Nate's "Gaming" Party

I have always told my kids.....once you hit 10 years old, that will be your last BIG birthday party. (After that, we will just celebrate with a small group of friends, do a sleepover, etc.) Well, Nate is turning 10 in just two short weeks, and we had his party on Saturday. We decided to go out with a "bang," and hired a mobile gaming truck to come all the way from Birmingham!! (Because what else do 9-10 year old boys want to do besides play video games?! I assure you....nothing.)

We made sure to take a family pic before everyone got too sweaty :)

My boy.

Since the party was 10-12 pm, we had brunch-y foods like sausage balls, muffins, donut holes, fruit, OJ, etc.

My fave part of parties - the décor!

Nate pulled me aside and said "Mommy! I see a lot of envelopes! That means gift cards!" :)

Abby made this - all on her own - for the party. I loved it!

Since it was an all-boy party, I let Abby invite one girlfriend. She picked our next door neighbor, Kate.

 When the boys arrived, we had them play outside for the first hour. And to no one's surprise, they spent most of the time playing football! #rolltide

My family bought a group present for Nate - a huge 7' by 7' football net with 3 targets. It's called a "QB Trainer," since Nate thinks he's going to be a QB on his new flag football team :)

My best friend, Katie, moved to GA in July and I have missed her terribly!! Plus her adorable daughter Caroline and son Chandler. I was so happy they made the trip back home for Nate's party! Caroline is a hot mess and gets cuter every time I see her.

Another cutie at the party was Baby Thomas! N&P loved holding him, while his boo Caroline showered him with kisses

Trampoline fun!

Nate the acrobat

This pic cracks me up!!! Nate was the ref :)

Football fun in the backyard

Water/food break for these sweaty boys! Evers & Nate

Super mom Katie!

Love these silly boys singing Happy Birthday to Nate

Make a wish!

Finally, the game truck arrived!!!

The boys were in awe of the truck!

(And in the background, you can see the QB Trainer net I mentioned earlier. So cool!)

The birthday boy got to go on the truck first!

He picked his 3 besties to play Madden with

(Mason, Chan, Evers)

The whole gang

(Love the photobomb by Kate & Abby!)

IN THE ZONE!

#zombiefaces

Abby & Kate played "Just Dance" the entire time they were on the truck! (One hour)

#sillypose

It was so funny, once they got off the truck, they all acted like they were blind/it was too bright :)

Twinsies

Evers' dad built Nate a potato canon!!!

Evers & Nate have shot these before - at Evers' house - and were happy to show all the boys how to do it.

(I was scared out of my mind!)

Caroline & Abby raided the goody bags :)

For some reason, the boys thought it would be fun to see who could stick their hand in the ice bucket the longest!

Chandler won, and got $1 from Poppy as his prize :)

Oh, how we miss Chan!!

Nate wanted me to take this picture :)

He said he was pretending to play on the controller !

Nanny & Poppy with their #1 grandson

Nate racked up!! :)

I cannot believe my "baby" boy will be turning TEN in under 2 weeks. Hard to believe he's been in our life that long! However, I can barely remember what it was like before he was.

(Sidenote: if anyone is wondering why I had Nate's party so early.....my little sister is due with baby #3 on September 4th, but notoriously has her babies early. So, I wanted to make sure N&P could be at the party instead of with Bec and baby "Jim.")