We set the food up in Darrin's locker room and the dodgeball was in the gym. We kept it simple and went with pizza and cupcakes.
I have to say, the dodgeball was pretty cool. Darrin set up a speaker for music and used the microphone to call people out. That was Miles' request. He said when we had his nerf gun party two years ago that it wasn't fun without rules. He's my little rule follower.
We invited his baseball team, his best friend Mason (who plays on a different baseball team), and all the siblings. I was hoping that siblings would feel welcome so it would give us a few more people for dodgeball. They did and we had a good number of kids.
After a couple rounds of dodgeball, we broke for pizza.
And then presents. Opening presents always gives me anxiety. At every birthday party, they practically suffocate the birthday kid while he's opening. This party was no exception.
He of course had to hug Mason b/c they are the most affectionate boys you've ever seen. Mason got him a board game and some special golf balls. I'd say he knows him well. His mom said he was very serious when he was shopping.
I think he might have been a little embarrassed while we were singing to him, but he definitely enjoyed his moment.
They ate and opened presents quickly so there would be more time for dodgeball.
After a few more rounds, I cut the party off promptly at 7pm. There's nothing worse for parents than being stranded at a never ending birthday party. Plus, we needed to pick Carson up from Stephanie's house.
Carson was pretty much treated like a king during the party. He ate a big dinner, which he always seems to do at her house.
They walked around the block several times.
They even stopped to take a picture in front of a bulldozer. Construction equipment is top of his list right now, so I'm sure this made his day. She said he stepped right in front of it like this and said "cheese"!
After all the excitement, he climbed up in her lap and went to sleep. He NEVER does this with us. We managed to put him in the car, drive a mile to our house, get him out, walk to his room and lay him down without a peep. We didn't hear from him until 6:30 the next morning. In fact, when I walked to his room he pointed to his crib. He went through a little rough patch with going to bed, but he's back on track. Most nights, he will walk to his room, read books, and point to his crib. For this reason, I am leaving him in his crib for as long as we can.
I wish I could say it was a great party, but it really wasn't. Miles is a really good kid. He acts up at home like any kid, but in public he knows how to act. Unfortunately, dodgeball brings out the worst in him. If only we could channel his competitiveness at dodgeball into golf or baseball, there's no doubt his college would be paid for. Every time Darrin would call him out, he would lose his mind. Literally. He would scream, argue, throw his arms up, slam the ball down, and storm off. On the way home, even after he knew how upset we were, he was still arguing calls with Darrin. I have never seen him act like this, not to this degree. It was extremely disheartening for us to see especially recognizing that he didn't seem to appreciate the party. Thankfully, we know he did and we understand that he's only 8. Now that we know he can't handle this type of setting/party, we will avoid it in the future, at least until he's older. On the flip side, I think the kids that came had a lot of fun and since it was dark in there, I'm not sure anyone caught on to exactly how Miles was acting :) Never again!
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