Jackson's First Birthday Party

We have been invited to several of Jackson's friends' birthday parties, but we have either been out of town or unable to make it. Today L., one of my preschoolers, turned 4, and we were invited to his "Wall-e" themed birthday party.

We were a little late because I had to attend a teacher training this morning, then we raced to eat lunch and get over to the park where it was held. Unfortunately, it began to rain shortly after we got there, so we had to stay under the pavilion the whole time.

Jackson had a blast! First, he LOVES L. Every day when L. gets to school he gets so excited! "Hi, L! Hi. L!" he says over and over, and almost always races over to give him a hug. When I told him we were going to go to L's birthday party, he didn't quite understand, but if it involved L., he was more than game.

Although one of the youngest kids present, Jackson got to make robots with marshmallows and pretzel sticks, eat cake, and even got a few rounds in with a pinata. When the pinata broke, Jackson handled it like an old pro. He got down with the rest of the kids and started scooping candy up and bringing it to me to put in his gift box. (Easter egg hunting was great practice for this.)

When it was finally time to go, we were both a little wet and muddy (because Jackson, of course, wanted to go play on the playground, rainy or not, and chasing after him and picking him up with his muddy shoes got us both filthy), but we had a great time.

When we got home, I let him sample one piece of his candy (After all, he did just get cake and marshmallows), which happened to be an orange Tootsie pop. It was also his first solo experience with a sucker, but he did great. I'll say one thing for him, he definitely did not inherit Ben's ADHD when it comes to candy. He was focused on that thing until it was nothing but a chewed up stick!

We got L. an Iron Man action figure, which we missed seeing him open due to one of the chasing excursions toward the playground, btu I know he'll love it because he really digs Robots, Ironman, Transformers or Spiderman stuff.

I wish I had pictures to show for the experience, but I felt a little strange snapping pics at someone else's kid's birthday party. Plus, I was making sure Jack didn't steal L's balloons (which he tried) or race off toward the playground again.

Thanks, L. for inviting us and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!