Doodlebug Birthday!!

Last year we had the Mad Scientist party, but this year Doodlebug decided that his 9th Birthday was to be celebrated with a sleepover birthday party with his best friends. We went ahead with the planning, and what better date than Friday the 13th?

I failed in my mission as a recordkeeper and blogger since I didn't get a single photograph of the event - couldn't find my camera..... So I will just have to give a brief synopsis of the events.

The guests - 4 boys - were dropped off in the late afternoon, and we piled into Bertie Bus and went for a game of ten-pin bowling. We had two lanes, and the kids all had a blast. One group finished quite quickly and we started watching the boys in the other lane.

Lesson learned: "Do not take your eye off the ball" or, more to the point, balls... One enterprising guest decided to start his own game of bowling, by bowling all the balls from the rack down the empty lane, and he'd rolled about 8 down there before we noticed. The attendant was very helpful... I am nursing the hope that we're not the only ones to have caused a pile-up.

Next lesson learned: "Check dietary requirements of guests". I'd checked for allergies, but had completely missed the vegetarian, who also happened to be a very fussy eater. At home we had stacks of pizza waiting, but not even the plain cheesy one was tempting him. However, we aim to please, and Peter made him the meal of his choosing - a bowl of rice. The other party food we had also helped keep starvation at bay....

The boys had a blast scoffing food and watching a DVD before we sent them all off to bed in the living room for the next stage of the party - Nintendo playing. All boys had brought their DS'es and connected up to each other for a bit of Pokemon battling. After their allotted time, I collected all their consoles and chargers so they could wind down....... Sorry, did I say "wind down"? Doodlebug had been given a joke book as a present, and before long we heard laughing and giggling...... But eventually they started dropping off to sleep and all was quiet.

I thought after the late night they would be sleepy, but at the crack of dawn, they all went and reclaimed their consoles and continued playing in bed until the breakfast hunger pangs became too strong to ignore. It was a wonderful low-maintenance sort of celebration and the kids had a blast.