Liam's Birthday Party

We had Liam's birthday party today (about four weeks early - he will be 8 at the end of the month) at Waterworld. My two boys plus seven from Liam's class started on the Gully Gusher waterslide. I forgot to take a photo of the whole slide! It's quite high at the start and long and twisty, but it's not steep and most of the kids went down quite slowly. EJ didn't meet the height requirement but I don't think he minded; it looked a bit scary. This is Liam:

Waterworld provides a host for party bookings - this is our Lifeguard, Hayden. About a third of the middle pool (there are 3 pools plus the splash pool at the bottom of the slide) was closed off for our party. Hayden pushed two boys at a time in the kayak up and down the pool and made sure he rocked the boat! Liam is in the kayak here:

Here is Liam's stash! His friends were very generous - 3 Lego sets, walky talky headsets, a movie ticket, cars, a "Zap" game ... and Liam had decided to again raise money for Childhood Cancer at his party, in memory of a child we knew who shared his birthdate. We got lots of generous donations for that too, including an unexpected one from Hayden. We will wait until after Liam's actual birthday, then take all donations to the Childhood Cancer office in January.

Here's the Mess Hall! Hayden didn't stay for this but that's ok, he was going to host another party right after ours and I'd say he'd be stuffed after the kayak pushing! This was going to be an orderly photo but Liam and his friend had to get up and hunt food.

Orderly. At a party full of boys. Ha.

Here's the group/cake shot. I have a group shot with better poses but this one has everyone in it. The icecream cake is provided by Waterworld (so are lolly bags, and we brought some too). I bought an "8" candle and the "LIAM" candles; and the gold candle on the left is Little Sean's memorial candle for this birthday. Liam is wearing his towel inside out for the occasion, practicing for adulthood when men realise they can wear their underpants four ways before washing them. That's a birthday elf on the right... oh wait... it's EJ! All those 8-year-olds make him look little!

After we got home Liam made all of his Lego sets (already!) and unpacked and played with all his other presents. Proof that his friends chose good presents! Both boys were good all afternoon while I unpacked and washed the party dishes. But now, of course... it's bedtime....