake and ice cream. It was early in the morning and I figured that one little tiny sugar rush wouldn't hurt anything!

Somehow, we all survived the slumber party. Bregon and his friends are already planning the next get-together!