Jarem's 10th Birthday Party

Well, let's just say the past several months have been quite stressful for me. But...it was Jarem's year for a party and I really wanted to have one last event for him with his good friends before we moved. We set a tentative date for his party. Then the week before his birthday, I got word from our realtor that our buyers for our house wanted to come for a visit. (They wanted to let their kids pick their rooms.) My first thought was..."do you know how inconvenient this is for me? Can't the kids just pick their rooms when you move in?" But... of course, we wanted to keep them happy, so I got to work making sure the house was ready for their visit. They didn't want to commit on a time to come. It was sometime between Thursday and Saturday until the day before. Finally I told my realtor that we HAD to have an exact day and time. I put the party guests on standby until I heard when the showing would be. Thankfully we got the showing for Thursday evening, so the party was on for Friday. It worked out because the kids were out of school on Friday due to Good Friday--a holiday that we nearly always get off in Tennessee.

Amazingly, all 3 kids that he wanted to invite were able to make it. (He told me that the 10 kids last party were way too loud and wild). So, I was really beat after getting everything ready for the showing mostly all by myself, so the party planning had been put on the back burner. 

Friday morning (the morning of the party), I called Jarem into my room and asked him what he wanted to do for his party. After the stress of the showing, I wasn't even nervous about the party. I knew we could pull it off, and at least the house was ready. We googled "10 year old boy party" and one of the most popular parties was minute to win-it games. Perfect. We chose a few to play. I added an Easter egg hunt and egg coloring since his birthday was ON Easter. After a quick trip to the store, some pizza ordered, a DQ cake pick up, and a very little preparation, we were ready. And strangely enough, it turned out to be one my lowest stress parties and one of Jarem's best parties. Michael even asked me how long I had been planning the party because it was one of the best he can ever been to. The boys had a lot of fun and I was grateful that it turned out good.

We started with pizza (since it was lunch time)

Then it was egg coloring

Josh cradling it robin blue egg

Both blue eggs...Jarem and his best friend, Josh

Michael's eggs

Titus' eggs

Josh was really serious about his eggs. :)

Tessa joined the fun too.

Jarem was excited about the hair possibilities this year. That's quite a mustache

Jarem loved the goatee.

Josh's ninja

Both Jarem's eggs

Time for the Easter Egg hunt

They were fast at finding the eggs

Searching

The spoils of the hunt 

First game: Nose dive!

They had to move the cotton balls on the table to the cup with just vaseline on their nose

This was hilarious to watch. I laughed so hard! It was adorable.

Next up: Cookie Face (love the tongue!)

They had to move the cookie from their forehead to their mouth using only face muscles.

This was quite funny to watch as well!

The only thing I didn't like about this one is all the cookies that fell on my clean floor. :)

Michael did it!

Titus did it! Titus was very skilled at it.

Next was the Marshmallow Toss

Josh and Jarem were a team and Titus and Michael were a team. They had to throw the marshmallow and get it in their teammate's cup.

We did two rounds. The second time the other partner held the cup. 

They had lots of fun with this. It was funny when they figured out they could move the cup to try and catch it. :)

Present time!

Super Hero Legos from Josh

And a card from Josh

A giant lollipop

And...

Penguins of Madagascar movie from Michael

Michale told Jarem he could NOT read his note out loud. 

BYU Soccer shirt with BASS on the back

You can kind of see "Bass" right here.

Titus' mom is very crafty.

And a soccer ball also from Titus.

Group hug to say thank you!

Getting a little rowdy.

And they all tipped over.

Time for the DQ cookie dough ice cream cake.

They liked it.

Micah got some too. :)

Jarem liked it so much he said he wants the same cake again next year. :)

Present from Tessa: a furreal pet fish that really swims in the water.

From Jesikah: Mac n Cheese (Jarem's favorite besides cheese quesadillas)

Our dozen decorated eggs