The Cannonball Hits Double Digits

Partners in crime.

Hi, Internet.

Today was truly a momentous occasion, folks:  Kris and I celebrated ten years of keeping a small human being alive.  Pretty proud of that fact, to be honest.  The Cannonball finally reached the double digit mile mark, which makes us, as parents, feel really, really old.

Unlike her sister, who was forced to celebrate her actual birthday on a lame-ass school night, Alayna was able to commemorate her actual birthday on a sunny Saturday, surrounded by a collection of hand-picked friends and a slew of Pinterest-y party activities.

('cause Kris.)

Anyway, here's a quick walkthrough of Alayna's tenth birthday party, or, rather, Eighteen Hours of Unbridled Chaos.

Enjoy.

In the afternoon, before her friends showed up, Kris and I decided to give Alayna some presents from us.  Her main gift this year, as you'll recall, was the trampoline, but just like her sister, we bought her some crap on the side.

Yes, this child has yet to give us a decent 'camera face.'  We're about ready to throw in the towel at this point.

Alayna's a huge reader, and regularly goes to the library to devour more chapter books (she's read most of the stuff in her own extensive library.)  We picked out a boxed set of National Geographic books for her, more like 'fact' books, or miniaturized coffee table-ish books - something she can pick up and read for a couple minutes and set back down.  Gotta mix things up from time to time.

She had asked for a 'credit card' this year, too - she wanted to be able to swipe a card at any store register she felt like, just like an adult.  Since Kris and I wanted to maintain our Excellent credit card scores, and didn't feel like opening up that Pandora's Box quite yet, we bought her a pre-loaded Visa gift card that works just like a debit card (not sure if you can reload it, though.)

Later on in the afternoon, her friends began to arrive.  We had asked Alayna to pick out six friends for this party, just like we did with her sister, but since Alayna is more of a social butterfly than Abby, we anticipated a more difficult selection process.  As it turned out, being summer and all, many of Alayna's closest friends were out of town, so she settled on her six fairly easily.  Unfortunately, two kids cancelled at the last minute, which meant the Cannonball only had four friends over for her party.

The first activity Kris had organized for the kids was shirt tie-dying (however you spell that.)  We had done it last year for Abby's birthday party, and it turned out to be a big hit, so Kris wanted to bust it out again.

Of course kids brought their own slime.  That's totally a normal thing for someone to bring to a party.

I made sure Kris set up this messy disaster-fest of an activity as far away from the house as humanly possible - this is at the far edge of our backyard.

Noah, Christina, Momma Bear, and the Cannonball get their hands filthy.

I jumped in after awhile, if only to show everyone how to really tie-dye a frickin' shirt.

Kris issues more commands to her assembled ten-year-olds.

Once we had cleaned up the sloppy paint mess out of the backyard, and Kris had sealed up all the wet shirts in plastic bags to dry overnight, I ran out and picked up the kids a few pizzas.  While they finished up their not-at-all nutritious dinner, they played some random party game Kris found at Five Below (the girls' all-time favorite store.)

I, personally, thought the game was pretty lame, but these kids kept laughing so hard I was pretty sure urine clean-up was in my foreseeable future.

When Kris asked Alayna awhile ago what kind of birthday cake she wanted for her party, Alayna - out of the blue - said she didn't want a cake.  Instead, she wanted a 'donut cake,' which is. . . well, what you see here.  Kris bought a couple dozen donuts and a cupcake tower, and assembled the brainchild of our now ten-year-old.  Whatever makes the kid happy, I guess.

Christina, Gabby, the Cannonball, Jazmine, and Noah.

Time for the ol' sing-song routine. . .

Not entirely sure, but I'm assuming Alayna's wishing for an end to Israeli human rights violations against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. . .

. . .  or an iPhone.

Once the kids finished up their donuts, and another round or two of pop, they reconvened in the living room for some gift opening. . .

The Cannonball was pretty pumped over this miniature backpack Gabby had picked out for her.

Why is Abby wearing an Egyptian mantle?  These are the sorts of questions we don't really ask anymore around these parts.

Noah tends to be one of Alayna's more comical friends, which, honestly, is saying something.  His cards generally get this sort of response.

Not sure what the hell these little toys are, but God knows they went over well.

Fingerlings.  They're soul-shattering jibber-screeching can drive a man to suicide.

Jazmine was carrying around a clothes hanger.  Never got around to asking her why.

Kris once again set up a photo op backdrop and prop thing, which only somewhat got utilized (and mostly by Kris.)

No idea what's happening here.

Blue's not my color.

During the post-donut and ice cream craziness, as kids tore around the house in a sugared frenzy, Yours Truly took a pipe-and-news article break on the front porch.  A moment's peace is a valuable, valuable commodity during a sleepover birthday party.

Burning off some energy on the trampoline. . .

Once kids had gotten their fill of jumping in, we corralled them downstairs so that they could watch a movie (The Greatest Showman, I think - the one where Wolverine sings in a circus, and it's got the one guy in it) and start winding down for 'bed.'  They feasted on garbage food and made a hell of a mess, but at least they kept in the basement.  By about 1am, all the kids were asleep. . . but, of course, I still woke up at 7am to some random kids thrashing around on the drum set.  That was a hell of a fun way to wake up.

- Brian