Owen's 10th Birthday Party!

So it's almost a month after Owen's birthday party and I'm just now getting around to posting about it....oops! I honestly haven't been much in the mood to actually sit at my computer and type out my thoughts. Feeling lazy or writers block I don't know, but here I go! 

The kids' 10th birthdays are special not just because they are now 2 digits, but because this is the first birthday we will actually pay for the kids to go somewhere. For Owen we knew that going to a video arcade place would be great so we chose Game Works in Seattle. I found out through a friend that they have a screaming deal on Thursday nights so we decided it was such a good deal that we would be unusual and have our sons birthday on a Thursday/school night. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Thursdays are the day I volunteer at the kids' school so I bought cupcakes for Owen to pass out to his classmates and we all sang Happy Birthday to him at lunchtime. 

Since I'm volunteering that means that Ga-Ga & Pa are watching Zeke. They had Owen's gift all ready for him to open after school.

Ga-Ga with her Sugar Bear! 

Michael got off work early so they could get to Game Works by 5pm. 

Of course Owen got $10 since he's 10 years old. 

Ga-Ga and Pa had actually picked up Owen's present at The Victorian Country Christmas Expo and she had forgotten about it. A couple weeks before his birthday Ga-Ga actually told me she didn't know what to buy Owen for his birthday. Owen was in the room and all I said was Victorian Country Christmas and then it dawned on her. Michael was in the room as well and he was looking at me like I was a freak. I explained later and it made sense. 

They got his this cool mini drone. The guy was playing with it in one of the barns where they sell things. It's cute and it fits into the controller when you're not playing with it. 

Michael and Owen went right outside to give it a try. 

While they were outside Jack and I used the same gift bag and wrapped up Owen's present from him. 

Sweet brothers! 

The youngest brother didn't want to be left out! 

What's in there?

He finally read what it was! 

It's an Ifart Shuffle! It has 15 different fart noises that it shuffles through. Perfect gift for a 10 year old boy! 

After presents we waited for the other party goers to arrive. Since it was a Thursday night that meant that not everyone could come. Owen's friend Kaegan from school wasn't able to make it. There were 6 people that went to celebrate with Owen.....Daddy, Pa, Uncle Ry, Jack, Hansi and Hansi's Dad Hans. 

Since the boys were gone having fun I figured those of us left behind...Ga-Ga, me, Ella and Zeke could have some fun as well. I went to the Redbox and picked up 2 movies. I got a Barbie movie for Ella & Zeke and The Finest Hour for me and Mom. While Mom and I were making dinner the kids watched the Barbie movie. They also got to watch the other movie with us....it was really good. During that movie Ella said, "Mom do you think it's time for my tooth to come out." It was really wiggly so I said, "yeah it should probably come out or you're going to swallow it." Ella went over to the mirror and yanked it out. 

I texted this picture to Daddy to show him! 

Speaking of texting I'm not sure if I mentioned that we got the kids a Gizmo Gadget for Christmas. 

When I got myself a new phone for Christmas I also picked this up for the kids. We had already been toying with the idea of getting Owen a phone. He's now old enough to stay home by himself for small periods of time. It worries me though because we don't have a land line. I really didn't want to get him an actual phone I thought maybe a flip phone, but most definitely not a smart phone. 

While I was shopping for my phone the lady told me about the Gizmo Gadget. It's a watch and the kids can call and text 10 different numbers. They have to be set up though so they can't just call anyone they want. There is an app that Michael and I can control the settings. I even have it set to auto answer so they can't ignore their mother! It has GPS so I can always locate where the child is who's wearing it. There are fun features like activities for them to do such as jumps, it has a compass, a stop watch, a timer, a to do list. It can keep track of their steps and the best part it has a voice changer. 

When it comes to calling that's pretty basic they push a button and it calls the person and they talk into the watch. It's super clear on both ends...I was worried about that. When it comes to texting there is no keyboard. There are preset responses such as yes and no or I love you or on my way home, but when you want to make your own message you have to do a voice text. After the kids make their message they can send it as is or they can change the voice to sound like Darth Vader, a squirrel, a helium balloon or a robot. This is beyond the best thing in the kids eyes. 

My favorite this is the control features....no access to the internet and they can't just contact anyone they want. Also it's cheaper per month than a phone. A phone is an extra $20 a month, but this is considered a connected devise so it's only $5 a month. 

All that to say we had Jackson wear it to Game Works since he's the one we almost lost at Disneyland. He was having so much fun calling me and keeping me updated and texting me cute emojis. I loved it! 

So far we've only used it once for when Jack was at a birthday party and quite a bit at home when I've just needed to run up to the school to pick up a kid from art club or lego club. It's been amazing and I'm so glad I bought it. 

The reason we chose going to Game Works on a Thursday is because from 5pm - 10pm you can get a $10 unlimited game card per person. This is awesome! The next thing that was great was happy hour from 3 - 7:30pm. We paid for everything....the game cards for all the guys, the food and the parking and Michael came in under the $160 budget that I gave him. Awesome!!!!

The first thing the guys did was stopped at the restaurant and eat dinner. Michael figured that once they got playing on games getting them to stop would be difficult.

He was right of course! 

Michael said the 3 younger boys spent at least 2 hours at this motorcycle game. 

There were actually 4 bikes that could play together so the 3 boys kept on playing and then other kids would come and play for a bit on the 4th bike. Thankfully it was a Thursday night so it's not super busy.

Michael hadn't been to Game Works since we went there when we weren't even technically dating yet.  

Since it was so inexpensive I can see this being something Michael takes the boys to a couple times a year. 

Uncle Ry had fun going around with Jack and playing some games. 

This was the perfect celebration for our game loving boy. I know there wasn't a lot of kids present, but really that's okay for Owen. He had the people in his life that love him and that's what matters.