Nate's Minecraft Party

We celebrated Nate's 8th birthday on Saturday, with a party at Off The Wall in Birmingham. Now, this was something we've never done.....ask guests to drive an hour away to a party. So, we decided to keep the guest list short - a few classmates, a few neighbors, a sister :) - and told parents we'd be happy to chaperone. Here was our van on the way to the party:

Jack, Nate, Mason, and a whole bunch of balloons!

 

We had never been to Off The Wall before, but a friend recommended it and it looked great from the pictures online. It had everything....ball pits, arcade, rock wall, obstacle courses, slides, an indoor jungle gym, rope climb, and bouncy houses.

The roller slide was a favorite

Those chicken legs are strong!

Abby got to invite one friend and she picked our next-door neighbor, Kate

As usual, I a *little* carried away with all the décor. I love doing this stuff! Nate told me his favorite things from the video game, and I was off & running......(and pouring over Pinterest!)

#love him

After an hour of playtime, we settled in for pizza & snacks. These boys were sweaty and hungry!

Nanny & Poppy have yet to miss a party!

He always gets embarrassed/shy when we sing "Happy Birthday".....

Telling me what he wished for :)

Love these ladies!

Someone enjoyed her cupcake :)

After lunch, we gave each kid a bag with $3 worth of quarters for the arcade. You would have thought it was $100; they were so excited!

Poppy, the ticket master

I love Kate's "game face!"

He racked up!

She did too!

As part of our package, the birthday boy received an additional 800 tickets.
He was soooooo excited to get "big" prizes!

She killed the rock wall!
#wearinggoldshoes

 

It wouldn't be a party if Daddy didn't fall asleep at the end...

Boys with their Creeper goodie bags

Everyone had such a great time and I think it was my favorite party yet! The only bad part was on the drive home.....we ran into major traffic (due to construction), and it took us over 1.5 hours to get home!! We had some restless kids in the car, but we survived. (And we didn't run out of gas, yay!)

 

Nathan Eric Givens.....

you are my favorite 8 year old in the whole world, and I am lucky to call you mine!!