It's a Belated Birthday, Charlie Brown!

In 2010, we promised each of our kids that they could have a big birthday party - we're kind of doing an every-other-year kind of thing.  With Hi-Hat's birthday falling at the end of the year, that meant his party would be pushed int0 2011.  We went back and forth with ideas - lazer tag at Frankie's, movie and sleepover, and my personal favorite - the carnival midway experience in our basement.  I was so excited about this idea. I was envisioning popcorn and cotton candy machines, carnival games, gigantic inflatable animal prizes strung up by the ceiling, Midway mania on the Wii, a funnel cake birthday cake, hot dogs, face painting. . . yeah - I had put a little thought into that.  When Hi-Hat got wind of this idea, he kind of rolled his eyes and said that was a baby party.  Not cool, Mom.  I guess we've reached that point with an 8-year-old.  So, the whole party idea in general got put on the back burner through Christmas and New Year's, and Geof and I kind of wondered if maybe he wouldn't remember that he had not had a birthday party.  Maybe we could get away with an "oh, did we not do that this year?" and then plan another big party for next year.  Not so much.  He remembered a few weeks ago.  So when Fancy came home with an invitation to a sleepover at a friend's house, we thought that night would be a good night to have a house full of 8-year-old boys (in retrospect, I'm not sure that is ever a good idea.  Kidding! Kidding!).  It was a very last minute affair, with home-made invitations going out on email on Monday for a party on Friday, so I was thinking that if just 2 or 3 could come, that would be perfect.  As it turned out, every boy we invited was able to attend.  Hi-Hat was thrilled and could not wait for Friday night!

So I'm thinking 6 boys, 4 hours . . . I needed some structure.  Hi-Hat's plan for the evening was for everyone to bring their Nerf guns and just have a Nerf gun/Wii/Charlie Brown viewing event.  He wasn't too interested in games or prizes or structured activity.  Again, he's 8.  He just wanted to hang out with the guys and be wild.  Now, I KNOW from experience just how wild things can get here at my house when groups of children get together.  Ahem, date night.  I'm just sayin'... :) So I needed a little structure for my own sanity.  I planned the event as follows: play time outside, scavenger hunt for goodie bags, pizza dinner, opening gifts (because NObody does this at parties with their guests anymore and my kids always complain.  I complain too!  It's fun!), cupcakes and ice cream sundaes (butched up by letting the boys add marshmallows to their sundaes using the marshmallow shooters from across the kitchen), balloon popping game, Nerf dart game, Peanuts cartoon viewing, and Nerf battle.  Sounds like plenty!  Um - that lasted about 2.5 hours.  But no worries! Turns out that a bunch of boys with Nerf guns and two flights of stairs can happily entertain themselves for hours!  Hi-Hat was loving every minute of it, and I'll admit that although it was loud and fast and busy, it was fun to see my usually quiet and mellow boy being rambunctious and, well, boyish.  I'm sure most moms of boys live with this every day. :)

On to the pictures.

 Table decorations - had to do it myself since nobody carries Charlie Brown-themed party supplies around here.

The pinata had to stay upside down to dry completely, and then I had to carve a hole in the bottom to stuff it with all the goodies.  Then I covered the hole with a paper plate and disguised that with a yellow paper shirt collar.

Our Peanuts cupcakes - with a Linus cupcake for Hi-Hat and an extra football cake since Lucy always dupes Chuck into trying to kick off the ball.  The pinata was a bit of a project, but well worth it in the end.  Thanks for the idea SB!

 Pizza dinner - lots of joke telling for most of the meal.  The sundaes served as targets for hungry boys with marshmallow shooters. :)

Boys can eat a lot of pizza!

Cake time!

 Balloon popping game - there were 80 inflated balloons in the basement, each with a slip of paper inside.  I had written point values on the slips of paper, and it was a a relay race to see which team could pop the most balloons and collect the most points.  This was loud and crazy and really fun!  Poor Hi-Hat (the drummer, mind you, who should be ok with loud noise) wore earplugs and cringed every time he had to pop a balloon.

 Can you see the different in approach between Hi-Hat and his friend?  Too funny.

More balloon popping and Nerf gun target practice

Team target practice and medals for the winners

 It only took three hits to crack open Chuck's head.  The picture on the left was after the second whack, and the third sent goodies flying!

Nerf darts, army guys and gum.  What more could a guy ask for?

Poor Chuck.

Then we had some down time with the boys watching a few Peanuts cartoons that Hi-Hat had picked out.

 And then the Nerf battle started.  Boys were running up and down and up and down and up and down. It was literally all a blur.

There IS a kid in the photo on the left.  He was just fast!

And Hi-Hat rounded out the evening with an impromptu drum concert - to calm things down as parents arrived.  He was pleased to drum for his friends, and I think the boys were pretty interested in Hi-Hat being able to perform a few songs.

And with that, the party ended.  Hi-Hat was beaming and thrilled and said it was exactly what he wanted.  This party was exactly why I love me some home birthday parties!