Sport Turned 8

And the birthdays just keep on coming! Sport turned 8 last Thursday and on Friday we had a big birthday bash for 16 of his closest friends. It was a carnival-type atmosphere here in our backyard. Normally I am all for the calmer, simpler type parties where we play red rover and duck duck goose, but for some reason, I just felt like he needed something special.

My sweetie had made some carnival games for a Pack Meeting earlier this year so I convinced him that would make a fun birthday party. We had a Plinko game, a beanbag toss, a ring toss, a duck pond, and a racetrack. We also had an amazing concessions stand that gave out popcorn, hot dogs, cupcakes, and ice cream cones. I even convinced the Drama Queen to dress up as a clown and make balloon animals (a life-skill that she learned just for the day). A favorite part was the carnival tickets that Sport was responsible for handing out as each guest arrived. Then each station had a sharpie and marked off the various events and food items. The kids loved it! The only bad part was when they ran out of carnival games and everybody was melting in the heat. My sweetie came to the rescue by bringing out the K’nex and having the kids build race cars in teams and then having a race. That left only about 10 minutes for them to chase around before their parents arrived.


All in all it was a pretty successful day. But we did have some trauma early on. Sport was helping my sweetie clean up the backyard and get things set up for the party when my sweetie found a small black sports car in the grass that had clearly seen better days. We have told the kids to stop taking the cars into the yard since the Dog Walker just runs over them with the lawnmower…Anyway, as a lesson, my sweetie made HIM toss the car into the dumpster. Sport was devastated! He loves cars almost as much (maybe more) than he loves his brothers and sisters and his dad had just made him throw one away!

When I heard the story I gently reminded my sweetie that those cars were Sport’s babies and maybe he needed to rescue it from the dumpster and be the hero instead of the meanie. He grumbled a bit, but headed outside to look for it. About 20 minutes later he returned. Sport and I were sitting at the kitchen table, talking about the party plans when my sweetie plopped down in a chair. We both looked at him expectantly, but he only had eyes for Sport. “Did you rescue that car out of the dumpster?” he asked accusingly. Sport averted his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. My sweetie tried again to be the hero, “Mom said I was throwing away one of your babies and I needed to get it out for you, but I can’t find it and I was wondering if maybe you knew anything about it.” Sport looked up and smiled; a lone tear still leaked from the corner of his eye. “How did you know?” he asked curiously. My sweetie stood up from the chair, mystery solved. “Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the dumpster was open and I couldn’t find the car…and then there was a chair…”

Cars of any kind are definitely Sport’s passion! On any given day he will have at least three or four cars in his pockets, some for himself and some to share. He is kind and sweet and loves to help his dad (as long as none of his cars are in danger). I’m dreading the day he learns to drive now that we are halfway there…he’ll probably have a party and invite sixteen of his closest friends…