Lucas's 8th Birthday Party

Although Lucas's birthday isn't until June 16, we held his actual party yesterday. I originally tried to book it for the War Museum, since they have a very cool-sounding Ultimate Fort theme, but unfortunately, it was completely booked for the month of June. So now we know to book well in advance for next year. As a result, we asked Lucas if he would be okay with doing it at the same place as last year (the Oz Dome), and his answer was a resounding yes. So that's what we did!

Prior to the party, Tracey asked if we wanted her to bring her camera, and in our hubris, we said that we would be fine with our new Nikon. Oh, how silly we were! It turns out that if you aren't on the top deck of a bright and sunshiny cruise ship, action shots aren't nearly as easy to take. As a result, at least half of the photos I took in the not nearly so bright and not nearly so sunshiny Oz Dome had some blur in them. They still came out okay (better than what I could get on my iPhone), but if I've learned nothing else, I know I now need to read the book my mom bought me on how to actually use my camera.

Since the first hour of the party was spent on the field, let's start with that. All my bitching about photo quality aside, I really like how this first one came out. I should also note that this is the first time I've ever cropped a photo on this blog (to get a rid of a bunch of empty space on the right side). I'm going to try and do that more in the future since I'm still getting used to centering photos on the Nikon.

The symmetry in this photo (or whatever you would call a straight line) was completely unintentional, but I really like how it came out.

I'm not quite sure what Lucas is doing here, but whatever works for him.

I have no idea what Lucas and the party coordinator are talking about here, but I love the facial expressions.

This one is a little blurry, but I liked the look of it.

For the last 5-10 minutes, the dads (there were 3 of us) joined the party coordinator in a game against the kids. I'm not sure what the final score was, but I now realize I'm not yet in game shape for adult soccer. It got even worse when the kids decided they could pick up the ball and run with it. I'm surprised my heart stayed in my chest, chasing them all over the field.

Before going inside, we made sure we got a "team" photo of the boys. One semi-serious...

...and the other not so much. I don't really want to know what Lucas is doing to that ball.

The kids are relatively calm before the pizza and cake eating commence. Marilu was pleased that they ate the majority of the vegetables while waiting.

For this birthday, Marilu made an ice cream sandwich cake. It consisted of 3 layers of ice cream sandwiches (18 total) covered in whipped cream and surrounded by frozen raspberries.

Finally, it was gift opening time. Here are a couple of the highlights. (side note: Etienne's eyes in the first photo crack me up...he looks *really* excited)

And here's a final shoutout to the parents who made it through the whole party with us. First, the daring dads, Mo and John, who assisted me in losing to the kids...

...and then Tracey (with Marilu), who has helped out in just about every one of Lucas's birthday parties.

Thanks a bunch!