Motorcycles & A Mouse

Jayden had his 3rd birthday party last Saturday, December 11th. Ever since his daycare friend, Jerilynn, had her party there back in May, Jayden has been BEGGING us to have his birthday there and play. I always told myself that once he got to the age where he could tell me that he wanted to do something specific for his birthday party (venue, theme, whatever...) that we would listen and try our hardest to deliver. He LOVED his party as did the other kids. We tried to keep it small due to the cost especially around Christmas, but he's got lots of family and lots of friends so we ended up having quite a few people there both adults and children alike. His Harley Davidson motorcycle theme was a definite hit with him as he LOVES motorcycles right now. We had lots of pizza, soda, cake, & ice cream in addition to a show birthday show with Chuck E Cheese and lots of playtime for the kids. Jayden even got to go in their "Ticket Blaster" since he was the "birthday boy"... now there's a story there if you want one.

They shut you in this tube thing and there's tickets that blow upwards from the floor that you can catch. You then can "cash" the tickets in for goodies & prizes. They put the goggles on for Jayden and started it up... he just sat there with a blank look on his face like "What the heck am I supposed to be doing??". We kept telling him to grab at the tickets but he was still unsure. Then all of a sudden he just got totally freaked out, slammed himself up against the plexiglass, and started crying. Obviously they let him out but I have to say that it was actually kind of funny. Aaron got it on video on his phone so if I can ever get my hands on it, I'll share it with you. He got some "courtesy" tickets and then went back to his business... as did everyone else. Trying to open gifts was crazy and at one point we just decided we'd take them home and open them there as people were leaving or off playing and we just couldn't track them down. Jayden apparently had something else in mind and started right in to the presents anyway. He's definitely got the whole opening gifts thing down so Christmas should be a sight to see. :)

Let me just say this... as nice as it was not worrying about it being at my place or someone else's home where we need to clean and decorate, I'm not sure I'm ready for another party at Chuck E Cheese anytime soon. Trying to organize and corral a bunch of kids to do cake & presents when I'm 8 months pregnant is a disaster and I know I turned into an evil, hormonal basket-case at some point. Not to mention that Aaron and I dropped over $200 on his party. My advice?? Unless you have a small group of people, I'd wait until the kids are a little older for a Chuck E Cheese party. I'd be more than happy to host a party at my place to save myself a few hundred bucks and some gray hairs around the holidays. :)

Despite it not being as enjoyable for me, Jayden loved it and that's all that matters. Here are some pictures from our chaos-filled birthday adventure...

Miscellaneous party pictures

Jayden in the now "infamous" Ticket Blaster

His Harley cake

PRESENTS!!