Decade Mark

As hard as it is to believe, Spencer is 10 years old now.  He insisted on having his birthday party on his actual birthday--a Wednesday-- so we ended up having an after school play date and dinner. 
Nana and Boppa rented a bounce house and we fixed all kinds of snacks and made hot dogs. The kids could play/graze whenever they wanted.  We had to take the cake to the front porch to sing Happy Birthday and let Spencer blow out his candles because we couldn't get the kids to stop playing long enough to do "party" things. 

They had the bounce house, the swings/see-saw area by the pool, the field in front of Nana and Boppa's for football games and soccer games---then dart gun wars.  My favorite pictures from the party are the ones of all the little boys playing football (while the little girls finally got time in the bounce house without all the rough-housing!)--Thanks to Laura for being on camera patrol while I was busy with host stuff.

One of the highlights from the party: I had 7 boys in the car whom I had just picked up after school (the rest were dropped off later) and as we drove down the road, they all cheered wildly when they saw the bounce house in the front yard.  My son-- typical Spencer-- turns around from the front seat and announces, "No One gets in the bounce house until our homework is done!"  and yes he was serious!

And although the bounce house was very clean and the people we rented it from were super nice, I will NEVER do it again.  We had more injuries than I can count.  Busted noses, lips, bumped noggins, stepped on ribs, hands, etc.  We kept the bounce house to 8-10 kids (what was recommended) but they kept knocking into each other or bouncing on top of one another. Instead of having candy and toys, this party had treat bags filled with Advil and ice packs.

But, everyone still had fun.  Spencer loved every minute of it and hopefully made lots of great memories.