Matthew's Last(?) Birthday Party

Matthew turned 9 on June 17, so we invited a few friends over for a small birthday party this Saturday. I wrote "wear your swimsuit, bring a towel and a squirtgun" on the invitations. Other than that, I didn't really have any plans for the day. We lucked out withthe weather, as we seem to have done every year on Matthew's birthday (which is usually Father's Day weekend as well). The temperature at 1:47 was a balmy 86.7 degrees. Good thing for those swimsuits.


They started out the afternoon with a squirtgun fight. How they had any energy to run around in the heat is beyond me. When they got tired of squirtguns, they moved on to badminton. I saw that they were starting to drag a bit, so we brought out lunch - hot dogs cooked on the grill, chips, and watermelon slices. We had mini cans of 7up and root beer to drink. Some kids ate a lot, some hardly ate at all.















After lunch it was more badminton, then we took a break to bust open the pinata. Who knew kids could get so excited over some Tootsie rolls? :) After the pinata, it was present time. Then a few went outside while the rest played video games.














We had the cupcake/cake and some freezer pops, and called it a day. I think the kids had a good time. Who wouldn't enjoy spending a hot summer day with squirtguns, watermelon, hotdogs, and cake? Well, technically.... today is the last day of spring... but you get what I mean.



So - as I was "planning" this party, I was wondering how many more years we would have "friend" birthday parties. I remember having a few birthday parties (sledding, mostly) when I was a kid, and one 1/2 birthday pool party. There weren't parties at Monkey Joe's, Chuck E Cheese's, Wild Air, etc... I think I remember going to the movies one year for a birthday party. But that may have been for my brother's birthday. I don't think that my mom would have piled a group in the back of the pickup truck in the middle of winter to take us anywhere (even though it had a cap).

Matthew hasn't been invited to too many birthday parties lately. So I wonder if there just aren't any parties for him to be invited to, or.... if there are parties, but he just isn't being invited to them. I am thinking for his 10th birthday that we will skip the bigger birthday party with friends, and maybe do a family vacation instead.

Reed will be six next year, and that's the age that we had Matthew's first birthday party with friends. So I guess we are still in for 3 or 4 more years of parties after all. Any ideas for what to do with a group of six year olds in April?