Eight is Great

When Winston started muttering about having a birthday party this year, I had flashblacks of the sweat-fest we staged 2 years ago when Winston requested a Panther Tail-gate Party in our backyard. It was an awesome concept and frankly a super fun party to plan - Joe even painted yardage lines on our back yard for that one. We were set and ready to go and about 5 minutes before the first guest arrived, I looked out my kitchen window at the thermometer and saw 108 degrees. To say it was a hot party would be the understatement of the year!

August birthdays are tricky -- Winston wants sports-themed celebrations which require the element of the outdoors...."the hot and insanely humid in August" outdoors. I was tempted to offer up another set of Panthers football tickets in lieu of a party but I remembered that this was NOT about Mommy....what a concept!!

Winston quickly put my angst at ease when he asked for a pool party -- perfect for offsetting the heat and absolutely NO requirement to have the house spotless and ready for a whole bunch of people!!

The guest list grew by the day as another friend would pop onto Winston's list; we made it a Saturday night gathering by the pool for Winston's friends and their families. It was a great party with some really great friends and some we hadn't seen much over the summer which was an added bonus. Grammy, Grandddaddy, Auntie and Unc Unc made the interstate trek down to celebrate with us which sweetened the deal for sure.


We stocked up on Atlanta Braves party supplies, ordered pizzas and made some giant sub sandwiches and things went off without a hitch. Great times for sure. It was fairly sweaty for those of us running around "doing stuff" but the kids had so much fun and the birthday boy was happy as could be.

We are beyond blessed to have a talented cake baker in our lives, her skills are unbelievable as practically all of her creations are done from scratch - no shaped baking pans used. She simply bakes sheet cakes and sets about carving shapes and designing by hand. She has been so gracious to us over the years with her replica of a Carolina Panther football field and Lilly's life-like princess cupcakes last year. She manages to blow us away every single time. This year was no different- the Braves Tomahawk cake will rank up there pretty high in The Grant Birthday Cake Archives!


We made chocolate baseball lollipops and handed out cracker jacks and could have saved alot of time by just offering Mr. Jason as the party favor. He (the baker's husband!) was the biggest kid in the pool -- the boys absolutely loved roughhousing in the water and getting tossed and splashed by him. GREAT GREAT STUFF...although I feel certain Mr. Jason might have needed a nap the next day!!


The icing on the cake was the long awaited arrival of one of Winston's front teeth -- he lost both in November and we've been sitting watch for those suckers ever since. We were beginning to have some real concerns about the missing teeth but finally, one popped through ON his 8th birthday. One down, one to go!!


A super night spent with awesome friends celebrating the life of a pretty great little boy....we might have perspired just a bit but we were storm-free and surrounded by people we truly love. It really is great to be eight!
Check out the pics....

Hello Mister Tooth! We are really glad you're here!



Let's eat!


Pool Party - Braves Style....

Some hungry boys...Matthew, Hamp and the Man of the Hour


YAY for Grammy and Granddaddy - it was a tough night to sit outside in the heat - THANK YOU FOR COMING!!!

Winston and Hampton - as thick as thieves since the day they met.


Snorkel Girl!! Bless her heart, in the rush to get ready for guests, she put her swimsuit front on backwards...a little lower cut than it was supposed to be!!

Mister Jason was AWESOME!


He was outnumbered most of the night but took it all in stride!



Claire getting some big air thanks to Jason!


I can hear the Braves tomahawk chant right now....unbelievable skills that I do not have!!


Cake #2 (there was a #3 too...square cake with the Atlanta "A")


There she is.....Baker Boomer we sure do love you!!




We successfully staged a group jump into the pool!! No small feat considering the number children and the level of sugar consumed!