Jared's 9th Birthday Party!

I booked the clubhouse for Jared's 9th birthday party. It was so great to not have to clean up the house for company, or to have a bunch of kids undo all that work in 5 minutes.

I found a tablecloth for a quarter on the clearance rack. When Jared said, "I guess I need to decide what kind of party I want," I said, "Well, what do you think about this?" His eyes got huge. Aliens! And they're very bright. So we went with Neon Aliens.

One of the moms volunteered to help out. She met the posse at the school and they all walked over to the party together. Of course, the first thing was feeding them. One of Jared's friends said, "This is the perfect party. Pizza, chips, and soda! Nothing's healthy!"

 

As they finished eating, kids went to the cupcake bar. We had yellow and chocolate cake batter that they scooped into a mini-cupcake baking appliance, and lots of things they could mix in.

While those baked, the kids played a game that involved letting balloons fly all over the room.

After the cupcakes cooled, the kids decorated them! The one with the candle is Jared's. The rest show just how crazy these boys went with the frosting and toppings!

Yikes! That's a lot of stuff! Think there's even a cupcake under there?

This kid is a goofball. We invited his whole family. He was threatening to catapult a white chocolate chip at me.

And then he photobombed. Awesome.

A two-balloon salute. They released them when Jared blew out the candle.

Then on to the presents!

Alien Autopsy. Grossss! It's a mold for making gummy candy shaped like dead alien body parts. Jared looks pleased!  This boy also recited an original poem just for Jared.

A wooden building set with four projects!

Sugar rush!!!

Origami, too? Wow, his friends really know him! And they're all just like him, interested in chemical reactions and such.

I got to give Jared a baking soda and vinegar rocket...

...and a Batman Lava Lamp! The boys fell asleep watching floating black blobs of black wax tonight.

Another mom helped me clean up, and we were out of there a half hour later. I am so grateful! I was exhausted by the end. Luke started getting excited about the party at about 11 am, so he was excited for 7 hours straight. He was crying pitifully by the time we got home, and immediately ran to his room and got his pajamas! It was only 6:30!  But he recovered and decided to watch a movie before bed while I had a chance to recouperate.

This is a very blurry picture, because I didn't want the flash to break up this moment of camaraderie between these two boys. They butt heads often, so images like this are precious reminders that under everything, they still love each other. Especially when discussing how to make edible alien guts.