The Jungle

Yesterday we celebrated Mason's upcoming 4th birthday. There were 8 kids and twice as many adults, since I decided not to do a double party this year. I have always had the kid party first, then invited the family over after for a second party to avoid having the grandparents, aunts, and uncles in the mix of party games and screaming kids. Well this year, we called and booked the party, sent out invitations to everyone, and showed up for the festivities. I didn't have to clean one bit of my house, cook one ounce of food, put together one cuter-than-ever party bag, or decorate one corner of my house. It was birthday party heaven. Sorry kids, there may not be any more house birthday parties for a LONG time.

Anyways, the party was a blast. We let the kids roam the jungle for about an hour. Then, we were corralled into the Monkey Room to enjoy pizza, soda, and cake. We had a lovely Birthday Hostess, Janell, who served the food, cleaned up the plates, cut the cake, helped Mason open his gifts, and neatly packaged them up for us to take to the car. I actually got to sit and watch (and take pictures) of Mason enjoying his day. After the party room, we let the boys go play some more. After Grandma and Nani donated a generous amount of tokens, we had many video games left to play. So coins in hand, we spent another hour riding motorcycles, shooting balls at a clown, slapping alligators on the nose, knocking the airhockey puck around, and basically floating in video game nirvana. After hitting the prize booth (man is it hard to spend 760 points) we headed back to Oakley, with sticky, sweating, exhausted, smelling (but gloriously happy) boys.

In honor of Mason's day, we let him pick out our dinner destination. To my joy, and Shawn's horror, he picked Panera. So, we ended our evening enjoying soup, sandwiches, and salads at one of our favorite eating spots. What a perfect day!