Speedo's party!!!

Last night we celebrated Erickson's birthday with some of his friends. After always saying that I would never have a party at Chuck E. Cheese's, I finally decided to give in to the pleading little voices and have a party there. I have to admit that it went rather swimmingly and I could see going back again. The kids had a blast and all we really had to do was bake a cake, throw some goody bags together and show up.

My only other experience with planning a birthday party was when Michael turned 6 and we had a pirate-themed party for him down at the park. Let's just say that most everything that could go wrong did -- too many kids, too much over-planning of silly details, a fever-stricken Speedo, a cake that fell apart after it was made which resulted in a 5:30 AM run to Meijers the day of the party to buy everything to make a SECOND cake...the list goes on. It was completely overwhelming and the behind the scenes was such a debacle that it makes me shiver thinking about it. However, I will spare you more of the nasty details and focus instead on the fun of yesterday.

Here are some pictures of the "bert-day boy" and his Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine cake (use your imagination people). Clearly the little characters make the cake, otherwise it looked like his cake was just a conversion van or an ice cream truck. Not my best work, but I am over it - the birthday boy was happy and that was good enough for me. We had a last minute change from Sponge Bob as the boys have been on a Scooby-Doo kick these last few days . I did not realize that that show has been around since 1969???? Crazy. All in all, everyone had a great time and Speedo received some cool gifts. He was especially excited to go home with a "gold" medal with the mouse's face on it (note picture with Chuck E above) and has been wearing it a greater part of the day today.