It's always a huge dilemma in my head....how to celebrate Bobby's birthday? Do I throw him a big party? After all, he doesn't seem to love them, he tolerates them and actually likes them when they are paired with some of his favorite activities such as swimming or tumbling. However, he still doesn't care for the other part of the party....cake, ice cream, gifts, games. I had a couple of different options for this event swirling around and after I looked online to check on one of my options, his birthday was quickly planned.
I have been wanting to take Bobby to Flight Trampoline Park in Bridgeville, PA for a while since I had been seeing pictures on Facebook of this place that I knew Bobby would LOVE. Even better, I had heard that they have times set aside on their calendar for special needs jumpers only. Yay, they had a special needs jump scheduled for Bobby's actual birthday!!!! PERFECT!!! Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma would take Bobby for this 2 hour special needs jump event....an easy, peasy birthday plan that is just right for Bobby.
Bobby's buddy and partner in crime since the age of 3, Sonny, threw a wrench into my birthday party plans!!! When I went into school the day before Bobby's birthday to pick him up for the day, I began hearing from everyone how excited Sonny was about Bobby's birthday tomorrow and he was thrilled to be coming to Bobby's house after school for his birthday party. Sonny has been to our house for very small birthday parties for Bobby in the past and equated Bobby's birthday with a birthday party. As an autism mom, the last thing that I want to do is disappoint another child with autism. The only thing to do.....plan a small party at home so that Sonny could come and so that both boys could practice birthday party skills.
After the "party" was planned, I thought, hmmmm, maybe I should invite just one more child from their autism class. I contacted the mom and she said that her son would LOVE to come. He had heard Sonny talking about the birthday party all day at school and he wanted to come too!! How funny, apparently Sonny was getting everyone excited about this birthday party that was only planned in his head!!
First things first.......Bobby's actual birthday at Flight Trampoline Park!!
We had a little bit of time before we had to leave for our adventure and we had a few gifts for Bobby to open. He loves these crazy little "Oobi" eyes that remind him of one of his favorite tv shows from his toddler days. He even went and got the scissors out of the drawer and opened the package all on his own.
Oobi is having a great conversation!!
Grandma found a hula hoop that you have to put together yourself. Bobby immediately figured it out and put it together. She also got him a cute gorilla.
We were finally off to the Flight Trampoline Park!! Wish that you could have seen his face when he walked up the ramp in the building and arrived at this.......
The dodge ball area......
You can climb these platforms and jump onto an air mattress, just like a stunt man!!!
He walked around for a couple of minutes to check out his surroundings and then got to work jumping his little heart out!! He smiled and smiled and jumped and jumped!!!
He would climb up the side of the tall trampolines to the ledge above and then slide down like a sliding board, so fun!!
Time for a short break.......
I was shocked when he climbed up the ladder and actually jumped, a couple of times!!
We got home fairly late for a school night, after all it was an hour drive to, a couple hours of jumping, dinner, and an hour drive home. But we wanted him to blow out his beloved birthday candles to top off the day!!
The birthday party with his classmates took place on Sunday. It was a beautiful clear and warm day, perfect to play outside. I decided that for this birthday party, I would try to make it as stress free as I could. So for the first time, I ordered a birthday cake from the grocery instead of making it myself.
A fence lined dirt road with rocks and grass.....perfect for Bobby, he would love to walk along this road!!
Somehow, I managed to get a decent picture of all of the party guests.....this took a little while!!! A true comedy of errors!!
After everyone checked out their surroundings and got accustomed to where they were, it was time to play.
Time to get out the silly string and let the battle begin........
Yes, that is Bobby's wonderful father teaching the boys how to make it look like they were sneezing silly string.....boy humor!!!
Note to self.....take off all of the lids before the party begins. The kids were emptying the cans faster than I could get the very well taped up lids off of the next cans!!!
The 20 cans of silly string were empty and the grass and their shirts were covered!! The LOVED it!
After the silly string was gone, I got out stryofoam airplanes for everyone. Amazingly, they were all interested and all participated.
Bobby rolled down the hill a few times!!
The kids were hot from all of the playing and decided to get into the cold pool to swim.
Yes Sonny, the water is COLD!!
Bobby even sat down and opened his gifts while the guests were there!!
Slinky's rock!!
Bobby even got some silly string as a gift, so we opened it to let the kids add to the mess that was already there!!
Last party activity......bubbles!!
The kids all had a great time!! You know that it was a successful party when there are 4 kids on the autism spectrum in attendance and zero tears were shed!! Whoo Hoo!! Happy 11th Bobby!!!
