Birthday and a Told Ya So

While I was in Houston for the break, we celebrated my niece, Elle's, fourth Birthday party. They decided this year to not have the party at their house but at the bowling alley.

I first had my doubts as to how well 2-4 year-olds would be able to bowl. I thought there was no way those kids could even throw the ball down the lane. But I didn't know they had this:

Elle's party was not at some run-down bowling alley. No, it was at Main Event (which I had never been to before) and they are so fancy that they actually have lane bumpers that will go up and down according to who is up to bowl! Not that anyone other than kids bowled, but still, it was cool that they can do that!

But I think they could have had the party just around the ball return, because that is what the kids really loved. And by some miracle none of them got their fingers smashed or hair/hand pulled in by the wheel!

One of the funniest things was when I looked up at the screen with all the kids names and saw "Anal" as one of the names. The party planner put the name in, she put the whole name Anaelesa into the computer, but mis-spelled it Analesa. And since the computer just abbreviates it to four letters, there you have it. But before I could take a picture (but after I did point it out to several others) the girl fixed it to be just Ana.

Which brings me to my next point, when Jennifer told me they would have a party planner I laughed and said, "well don't expect her to be anything like a wedding planner." See, when I was in High School I worked at a Putt-Putt for about a month. And I was one of these so-called "Party Planners." And I could care less about my job (which is probably why it lasted a month). I remember not understanding of kids and how un-enthusiastic I was. I would get on the overhead speaker for Putt-Putt and would wish the kid a happy birthday in the most monotone voice possible. And I told my sister-in-law that I bet this girl would be the same way.

I've got to hand it to the girl, she was MUCH better than I was. However, she did still make this little mistake.

Jennifer's mom made and brought the cake and Jennifer brought the "E." She just told the girl to put the E on top and that is what we ended up with. I do realize the the other side of the E would look correct, but it was not the fancy looking side of the E.

And may I also point out that in my 27 years of life I have never had more than one tier to my Birthday cakes?

I'm just sayin'...

But this cute little girl deserves it!

After lunch, cake and presents the kids all got to go play games. This was their favorite, it was a video of a roller coaster but the seats moved and they had a fan on your face. It was pretty cool!

At the end of the day, I LOVED this Birthday party. It was well worth the money, she said she spent about the same for this as she does to have the parties at her house. Plus, as an added bonus I didn't have to mop her floors on my hands and knees for this party!

(Yes, that actually happened for one of Elle's parties.)

Then, that evening it was time for the "family" Birthday party. Of course, Jennifer's mother made her another Birthday cake for the occasion (and she accomplished putting the "E" on the correct way, after all, it's not that hard):

Well a cake AND cupcakes.

We were running a little low on cake after the party earlier that day.

But here's my favorite gift I got my niece:

Now if you'll forgive me, I need to run so I can try to work off some of that cake...