Sunday - May 22nd
Linda and Dave brought all of their fun party stuff over for us to have a big party. Setting everything up was really surprising to me. When I imagined how much room 8 tables would take up and how much room the bouncy house would need, I imagined that they would take up a lot more space. I guess I just didn't realize how large our yard really is. I love that we had so much room. It was lots of fun. Kristy came early, so we could hang out and let the kids play for a while. She was going to have to leave a little early and our kids don't get to see each other that often. I'm glad that they got to have some more time together.
I was surprised also, by how fast we got things set up. Linda, Dave, and my dad are pretty good at the quick set up of all this stuff. These first pictures were taken as we were getting things ready.
I was pretty busy during the party, so I didn't get to take a ton of pictures. I asked a couple people who were at the party to share the pictures they took, so I could have some more. I have a ton of pictures that were taken in the photo booth. I just haven't taken the time to scan them yet.
The party was really fun. Lots of people showed up.
Roger and Dan cooked all the food. Dave brought his big grill so we could cook a lot at a time.
The bumper balls were the biggest hit of the night. Everybody had a ton of fun with those.
Parker got lots of fun gifts. This is his new Minecraft bow and arrow. He loves it!
I made a ton of cupcakes instead of a large cake. It was much easier this way. Everybody loved them. We didn't have any cupcakes left over. Parker has a hard time with too much noise and craziness, so by the time we were ready for cake and ice cream, he was reaching the limit of what he could handle. He was on the bounce house right before we started to light the candles and something made him angry, then he came to help us with the candles and something else upset him, so he ran to his room. I was bummed he didn't get to blow out the candles with Roger, but I should have expected it. I knew this party was going to be hard for him. He really wanted this party, but I think as a rule, we just need to keep the parties shorter for him. He just gets too overwhelmed. Anyway, we couldn't keep the candles lit, because a storm was blowing in. But we lit what we could, sang Happy Birthday, then Roger blew them out.
Eventually, Parker came back out to enjoy cake and ice cream and finish his party. He just needed to take a quick break, listen to music, and calm down for a minute, then he was fine. In the pictures below, Alissa thought it would be funny to run into Roger and try and knock him over. It didn't work. What ended up happening is she bumped into him, he remained still, and she went bouncing backward, and in the process, her glasses broke and fell off her face. She was not thrilled about that.
A big storm came rolling in, so we had to clean up quickly. We were racing to get it all in before the rain hit us. We could see the storm coming and there was lots of lightening. I was surprised by how fast we got it all put away. A bunch of people left when the storm hit. A couple of Roger's friends stayed and came in to hang out for a little while. We sat down stairs visiting and watching Fail Army videos. It was a good time.
