The actual birthday party

  Lucky mom and dad!  Noah, a class friend of Joe’s had a birthday one day before Joes and his mother asked if we would like to have a joint party.  She would host at her house and take care of the games, and we would provide the cake, etc.  Heck, yeah!  Almost his whole class was able to come.

We started the festivities with Pin The Tail on the Donkey.  Here’s Patrick trying his hand at it.

The kids thought this game was fun – the object was to break the balloon tied to the other kids’ ankles before yours broke.  It was pretty funny to watch.  Joe didn’t want to participate because he doesn’t like the sound of popping balloons, and Patrick was pretty upset when a rather sturdy piece of grass broke his before the game even started!

And what would a kid party be without a good piñata beating!  Matthew was assigned the task of the final destruction (that sucker was tough for being made of paper!)  The moms were in charge of keeping the kids away from the violently swinging bat until the old bull gave up his candy.

We had a rousing game of Red Rover. 

I think Noah (in the green on the end) was cheating a little as Luke tried to make it in between him and Patrick!

And, then it was time for some cake.  Plus a few germs.

  The boys got a lot of the same gifts, so the moms had a tough time a) finding the gifts from the same person for them to open at the same time, and b)  keeping all of the kids back far enough for them to actually open the gifts.

Tyler with the super-fast potato pass, showing the skills that ultimately won him the Hot Potato championship.

Andrew made himself at home during all of the festivities.