Pirates, Pizza & Karaoke

So Parker turned 6 yesterday and it was a little bit crazy! When he woke up yesterday he was ready for the festivities to commence.  The first conversation went a little something like this:

PARKER: "Mom today is my birthday"

ME: "Yes it is"

PARKER: "Okay, go downstairs and turn off all the lights and hide and when I come down jump up and yell SURPRISE!"

 Now we do have our birthday traditions, but Parker has missed out a little on them because his birthday is at kind of an awkward time of the year-the end of the summer right before school starts.  Because of this he has yet to have friends over for a party, and to experience our family traditions.  Having said that, he has had some pretty awesome party's.

In 2009 the only time we could have his party and have his best-est buds there happened to be the day we were all going to Lagoon.  It was a little rushed, so we didn't get to follow through with all of our traditions.  So we grabbed some cupcakes and headed on up Lagoon and had a blast.

2010 was a little interesting.  We happened to be on our 6th annual Totally Awesome Patterson Family Vacation for his birthday and that meant no friends at that party.  However that meant a week with his favorite people in the world, and getting to celebrate in his 3rd favorite (at the time 2nd) vacation spot-Steamboat Springs Colorado.  While he didn't get to have his neighborhood "new cousins" over to tear up the house, we all celebrated by opening gifts and going on the Alpine Slide followed with some swimming.

A week later he was able to have a second party-an Ice Cream Party with the Brandts, not too shabby if you ask me.

2011 bode really well for our family traditions.  Parker woke up and got his favorite cereal-Coco Puffs, a 6 pack of his favorite drink-chocolate milk, and a brand new birthday outfit.

Then later that evening the best part.  This year he was finally able to have a party with ALL of his favorite friends and family in one place.  The best part??? It was a SURPRISE-in more ways than one.  Parker was surprised to have a party with everyone at his birthday dinner which was Pirate Island Pizza.  We were surprised to find out that it was Karaoke night.  We were given the table right in front of the Karaoke stage. With 14 adults, 4 tween girls, 9 boys between the ages of 3-6, 1 toddler, and 2 infants...chaos reigned. Throw in some pizza, pop, and tokens for the arcade and you get one heck of a work out all while being serenaded by undiscovered American Idol rejects;)  It actually worked out ok because we were able to get most of the adults, 3 of the girls and a brave little boy up on stage.  It was loud, hot, crazy but fun.  Parker had a blast, all the kids were accounted for, and I didn't have to clean up!