Shane had a choice: Presents or party. He chose a party this year!
I emailed his whole soccer team and a couple of other friends. I invited them to an "End of Season + Birthday Bash" (Which worked since all the rain outs pushed our final game to December 1st...).
Anyway, I tried to organize people and I bought tickets for Jump for 10 kids. I'd hoped to have more kids bouncing around, but I felt pretty good about getting that many.
I felt less good about walking out the door in sandals. I'd put them on quickly to take out the trash and forgot to switch to shoes when I rushed Shane out the door!
That's something you have to laugh at. "Hey Shane, remember when I said 'Haste makes mistakes?" I asked. "Well, Dad was in a rush and made a mistake!"
We got there nice and early. Shane was excited out of his mind. He would have run down cars in the parking lot to open doors if I let him.
John met us there, so I had a friend to talk to in between greeting parents and checking kids in. Nine of the ten tickets I bought got used.
The kids scattered. I made sure I was visible, but I'd be lying if I said I knew where everyone was at any given moment. The kids recognized me from soccer, so they ran up if they had any troubles.
I walked around the corner with John and spotted a pair of the kids on the obstacle course.
Harrison and Hayden.
I tried to get them both in a shot to send to their parents to amuse myself.
Shane showed up and saw me watching the obstacle course.
I almost had a great shot of him, but someone's face got in the way. It's a busy place.
Carrie showed up halfway through! There was a funeral procession downtown holding up traffic.
She'd made peanut butter cup and mint chocolate chip cupcakes for everyone.
We sang "Happy Birthday" and called it a party! It was only an hour of jumping, but the kids seemed pretty tired.
Plus, they got to stare at video games they had no money to play.
The directions said the guns on the Jurassic park game were tranquilizers, but Sam's mom pointed out the explosions of feathers and blood indicated otherwise!
Shane ended the day with a final ninja warrior run.
Which isn't much different from what he does in the parking lot.
Free entertainment is free.
John asked to drop by the game store on the way home. We bumped into one of my wrestlers Shane knew.
I told them to go outside to roughhouse.
And they did.
We opened presents when we got to the house.
John basically outdid Christmas this year.
I can't top a mini-SNES. Shane's attention span is so small I can put something new in front of his face and it will be "the best thing ever," but I'll know it doesn't compare!
"The best reason to have a kid is to play with Legos." -John McG
We were bummed when John had to head out. I'll convince him to spend the night in our guest room one day.
BONUS: Shane's been wanting to put up our Christmas lights, so we finished the night with them.
Shane helped.
The bad news: One of our light strings was dead. That limited coverage.
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