Haiden is 10....

First, let me start off by saying, it's quite depressing to have two kids in the double digits.  My Haiden is 10!!!

I really can't believe he's 10 years old.  To celebrate this glorious occasion, we spent his birthday at his favorite hangout, Mr. Biggs.  His good friend Ryan also turned 10, just three days before him, so his mom and I decided to have a combined party.  That was craziness times two!

If you know me well, you may know I'm a slight control freak.  Just slight.  Being a control freak means you like to have things happen in an orderly fashion and on your terms.  While I seem to have little control of that in the housekeeping department, I'm able to flex my CEO-muscle for small events, such as Kindergarten birthday parties.  This little afternoon soiree did not fall into that plan.  These were big boys with big plans for their day.

When we got there, Ryan and his three friends from school were so excited to see Haiden and his friend Dylan.  The first words out of their mouths were, "Can we go play!!!"  I said, "Not yet!  Go sit down!"  Yes.  The exclamation points refer to yelling.  Not only is it loud in there but they were already wound tighter than Shirley Temple's hair pins.  I could feel the control freak losing control.

After getting to the table and setting everything down, all the boys took off running!  Ryan's mother, laughed and shrugged her shoulders and said, "I just figured, let them go play."  I thought it was a little crazy.  "If you turn these wild boys loose, we'll never get them back to eat cake and open presents!"  We only had a 3 hour window to use.  (Too painfully long if you ask me.)  Plus, there's just a certain order you follow when throwing a birthday party.  Because it says so.  In the book.  Anyway, we were able to quickly reel them back in.

The cake came out, we sang, the boys blew out candles, and we served it up.  While all the kids were eating, I went up to the concession counter to get a few pitchers of soda.  I figured I may as well wind them all up.  A good percentage of them didn't belong to me so I wasn't worried about dealing with them later.

Now, in my handbook of life, when having a birthday party, after you eat cake, you open presents.  That's just what you do.  We left many of the "family" gifts home so it wouldn't take so long.  I don't imagine 10 year old boys care about knitted socks from Great Aunt Edna.  (Fortunately that was just an example.  Not real.  The person or the gift.)  While I was in line, the pack of wild animals ran up to me and said, "Can we go play!!???"

Great.  Yeah.  That's how you do it.  I got out of line and walked briskly to my husband, whom I love dearly for putting up with all of my little idiosyncrasies, to fuss about things not going in the right order.  The only consolation was that I didn't waste money on drinks for all these little savages.  Hahaha!

Here's some pictures I was able to capture during the chaos.

Each one blowing out their 10 candles.

The only calm moment.  And I was able to capture it on film.

Waiting for the go-carts.

Jett dressed up like a fire-fighter.

In the mirror room.
He's reaching out to touch the cutest baby he's ever seen in his life.
He's gotta know if that handsome little hunk is real.

My handsome husband.  And so appeasing.
He's not a beast like the red eyes would suggest.
Unless he's tired.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith; 6 years (of together-ness) and counting.
I can't wait until there's a "0" at the end of that.
Wait, we might be dead.  60 + 30something's...ok.  You get what I'm sayin'.



Black-light golfing.  Look at his little pot-belly glow!

Difficult to see but, Dad and Ethan striking a pose while golfing.

At the end of the night, Haiden with all his loot.

Overall, it was a good day.  The point should be that he was happy, so it doesn't matter that it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

Update:  I have since learned to let go of my control-freakness.  The lasting memory will be of fun with friends, not what order the cake and presents were done in.  I get a little anxiety in places like this and it didn't help things feel less chaotic.  Needless to say, birthday parties are more low-key now.  Haha.  And we still love doing them with friends!!