Immeasurably More: Aaargh Matey!

As many of you know, our two children's birthdays happen to fall 16 days apart in the month of August. For the last couple of years, we have celebrated their birthdays with family and friends in a joint celebration over Labor Day weekend. For months now (my kiddos start planning and scheming for their birthday parties FAR in advance), T and Z have been collaborating and thinking up what their party for this year should be like. At the end of the school year, though, T was invited to a trio of "friend" parties for little boys in his preschool class. This planted a new idea in his head and around early June, he started asking if he could have a "friend party with no grown-ups". I told him we would wait and see, thinking that his interest in this idea would fade as summer progressed and the friend parties were not so fresh in his memory. But alas, I was mistaken, and T continued to request a "friend" party for when he turned six. So, after some discussion, we decided to allow him to invite three of his buddies to join us for a small birthday bash at Grand Slam (a mini golf, lazer tag, bumper car, arcade, indoor play area place near us). T chose a pirate theme for his party, which coincidentally went along quite nicely with the pirate themed mini golf and play area at our location of choice :). We mailed out some pirate invitations and to say that T was excited is an understatement. He routinely counted down the days to his "friend party" each morning at breakfast. And yesterday, the big day finally arrived!

Here are T and his three buddies getting ready for their first round of mini golf. None of them had ever played the game before so the excitement level was quite high. They were great!

Much to her delight, Z also got to join in on the fun (last night when my mom was over Z told her that she had been to Grant's Land that day - who knew my nephew had his own land)!

Here are the golfers with their best pirate faces :)

Following their round of 18 holes, the boys (and Z) headed over to the Play Zone where they shot off some cannons (loaded with foam balls) as they tried to defend their ship. This area was also a hit!

After such an intense battle, these pirates were ready for some grub. So, we headed into the party room for pizza, which was then followed by cake.

After cake, T opened the gifts from his friends before they headed off for more adventures (the arcade, bumper cars, and another round of mini golf).

All in all, it was a great day! I decided a party of four little boys (and one littler sister) was the perfect size for me :). And it was a lot of fun to watch T have fun with his friends. When we got home, T told me it was the best party of his whole life. No small compliment coming from Mr. Party Boy.