I love birthday parties!

Last night was the party that wouldn't stop! You know that kids' song (it's from a show that P & L used to watch as little girls), "This is the song that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend. Some people, started singing it not knowing what it was, and they'll continue singing it forever just because...this is the song that never ends..." You get the idea. :)

It started out with cosmic bowling in the afternoon with my most favorite people in the world and some incredible new friends too! I'm pretty sure that the kids scored better than some of us grown-ups. We took some really great pictures ~ although P & L hogged the camera most of the time. (Anyone want to donate camera batteries for a worthy cause?) Like my friend Angie said, time to invest in a charger with some rechargeable batteries! Honestly, P & L have more than enough energy to power up a camera...how could I get that one to work, hmmmmmm?

The younger kids had the bumpers put up and Claire quite perfected the skill of making the bowling ball appear to be in a pin-ball machine. :) Then, the kids decided they were hungry and all changed their names on the score-board to "I WANT CAKE!" Ha! Such a sense of humor, those kids. Of course, not to be out-done, the younger ones took it upon them selves to change their names too. It came out something like this: "lkfjg'oagjal" Between the antics of taking funny-faced pictures and changing all the names, we were quite entertained by the kids! Too bad none of them got along or were having a good time. ;)

By the time bowling was finished, we were all getting hungry! We headed over to Keone & Angie's house for pizza ~ and cake. The kids were already so wound up, I don't know what we were thinking was going to happen after they had cake and candy from the pinata! Fortunately the Liddels have a trampoline and a big play structure. That worked off some of the excitement...or did it?! How many kids can you fit on a trampoline? I think they broke the record for sure! (At least they didn't break anything else)

Let me explain something about this particular birthday party. When an intelligent and successful man turns 40, but deep inside he's like a kid who never grew up, what kind of theme do you have? You give him an X-MEN birthday! That sure did surprise Erik! And it's not easy to do, we can tell you that ~ he's so good at figuring things out. We all had to work together for this one to happen; everyone's kids were in on it. They did so good, too!

The pizza was fantastic, but then, pizza always is. Thank you Keone & Angie for picking that up for us! And loads of thanks to Buni for making a way for this whole celebration to happen - we love you! While I'm thanking people, everyone should know that my favorite sister-in-law, Dalia (well, she is my only sister-in-law!) gave us the recipe for the most incredible cake and frosting made from scratch you'll ever taste. I guess it helps that she's a beautiful young woman from a wonderful Romanian family. When it comes to baking, you can't get any better than the Marincus women! Thank you Dalia! :)

It was almost dark outside by the time we hung up the pinata for the kids. It's kind of a bummer nowadays, because the pinatas are all made with ribbons to pull. What ever happened to taking a baseball bat and whacking the thing? Oh well, the kids took turns pulling the ribbons until finally Paige picked the right one and candy came pouring out onto the ground. The kids literally PILED on top of each other reaching for the goodies! More sugar...what were we thinking?!

By this time, it was dark enough to go inside and start up the RockBand game. Who knew we had so many musicians for friends? :) Claire and Brooke started out on the drums with Olivia on the guitar and Erik singing (he did great!). What's so nice about this game is the kids can all get a chance to play something or sing. It's probably their new favorite!

So, the party that began at 3:30, was finally over at 11 o'clock. Everyone there had such a good time. What's really special for me, is that in our circle of family and close friends, we have 5 birthdays in 5 weeks ~ after yesterday it's one down and four to go. I love birthday parties!!!