Birthday Bonanza Begins

It's arrived. The "Birthday Bonanza" as I like to call it. It's Nathan's birthday season. He started this years marathon with a well attended, noisy and chaotic party at McDonald's. We went to the one with the giant playplace and the private party room for rent. They provide the cake, ice cream and happy meals for the kids. Plus stickers, crowns and lots of fun. We'd let them run for a while, then presents and dinner, then run, then cake and ice cream, then run until your parents get here.

Nathan invited 13 friends (counting sister & brother) and 12 could make the party. He was very sweet about his gifts. I had given him the lecture on getting duplicate gifts. You just say thank you, not, "I already have this one." We talked about how every present is great, even if it's not your favorite. And I mentioned that his friends want him to be happy with his gift, so he should be kind in all his words. Guess he took it to heart. He starts with a Cars (Lightning McQueen) super bouncy ball. He says, "I have lots of bouncy balls--but a lot are missing now (mom's note---maybe mom filches them and donates them when we have too many)--but I don't have ANY Cars balls and I love this." It went on from there. Every single present had a running commentary on how he likes it or how he has something similar, but this is better because... He got two more Webkinz, a Cheeky Monkey, "Now I have one just like my brother and I'll name mine Banana," and a Tye-Dye Frog (it's brand new and hard to find for those of you who wanted to know). "I have a Tree Frog Webkinz, but I love this new frog. I named my other frog Jumpy so I'll call this one Jump."

The best part is at the end when he wants to go into the playplace and I want him to say goodbye to each guest as they leave. The McDonald's worker created the compromise here by having Nathan announce his thanks to the whole group before going to play. I helped prompt him to expand his "Thanks" to "Thank you for coming to my party. Thank you for my presents, I liked all of them." To which he added, "Except for my brother, Andrew, he didn't give me a present."

All I hear is, "I'm keeping score and you, my dear brother, get a big old goose egg." Sean told me when he heard all of this after the party had ended (he was helping Rebekah get out of the playplace when Nathan gave his speech) that what Nathan was actually trying to say was, "Thank you for coming and for the gifts---execept I can't thank you for your gift Andrew since you didn't give me one (and mom said to say thanks, but how can you say thanks if there is nothing to thank somebody for?!?!), but I'm still glad you came to the party." When Sean explained it to me in Nathan-think, I liked it a lot better.

By the way, Andrew & Rebekah had a gift for Nathan, but we ended up skipping it because the food came when he was finishing opening the friends' gifts. Thought it would be easier to wait until we were home so the kids could eat and play.

I've posted a few photos of our first party on the Birthday Bonanza. More parties and pictures to come...