Vinny's birthday party V2.0

 Vinny's birthday party with his friends was a couple of weeks ago.  For MONTHS (maybe even for a year) he has talked about wanting to do Go Karting for his party.  I looked into it, but the party packages seemed a bit much and had a minumum of 8 kids.  I envisioned something smaller.  Just a handful of kids so we could drive everyone to the party ourselves (the place is over 20 min away-- I didn't want parents to have to drive their kids there)  My idea was to have a few kids, go do a couple of races, then go out for lunch, then home for cake and ice cream.  K1 Speed didn't allow reservations (unless you did the entire party package thing) so we planned on getting there right at opening time so we wouldn't have a wait.

What a disaster.  We got there less than 10 minutes after opening, but a group of 12 just beat us.  Between that, and scheduled parties they had, the next available time to race was 4 hours later.  What??  I almost lost it.  Standing there, with 5 kids and no party. I begged and pleaded.  Nothing.  It broke our heart to have to tell Vinny.  He was upset, and even a little teary but he took it like a man.  Thankfully there was an indoor trampoline place right across the street so we ran over there.

Sure they could take us-- but they weren't open for another 45 minutes.  Ugh.  The kids hung out in the van, watching a movie, while Pete and I frantically got a hold of all the moms so they could get online and fill out new waivers (because God forbid we take kids on a trampoline without a waiver)  One mom we could not get a hold of, so that kid is now known as Tyler Contini as far as Sky High is concerned.

Because we opened the place, it was pretty empty.  I admit, the kids all took the change in plans in stride, and really seemed to have a good time.  I, on the other hand burst into tears-- I guess the stress and guilt over ruining my kid's day just got to me.

After jumping we picked up Five Guys on the way home.

And celebrated with cupcakes!

But I still felt awful.  We promised Vinny Go Karting, and damnit, we were going Go Karting.


May I present Party number 2!

I called the place and scheduled a full party, since that was the only way to reserve a time.   Since it was the winter break, I was afraid his friends would be out of town.  Not only were they able to come, but the 2 who weren't available for the last party were able to come to this one.  Throw in a big brother and one of his friends and we had our 8.

The kids had a blast.  I have to admit, it looked like a lot of fun-- I would love to try it one of these days!

As a party, they had the track to themselves for their races.

The top 3 racers received medals, and all the kids got a t-shirt.

We went home for ice cream (I was not making more cupcakes!) and called it a day.

Lesson learned--whatever it takes, for something like a party you need a reservation.