his party.

mikey had such a good time at his friend's bowling party last month that he wanted to have his birthday there, too.  so that's what we did.  we invited his whole class as well as some of his church friends to the party.  picture twenty small kiddos unleashed upon a bowling alley and you might understand why i needed most of this week to recover.  ha ha.

actually, everyone was really good and had a great time.  it was just LOUD.

and mikey had the time of his life.

i love that boy.

the great thing was that the bowling alley provided pretty much everything-- food, entertainment, party supplies, party hosts, set-up before and clean-up after.  all phil and i had to do was bring snacks, the cake, ice cream, and optional goody bags.  and if you know phil, you know that goody bags are NOT merely optional.

they are a must.

and if you know phil, you know that goody bags quickly turn into goody buckets filled with candy, chocolate, water guns, and water slingshots.  oh my.

while phil loves the buying of the goodies, i love the assembling of them.  and the taking pictures of them once they're all ready to go.

we picked mikey up from school and raced over to the bowling alley to get ready for everyone else to arrive.  mikey's friend j. came first.  and before i go any further, i must say that the rest of the pictures are snapshots at best.  i've discovered that trying to be both party host and photog makes me stink at both.  and yet, i still keep trying!

we put chips, strawberries, and grapes on each of the tables to munch on while they bowled.  and apparently, mikey figured he could munch and bowl simultaneously.  (phil also put hand sanitizer on each table which we made them all use repeatedly).

mikey uses his whole body to express himself.  you don't even need to see his face here to know what he's thinking.  am i right?

mikey got to bowl with his best buddies from school.  and it was like pulling teeth to get them to stand still for this picture.  boys.

the girls, on the other hand, actually asked me to take their picture.  the holding of hands was their idea.  girls.

and this is another one of mikey's best buds.

whenever it was any of their turns, the others would all go to add moral support and cheer for each other.  so pretty much, the boys stood and wiggled and played the entire time.

mikey's best friend, t.  i love how affectionate they are.

mikey really likes his friend, m.  mikey always tells me how m. is so big he can even pick mikey up!  little does he know that m. is a year younger than he is.  sigh.

one of the kids' older sister also came and was a lifesaver because of this.  i pretty much didn't see or need to hold lauren during the whole party.  i love big sisters!

after an hour of bowling, it was time to line up to go upstairs to the party room.

this is when s. (on mikey's right) said, "this is the best party EVER!!!"

and this is when s. gave mikey a big ol' bear hug and said, "THANKS for inviting me!!!"

"who wants cheese pizza?"

and this is why my ears are still ringing-- twenty small kids, each armed with a party horn, all enclosed in a party room.  phil's idea. 

i had meant to get a family picture, but of course i forgot.  so this was the best i could do.  and i'm not in a single picture from that day.  not entirely a bad thing though.   ; P

getting a peek at the birthday cake.  this was the only lame part-- the party hosts lit the candles while the cake was here in the corner instead of taking it over to mikey first.  so mikey had to go stand here by the cake while everyone else was back at the table  and sang to him.  i was videotaping it, but it happened so fast i didn't get a single picture of it.  and mikey's back was to us anyway.  so no one really got to see the cake before it was cut up and served.  argh.

here's the cake that no one saw.  : p

but besides that, the party was a big hit!  happy birthday to my awesome little guy!  i love you more than you know.  :)