The Party

We broke with tradition this year - that tradition being that we include a cake in whatever Memorial Day gathering we would be having anyway and call it the boys birthday party.  It's been mostly adults and we have always said "no gifts".  So, this year we had a gift certificate for a party at Jungle Java.  Jungle Java is sweet - picture Panera meets McDonalds playland.  They have an amazing indoor play structure - its spacious and clean and the kids love it.  But they also have lattes and smoothies and really nice salads - healthier food options for kids too.  So, this was our first "kids" birthday party.  It was really fun!  We had 17 kids from different parts of our life and everyone did great.  Being this was the first party like this it was also the first time the boys really got to do the whole presents from their friends thing.  We are well set for the summer!  Outside toys and board games and Star Wars stuff, oh the Star Wars stuff! 
The only downside I can see is that we didn't have a reason to clean our house.  So while we didn't have to clean up the mess (awesome), we did come home to one :)   The boys were up late playing with each and every new item, once they were out of the packaging - yikes!  The packaging makes the new thing so anti-climactic.  The kid is so excited and they are grabbing at it while you are cutting, tearing, unscrewing, etc to get the toy out.  20 minutes later "here is you new toy!".  Oh well, the boys had a blast and slept really well that night!