I know I say every single year that I’m not ready for my kids to grow up.
But it’s true, SO true. Probably more true now more than ever.
Josh is now 8 years old. He is incredibly handsome, intuitive, inquisitive, and a complete handful most days. He’s also my little bestie, the kid that tells me how gorgeous I am even when I feel like an ugly duck. Or the child that runs to clear my plate as soon as I have taken my last bite. The one that draws pictures either of me or for me on a daily basis. He has a firm grip on his mama, and it is SO hard yet so exciting to watch him find his own way in this world.
I am very much into birthday parties because as an only child, my mom made sure I had a birthday party EVERY single year. We had very elaborate birthdays in the basement of our home and it was ALWAYS a good time. I feel like I need to keep up now that I have children of my own.
The Art Party
I was all over the place trying to figure out how to celebrate the 8th birthday. We had done so many different themes in the past from gymnastics, to bowling, to Chuck E. Cheese. The insane thing is that we go to a lot of parties every year and the last thing we want to do is repeat so it’s a bit of a puzzle to figure out where to hold a party.
I found Art Studio in Brooklyn via Google. Josh is an artist by nature, he loves everything from painting, to sketching to all of it. This place was like a Paint and Sip for children, they would paint for an hour and have cake and pizza for the second hour.
To be honest, it was a LOT nicer than I expected. I went in a little blind, I had never been to this place before but the Yelp reviews were decent so I decided to roll the dice. When we arrived there was a cute little sign with the birthday boy’s name on it, which made him SO excited.
Fun with Olaf
I had chosen for the kids to do Olaf and when we arrived Olaf had been pre sketched onto each canvas. Pretty brilliant. All the kids had to do was paint.
For the most part the kids did a great job of following directions. The best part was that the teachers would “fix” any mistakes and make the paintings look fantastic. Which was good because I was hella worried for a sec. 🙂
Cake
I got a photo cake done at Lorde’s Bakery for Josh and I absolutely loved the way it turned out. It was beautiful.
He requested a red velvet cake specifically and I am happy to report that it was delish. Some people don’t know how to do red velvet but this was a good one. Worth every penny.
I am REALLY happy with how the party turned out. It was better than I had imagined and went crazy smoothly. I was even able to giveaway the tons of new toys we had from Toy Fair! We have SO many toys in my house it feels like we are drowning so it was nice to give them away (and declutter my house a bit!).
Running changed my life so dramatically in the past 2 years or so, now I can’t imagine my life without it. Today I am going to share with you some great running resources, my favorite all time running posts and what running means to me.
