Eight Is Enough

October 23 was super-social, #2 son's birthday.  But in hopes he maybe would forget about it, we hadn't really mentioned the "p" word (party) which we have been dreading since we unwisely broke an eight year tradition of not having any by having a ... birthday party for his older brother in March. 

As you may remember from an earlier post, we financially lucked out when first born son decided what he wanted to do for his birthday was have all his school friends over to play a big game of football (shunning the offer to go bowling).  This worked out well, however this was not the social son.  So for 6 months we have been living in fear of what super-social, #2 son will be requesting as a guest list for his obligatory birthday party. 

Knowing he was going to remember his birthday and that his big brother had a party, I finally brought up the topic ... about a week before his birthday -- which "un-conveniently" actually fell on a Sunday.  But to head off the expected 3 mile long guest list, I offered the option of taking just 2 friends to Build-a-Bear (the closest one to us is 45 minutes away) instead of having "everybody" over for his purposed baseball party ... just think 4, 5, 6 + Dennis the Menaces running around -- with bats!

To my surprise, he decided on 2 friends to do Build-a-Bear.  Great!  I forgot to price this out before I made the offer.  These 2 friends were going to cost me more than big brothers 12 friend birthday party!  Not to mention, this birthday party was in the middle of football season -- I love the kid, but this is starting to cross a line!  Hope sprang in my heart when my son remembered seeing an alternative brand bear building store in town, but was quickly dashed as I discovered they are closed on Sundays.  Ah, even better ... since it is in town, we do it after school one day.  "NO! I want to do it on my birthday."  But praise God for a bad economy, a small town and a cute 2-year-old, I was able to work out with "my new very best friend," to purchase 3 bears, clothes and stuffing to take home and do on the actual birthday. 

Now what are the chances of getting it all done before kick-off at 1 PM?  Turns out, better than the chances of them not showing up early -- before you are out of the shower!

All turned out well (except my football team lost), he got to do "build-a-bear" on his birthday with 2 friends, got 6 gifts (one friend has 4 other siblings--actually 6--that all wanted to give him a gift), birthday cake ice cream from his favorite ice cream shop and his football team beat his big brothers!