Dallas's 9 1/2 Birthday Party - July 8, 2006

Dallas was born the day after Christmas, so the last real brouhaha we threw for him was his 1st birthday party when everyone and their dog came to celebrate with us despite Christmas having been a few days earlier. It was great! But since then, he has been completely robbed of a real birthday party experience. We always do something with the family, sometimes including extended family, whoever we happen to be spending the holidays with because I do feel it is important to have party of some kind, even for us old fogies. Someone else who experienced the same lack of attention from having a holiday birthday mentioned that her parents gave her 1/2 birthday parties so her friends could attend. It has financial advantages as well since everyone is strapped around Christmas and the new year which also happens to be when property taxes are due for us! So this is the first year for the 1/2 birthday party tradition. We asked Dallas what he wanted to do, and he chose Chuck E. Cheese's. I had never been there before, so this was new to me. Noah had a party a few years ago at Gattiland which is similar. So his cousins, Alex and Sierra, and grandparents and Uncle John could go, we decided to have the party at the Chuck E. Cheese's in Katy. The kiddoes ran around like their pants were on fire, and we ate crazy expensive pizza that actually was pretty good. Here are some photos:

The first thing they found of course was the Jurassic Park video game. They love the video games, and Noah loves the movie. It rocked around while they played. Notice the superman T-shirt... we went to see the new Superman movie after the party. Dan loves all things Superman and has been wanting to see this movie since he found out they were going to make one. The last book he read cover to cover for enjoyment that wasn't a technical manual or how-to book was about the history of Superman, about 6-7 years ago. The man doesn't read books, but he will if it's about Superman! He is really worried the film won't make enough money in which case they won't make the next 2 pictures. We'll see... Noah was especially excited to get his Superman with the cool flames T-shirt! If you noticed him wearing a party hat also, it's because the party was partly for him also since he did not get to have a party with friends this year (we did have a family party). I left Dan with the camera after this because he was following them around while I was with Savanna and Bailey, but he did not take any!! This is why we hardly have any pictures of me - I am almost the only one who records our life! I saw a carousel and thought Savanna would like it, so I snagged Dan and the camera. Noah got on also:


Nani seemed to like it for a bit, and then:

Dallas really loved this attraction. I guess he's not afraid of heights like me!

Here is Bubby with Albert checking out that silly talking animatronic - what is it? A mouse? I guess that would explain the "Cheese" in his name! Bub doesn't look too sure about him - he's giving him the sideways glance...

Here the boys blow out the candles on Dallas's cake:

Dallas and Noah get a surprise visit from Chuck, and he gives them ice cream sandwiches. We sing "Happy Birthday" once again:

Yay!!! Everyone was clapping when they blew out the candles, so Savanna chimed in (so cute!):

Bye-bye Chuck! Thanks for coming! Dan's mom (Nana) looks on as the boys wave goodbye to Chuck and the party comes to a close...