Birthday Plans Gone Wild

Jonathan will be 10 tomorrow.  We talked about it and decided on a small family dinner with just MaMaw, Grady and the Simmons family.  Fuddruckers was Jonathan's restaurant of choice, so I started coordinating a lunch or dinner for Saturday.  At the same time that I started coordinating Jonathan's birthday dinner, discussions started about another birthday dinner.  This one would celebrate Jonathan's birthday along with our friends Abie and Dave's.  The latter celebration hadn't quite gotten off the ground, because of some scheduling conflicts.  Then, we received word that the cousins couldn't make Jonathan's birthday dinner.  As all this is happening, my Visiting Teacher asked Jonathan what he was doing for his birthday.  He replied that he was having a Laser Tag party.  What???  That was NEVER discussed.  Okay, so long story short, we threw together a last minute party with a few really good friends that had an opening in their schedule.

We started the festivities yesterday afternoon at Fuddruckers.  We had my parents, the Garstka's, plus Abie and Stacey.  I have learned that Fuddruckers is not a great place for a large group.  We crammed ourselves in this booth, and then we had the three girls at a separate table.

The girls' table

After Fuddruckers we went down the street to Strikz.  There we celebrated with cake, played laser tag and arcade games.

The Fortenberry Four getting ready for cake at Strikz

No birthday candles on his cake this year.  Technically, we weren't supposed to bring outside food into Strikz.  We were celebrating fast before we got caught.  I thought candles might give us away!

Jonathan has requested this cake two years in a row. You poke holes in the cake and chocolate pudding down in the holes. The frosting is actually chocolate pudding mixed with cool whip. I like it, and I don't even like cake!

The big boys and the kids

The obligatory silly pose. The kids never miss an opportunity to pose in a goofy manner.

The birthday boy!

All ten of us... men, women and children alike participated in Laser Tag.  Oh what fun we had playing girls against guys.  I took my camera out to the car, so that it wouldn't be left unattended while we were doing Laser Tag.  As a result, I missed tons of good photo opportunities after we finished with Laser Tag. 

If I had my camera, I would have taken the following pictures:

• Jonathan and Madison playing game after game of air hockey.  I said that they looked like little miniature versions of Fred and Angela.  When they worked at Mountasia, Fred and Angela would spend hours perfecting their air hockey skills.  Mountasia actually sent them to an Air Hockey Tournament where they failed miserably.
• Jonathan playing pool with Stacey and then later he played Angela.  Oh how that boy loves his Aunt Angel.  I think it is because she is very patient and listens to everything he says... even though it takes him a good thirty minutes to get one thought articulated.
• Everyone in their Laser Tag vest.  We came in after a group of teenage girls.  Many of the vests had to be loosened.  I was lucky... I think I must have grabbed a vest that was worn by an actual adult.
• Jessie and Stacey shooting hoops.
•  The little ones playing ski-ball.
• Madison's experiment... dumping salt, pepper and tabasco sauce into a cup.  I can't tell you how hard I sneezed while I was cleaning up the experiment.

I am glad that we ended up putting a little impromptu party together.  We had so much fun that we've decided to get together on MLK day for another play date!