A Mario Party

James' 4th birthday began the way his mornings usually do.  He wakes up before the sun is fully awake around 6:20 and wants to play "Luigi Mario Game."  I originally let him play in the early mornings because I was too sleepy to do anything else, and now it's just his habit.

After an early lunch we drove to the library to return books, and Ella and I read for a little bit while James played computer games.

We left the library at James' naptime, but we still had to go by Publix and grab a few things, and most importantly, get our party balloons blown up.  It really is such a pleasure to shop at Publix.  You get free cookies, and if it's your birthday, they may even put your initial on it in icing.  What a treat.

We rushed home so James could nap, and I put together party favor bags and printed off some last minute details I forgot I'd found on the internet.  We had Ella's 5th birthday party at McDonald's, and it was really perfect for James this year.  He ran and climbed with his friends.  It was a loud, fast and furious kind of birthday party.

The "Mario Water" was a last-minute thing I pulled together yesterday afternoon.  I realized that I really didn't want to buy everyone cokes, and then I remembered I'd downloaded a ton of free Mario party printables from Peonies and Poppyseeds.  Check them out.  They have a lot of free birthday party themes.  I'm thankful for free things (except now my printer ink is low), and I remembered there were some water bottle wraps in the Mario party pack.

When I first saw the trend of water bottle covers I thought it was a little over the top, but these totally dressed up the table, and James guzzled water like nobody's business, so maybe I should keep some of these on hand.  They make water cool.

Yes, we need help in the proper mode of bottle-drinking.

The super-cute Mario party hat also came with the free download.  Thankfully I had cardstock on hand, as well as some stretchy twine Ella and I used to make bead bracelets.  It actually worked a lot better than regular party hats, because the elastic on those usually cut into your skin, but the string I had was really soft.

One last look at the cake...

We lost the top of our castle when the plastic came off, but we replaced it with candles.

 I'm not really sure why James has the long face.

Blake is James' sweet neighborhood pal.

This picture completely captures the chaos that was James' birthday party.

It was a happy chaos, though, and my boy had a good time.  That's all that matters.

He made super-short work of his slice of cake.

Present-opening was crazy-town.  Kids love presents.

One thing I forgot to do at Ella's party was grab pictures of James with all his family there, so I tried to be intentional about it Tuesday night.

 I think he was trying to hold up 4 fingers on each hand but had a little trouble.

And then it was party favors and good nights to all.

We came home and James opened all of his toys and went to bed late, asking, "Please leave the big mess in the living room so I can play in the morning."

We're only just now getting around to cleaning that big mess up today.  Thank heaven for KJ's day off.