Life is Beautiful: Kade's birthday party

I finally sat down today and I could fall asleep right now but I had to at least share these pictures because the rest of the week does not look any less busy. Tonight we had a lovely birthday party for our Kade who is turning 8 this Saturday. It was so fun to watch his little buddies just enjoy their time together. The giggles, running around, laughing and having a good time together made all our effort worth it. And it also made me think, in this day and age when so many parents try to outdo the last birthday party their kids went to, you really don't need much for the kids to have a great time. Yeah, the all Martha Stewart looking parties are cute and so put together, it all has a theme and every little detail is thought out, but in the end what really matters is if the kids enjoy their company, have a good time together and if they can just be kids. So we really didn't do that much, just a few sports games outside like an obstacle course, a soccer dribble and shoot course, running a lap around our house and the boys really enjoyed those and getting prizes for winning. After they ate we did a treasure hunt with 8 clues and they were so excited to figure out the clues. In the "treasure" there were some candy treats and a treat bag for each boy to take home. And the birthday cake was a huge success again and it is somehow becoming a tradition of mine to come up with the perfect cake for our child for that specific year and what they're into. I knew for a long time I wanted to do a figure 8 cake to symbolize Kade's 8th year but he has been telling me how much he wanted a Super Mario Brothers cake so I got the idea of buying the little cake toppers. The boys all loved the little toys and it worked out perfectly that they each could keep one to take home. They are also fun to play with because you pull them back and they shoot out really fast. So they had fun with racing those on our laminate floor. Overall, just a great fun birthday party and I am so thankful Kade has these boys in his life to call friends because they're just sweet boys and they love having fun together. I hope they can stay close friends for a long time.