life with a boy :: part three

They have birthdays.

For as long as I've known Collin he has had no interest in going all out for his birthday. He appreciates a card or a phone call from his brother, sister and parents...but it's kinda just another day. And besides...no party, no dinner, no get together...nothing will ever compare to the Cowboy & Indian Party he had for his 8th Birthday, so it's not worth even trying.

I get it. Because I'm a lot like this when it comes to my birthday, too. So I was thinking we'd go out to dinner or have a few folks over for some typical front porch time or I may surprise him with some sneak peek tickets to see "Where The Wild Things Are" if I could find them...but I wasn't feeling the pressure, at all.

Until last Thursday. Six days before the big day.
C:"so babe, what are we doin' for my birthday?"
Me:"ummm, I haven't really made any concrete plans. is there something you'd like to do?"
C:"well, I mean we're going to do something with our ALL our friends, right? I mean it IS my BIRTHDAY!"

So I start to scramble. Falon had an event on her rooftop downtown, so that fun party venue option was out, the weather has been iffy and my wheels were turning frighteningly slowly.

Until Collin had the perfect idea of his own.

He wanted to rent out the Party Room at Europa: a run-down-go-kart-arcade-putt-putt-batting-cage-facility-of-sorts. He and his best friend Taylor frequent Europa on occasion and love the place. Primarily because when they go, they are the only people there and have the whole place to themselves.

That's how popular it is...Get my drift?

Well, he announces this grand plan one evening when we had folks over, and everybody thought it was the perfect idea for his birthday. So he then goes on to remember and recite the flyer he saw last time he was there with advertising the "$99 Party Deal" for 8 people that included the works: pizza, soda, go-kart, putt putt, games, ice cream, and party room rental...however, as he greatly emphasized we must bring our own cake.

At this point, with full support from our friends, he was convinced this was, indeed, his 27th birthday party dream. And it was now up to me to make it come true.

So I made the call on Monday to reserve The Party Room at Europa {only open 2pm-8pm, by the way}. After small talk in which I understood every fourth word they said, it was clear that the sweet Romanian men that own the place were obviously thrilled to have any interest at all in a party rental! So much so, that they were not curious nor did they question me any further when after they asked the birthday's boy name, they asked his age and I hesitated and simply replied in a sweet southern drawl, "ohhh, he's just a kid at heart".

I bought party hats and superhero blowouts and was dead set on a giant cheesy sheet cake complete with cartoon figurines and gaudy ribbons. But the birthday diva boy had other plans. He sweetly and conveniently told me that if I hadn't already arranged for the cake {that we had to bring}, he sure did like those ice cream cakes from Baskin Robbins...and the mint chocolate chip roll up ones to be exact...and with sprinkles if they've got 'em.

oh.my.word, where did this birthday beast come from?

At this point, the whole situation is absolutely hysterical to me. It has Collin's name written all over it and I can do nothing but just laugh.

So on the big day we arrive to Europa twenty minutes early and there are two cars in the parking lot to which Collin jubilantly acknowledges, "this is the most cars I've ever seen here!"....why yes, they belong to the two men that run the place.

We had the entire place to ourselves...not because we bought it out, simply because it's that unpopular.

The birthday boy got the royal treatment...

and they wrote his name....

all over the place.


We played good ole arcade games...




...rode go karts around a track what felt like 500 times.

But that might have been because I had an ole gray kart that hit it's prime in 1984.


Then we headed to The Party Room for pepperoni pizza & cake
{let's just call the pizza generic DiGiornio or thick crust Tombstone, if you will}


Secretly, I was just relieved the Party Room didn't have daycare sized chairs.
And even more relieved I intentionally bought blowouts without horns.


and The Cake was a hit too! Almost a really big hit when we caught the cake on fire and melted half of it when Lindsay &I went a little candle crazy.


We finished the night with 18 holes of friendly putt putt golf and a dance party...

...well as friendly as it can get with one golf pro, two dudes that play several times a week, three apathetic girls who pull muscles cheering when they get a hole-in-one and a putt putt course that uses pvc pipe and old railroad tracks as obstacles instead of windmills and waterfalls.

Collin was absolutely beside himself excited.
Our friends had a blast.
It's one we'll be talking about for a while.
I couldn't have come up with a darn thing more perfect.
And if this kinda fun is any indication of his "perfect" birthday ideas of the future...I'll do my best to make them all come true.