When your baby turns 18...

    It's probably not the easiest thing to be the youngest child and the only boy.  I absolutely cherish the first glimpses of the man he is becoming but he will always be my baby. As our children became older, we only had big parties when they hit certain milestones like turning 13. Baby boy was turning 18 so it was time for something special to celebrate.   I'm not sure where the idea came from, but it seemed that no one could give him a better send off than his old friends Buzz and Woody. He was going to be gone to his Youth in Government State Assembly the three days before the party so I decided to keep the theme a secret and let him be surprised when he came home the night before the party.

   Maybe it's because he is the baby, but I saved a lot more of his childhood toys than I did his sisters'.  Lucky for me, I saved every Toy Story toy that the boy ever had.  This made it very easy to start planning decorations.  I used them in several areas.

Buzz Lightyears were perfect to hang up high from fishing line

Some of his favorites greeted friends in the entryway along with a page from his scrapbook we took at Disney with his Toy Story friends.

    Then I started thinking about the Little Green Men. We had to incorporate them.  So I cut white card stock into strips and hot glued the little soldiers onto the strips. Then I could use the strips  anywhere I chose.   For some reason, I couldn't find any on parachutes, and we HAD to have some hanging on parachutes.  White Dollar Tree plastic tablecloths cut into circles with the little soldiers tied to them with dental floss is what I decided to use.  They ended up being my favorite decorations of the night.

If you look closely you can find them in all sorts of places.

   We had to have party favors and I found these amazing Toy Story Pez Dispensers and ordered two boxes.  Then I decorated another area with more old toys and red bandanas for them to wait to be handed out.  By the way red bandanas are SO handy to have. I've used them for Independence Day and assorted other occasions in decorating.

FYI, the Pez Dispensers had random quantities of characters but I'm happy to report that everyone that wanted a Jessie got one.

    Because I couldn't leave well enough alone, we HAD to have a photo booth.  This was so much fun to put together. I used Dollar Tree plastic tablecloths again. The background was pale blue and I taped it with clouds cut from paper to make it look like Andy's room.  Then I used darker blue tablecloths to make the curtains.

There were Woody and Jessie hats, a Buzz Lightyear mask and assorted props for my son and his friends to use.

The Boy and Buddy the Boxer had their photos taken with the Etch A Sketch frame that I made from red poster board, foam board and a little gold paint.

At the end of the night, I'm pretty sure that I had the most fun of all. It was so much fun getting ready for this party. I've loved every minute of being this boy's mom. He is loves his family, is a hard worker, has an incredible sense of humor and the kindest heart. Believe it or not, throwing this party helped me start letting go of the little boy so that I could appreciate the grown man.  It was the first of the "lasts" that were soon to come with it also being his senior year of high school.  Later that night, when only a few of his friends were left, they decided to make a video. This was the "thing" when he turned 18 and it seemed the perfect way to end the evening.  The one in the Batman underpants belongs to me and I couldn't be prouder.

Fun and Games on a Sunday night

This Sunday night we managed to all sit at the kitchen table and enjoy a meal together.  We had grilled chicken, corn and cast iron roasted asparagus.  After we were finished eating, we broke out one of our old kitchen table games before everyone went their separate ways. When the kids were younger, that is something we'd do at least once a week after dinner. It was after one of those family dinners that ended with a few minutes of a game that I started this blog. That's where the title came from.

We played "Battle of the Sexes" . There is a full sized board game, but we have several card versions of board games that we keep on the table, and this is one of them.  It's played boys against the girls, and there are different cards with questions for either sex.  Tonight we learned that our son was able to identify Vera Wang and Donna Karan as popular designers and that the boys not being able to remember Harper Lee's last name was almost enough to reduce our oldest daughter to tears.  The point should also be made that the girls in this family know way too much about football to be stumped by any of those questions and that this mom knows the difference between a birdie and bogey. We only played for 15 minutes or so but it was fun reconnecting.  

This little metal basket sits on our kitchen table. We keep our salt and pepper (cayenne too), cloth napkins and games in it. We have a couple little boxes of conversation starters too just in case we want to be serious (which honestly doesn't happen too often). By keeping the games on the table, it's been easy for one of us to grab one and start a game.  I hope one day my kids play games at the kitchen table too. Here's a photo, torn boxes miss-matched napkins and all.

After dinner, I loaded the dishwasher (by the way, does anyone know how to keep a dog from trying to "help" with the pre washing?) and everyone scattered.  As a mom of three adult children I can't help but be thankful that our kids still like our silly little family traditions. I hope that one day they keep games on their kitchen table too.