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It’s A Bird. It’s A Plane. No It’s Super Mario Dad!

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My son recently turned 4 years old. Okay, give me a minute….. I can’t believe 4 years went by so fast!

Anyway, we asked him what kind of birthday party he wanted and got about 6 answers, ranging from MarioKart to Angry Birds to Wolverine??? After much deliberation and convincing, we landed on MarioKart.

What a fantastic decision it was too! There’s a growing love for all things Mario and we were able to find a ton of ideas for the party. The best part is that we were able to do a lot of it on a relatively low budget!

How about a laminated Drivers License as the guests arrived:

As for games, we had a rousing go of Pin The Mustache On The Mario:

My son had a blast!! We did have one more surprise for him though. A visit from Super Mario himself!! That’s right, I pimped out my blog for a free Super Mario costume so I could surprise him on his birthday!

I was extremely warm in the suit and the mustache kept falling off but we got through Mario Says, Mario Bingo and the aforementioned Pin The Mustache On The Mario without any problems!

Have a look at my grand entrance! I decided to go with an entrance theme as if I was a WWE wrestler. That’s just how I roll!

The joy on my son’s face says it all!

I want to leave you with a final shot from the end of the party of the two happiest parents on the earth!!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!

Cheers!!!

Not Even Spider-Man Can Stop My Kid

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I’m not even sure where to start this one because it’s a bit emotional and funny all in one event.

My son’s birthday party is going to be in a couple of weeks. I can remember last year, we threw him an Ernie birthday party and he loved it. I asked him what kind of party he wanted this year and he immediately answered “MarioKart!” with joy.

What?!?! How do you go from Ernie to MarioKart in less than a year?

On one hand it’s cool because I get to goof around with a bunch of video game stuff. On the other, I want my little boy back!!!

That brings me to our most recent event.

My son was just invited to his first “drop off your kid and leave” birthday party. He is 3 years old but soon to be 4.

You can forget about the fact that the party was just across the street at a neighbor’s house because it could have been on the moon for all I cared. The point is that my little man is growing up, and quickly!

The neighbor’s kid was turning 5 and was having a Spider-Man themed party, with a special visit from Spider-Man himself (very popular right now, the character shows up and runs games and stuff).

My son does NOT like people in costumes, so upon hearing this, I feared the worst.

Sure enough, I got a phone call from the neighbor about 30 minutes in, asking if I could come over and comfort my son, who was freaked out by Spider-Man. After some calming words to my delirious concerned wife, I ran over to hang out.

I tried to explain to my son that it was just a guy in a costume and that he had nothing to be scared of. Obviously that didn’t work, so we came to the agreement that if I went home and got his Spider-Man costume, he would stay at the party and take part in the games.

Excited to feel needed again, I raced across the street, Spidey suit in hand. Daddy saves the day!!

It took a few minutes for him to rejoin the party and he clung to me for another 10 like a shirt that had gone through the dryer without a Bounce sheet (you know what I mean, shut it).

Eventually I felt comfortable enough to leave him but figured he wouldn’t take part in anything until Spidey was gone.

Well don’t you know it, sometimes when left to fend for themselves, kids rise above the odds and make you the proudest parents in the world.

Here’s the photo I got from the neighbors, 15 minutes after I had left.

Very proud Dad upon seeing this picture. Almost as if I had said or done something to ease his mind about being at the party. Now if he would please stop growing for a couple years, I would very much appreciate it!!

Is there a moment you realized that you were losing your toddler to boy/girlhood? Share it with me in the comments so I can feel better about losing mine 🙂

Cheers!!