For Theo’s double-digit birthday celebration, we did something a little different than we have in years past. Since Theo’s birthday falls in the beginning of the school year, for several years we’ve thrown parties that invited his whole entering class, including the brand new kids. It’s been a nice “welcome back to school” party along with a birthday party, but Theo felt like it was getting too big and crazy with 20+ kids so he opted for a smaller party this year. He invited four of his school friends to our house for a sleepover party! It seems like such a big-kid party and really marked the 1-0 milestone.

The theme to the party was Super Mario/Nintendo since Theo is obsessed with his Nintendo Switch and the game Super Mario Odyssey. This was also the primary activity of his party — the boys played hours and hours of games on the Switch (we had four controllers so nearly everyone in the group could play simultaneously). But they also busied themselves with board games and a little craftiness in the form of Mario-themed Perler beads.

I admit I was a little wary about the sleepover aspect of the party. But we know these boys and they are all well-behaved, mild-mannered kids. They headed for bed around 10:00pm and woke up around 6:30am. Theo’s dad cooked a big breakfast for them (pancakes and bacon) and they got picked up at 11am. Theo had a great time and enjoyed being the host/birthday boy/boss of the party.

We devised a game where we hung “question boxes” from the ceiling and put some gold chocolate coins on top. The kids could run up and jump and break the box and the coins would come tumbling down. (Credit for this idea goes to my husband who is a kid at heart.)

We all had a great time with Theo’s favorite friends!