Joy Lin's 5th Birthday Party

Yesterday we went to Joy Lin's 5th Birthday Party. We love Joy Lin. In my opinion (as a mother of two boys longing lately to add a little sister to the mix), Joy Lin's the coolest kind of little girl there is: sweet and cute and considerate and also a rough and tumble tomboy at heart. Joy has almost as much energy as Kyle and Owen -- so even though there is a two year age difference, the three of them get along brilliantly. The birthday party was at Bounce U (click here). We hadn't been there before. It is a massive play space with tons and tons of huge blown up jumping/sliding/climbing/bouncing contraptions. The minute we walked in I said to our friends Lisa and Chris (Joy's parents) "Is this a party for Joy Lin or for Kyle and Owen???!" (it was in indoor air-conditioned version of heaven for K & O). They loved it. In fact, Kyle said to me about halfway through, "Mama, I want mine birthday party to be at Bounce U when I will be five! I want mine birthday party to be right here!" There were a lot of kids at the birthday party, but at one point I found K, O, and Joy sliding together over and over and over down a little slide:

By far the boys' favorite thing at Bounce U, though, was the "BIG HUGE SLIDE!!!" They seriously went down this thing at least 20 times in a row...

It looked ... so fun! And it was!

After all the sliding and jumping and bouncing it was time for cake and ice cream. They brought out a big liter of Coke. All the kids were having it. We couldn't bear to keep it from just our two. So... K & O had Coca Cola for the very first time!!! This is newsworthy stuff; Kyle liked it; but for Owen, especially, this was a big deal. He did not touch his cake or ice cream. He just savored that Coke. And then he sweet talked the Bounce U staff into giving him a second helping. In this photo he is holding his precious Coke and saying to us, "Here is my beer. It is just like beer. Just. Like. Beer."

And here is Owen, about 30 minutes later in the car heading home, passed out from his "beer"/post-Coke-sugar-crash:

On the ride home Kyle talked on and on about how he wants his birthday party to be at Bounce U. He also talked at length about the fact that "inside his present will be a trombone." He also wanted to be clear that "Joy Lin will be there at his birthday party." Happy Birthday Joy Lin!