Party // The One Where Someone Special Turns Eight

Happy 8th Birthday to my oldest!!! I'm feeling nostalgic today. Eight is in big boy territory now… bridging the gap between boy and tween. I've heard that this is a special phase that all parents should cherish. While kids this age may not need you as much to take care of their physical needs, they still look to you for guidance and emotional support.  And they're usually still down with giving hugs too. His nickname on the blog has been "Smarty Pants" for the past 5 years now, but suddenly it seems, *maybe* too young. Sniff. I'm a little sad about that. So until I can come up with something else, I guess my kids will be known as "oldest" and "youngest". How creative.

Anyhow, this weekend he had the 8th Birthday Party of his dreams-- Go Kart Racing. He literally has been waiting years before he and his friends were tall enough.  This was finally THE year.

The boy had a grin on his face the entire day. He has loved cars since he was just a wee babe. I know that Go Karts may not seem like cars to adults… but to my kids, they ARE. We were the family that always traveled with a Hot Wheel collection, he has a car-themed room, we watched the CARS movie umpteen million times, and he's probably one of the few kids that can tell you what rim goes with what car and why.  So this Go Kart party was, as he succinctly put it  "My dream come true!"

This year I did something that I've never done before-- I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING creative for his birthday party. No personalized party decorations, no games, no custom party favors. Nada. This year I pushed the EASY button and outsourced everything. The only thing I did, besides contact the Go Kart place, was to bring in the appetizers and cake. They handled everything and did a superb job. It felt a little strange to not do anything extra, but you know what? I think this was his favorite birthday party EVER.

Since I always like to share something a little creative, here's a trip down memory lane for his past seven birthday parties. We've covered the gamut-- cowboy, lego, space, police…

You can clearly tell the parties that were pre-blog and post-blog. And even then, some of the post-blog photos are a little meh. My photography has gotten a little better over the years… I think… :)

1st Birthday: Cowboy

2nd Birthday: Monkey

3rd Birthday: Race Car

4th Birthday: Lego

5th Birthday: Police

6th: Space

7th Birthday: Soccer

Thanks for letting me reminisce! And Happy Birthday to my sweet, funny, smart and kind eight year old. Our lives were forever blessed when you joined our family.