Mario got his first invitation to a boy friend’s birthday party this week. He got invitations when he was 2 and 3 years old but he is at an age now where he actually opens the invitation and mulls over whether to go or not. He’s gotten a few invitations from girls and declined but he jumped on this one from the neighborhood boy, Quinn.

He held the invitation behind his back and asked me “Mom, do you think I will ever get invited to a boy’s birthday party?” I knew what he was doing – he wanted me to say no so that he could surprise me and say that he finally got one. I obliged him with a “no” and he sprung the invite in my face and shouted “I got invited to Quinn’s and it’s at Galaxy Games and Golf! I can’t wait for a boy party!”

And boy he lapped that party up on Wednesday night. He was upset at first because he found out Maria was coming. “It’s a boy party, mom!” Then I explained how many parties of Maria’s that he came to and he surprisingly let it go without a fight. It didn’t matter that Maria was there anyway because he was off and running with the boys as soon as we stepped foot in the door. Luckily, Maria had a girlfriend at the party since her little brother was there, too (even though Ri could have showed those boys a few things!).

Mario loves loves loves playing with the boys. He loved football because he got to hang with the boys and wrestle and tackle and run. He loved Galaxy Games and Golf for the same reason – all of the boys ran and jumped and tackled each other. Like small jungle creatures. They’d stop for a quick drink and go back at it full speed.

Mario can go all day with just water. When they all gathered in the party room, Mario barely ate pizza and kept asking when they could go back on the playground. I forced him to eat a piece if he wanted cake and he grudgingly agreed. I can still use the “your muscles only get bigger if you eat” line on him to get him to eat because he is still into those muscles of his.

After pizza, they got to take their tokens and play games. Ri and Mario love to play games. Mario loves skeeball. Ri tries everything. Mario holds his tickets close to his side and won’t let me touch them. Ri gladly hands them to me to hold. Every time Mario won tickets, he’d run to me to show me and then run away scolding me not to follow him (can we say independent stage?!).

After 45 minutes of running around to fifteen different games in a space the size of your kitchen, we cashed in our tickets. Mario had 98. You gotta be kidding, I thought. Luckily for Galaxy Games’s sake, they round up so Mario got credit for 100. Ri got 150 due to my superb coin placing skills which I used to place a token into a 100 ticket slot. Of course, my magnanimous girl looked for things she could buy Mario with her 150 tickets but he was only interested in a plastic hammer for 100 tickets.

He proceeded to use it to bonk all of his boy friends. And they did it back to him. Ahh, sweet boys.

Maria got gel. Not sure it’s purpose but I don’t think it was for cooling seven-year old eyes.

When I first got the invite, I complained to friends about the party being at 5:30 to 7:30 on a weeknight. But by the end of the party, I realized what a good idea it was to have it at that time: 1. You don’t ruin weekend plans; 2. You don’t have to cook dinner; and 3. You have exhausted kids by 8 pm! Of course my two are insane night owls but at least the party got them to a point where they wanted to read a book and not jump on the bed all night.