Ty's Graduation Party!!!

Tyson's graduation party date FINALLY arrived! We met all of our party guests in the parking lot of Fort Lewis Elementary School.  Darren and I were the drivers.  We each had six kids in amongst two vehicles. Darren chose to take the back roads, to Blacksburg, and things were going so smoothly, UNTIL... "POP", I hit a patch of road that was uneven and I got a flat tire!! YUP! I couldn't believe it either. I mean, what are the chances that WE were transporting 12 kids, 35 minutes away, from our home, and we would get a flat tire.  We handled it just perfectly though.  The Lord was so gracious to us to provide us, even on the backroads, with a gas station to park my van at.  It was available to us within 30 seconds of getting the flat  tire. We had about 12 minutes to spare before we needed to be at the party venue, so we had NO CHOICE but to all pile up in ONE vehicle. Darren's pathfinder is supposed to seat ONLY 7 passengers and we had 14 people inside (12 kids and 2 adults).  

We finally made it to Blacksburg!! We even ended up arriving 3 minutes early! Man...we are that good.  LOL!

Here's the crew all smoothed into Darren's pathfinder.  

And probably ONE of the BIGGEST highlights from the day was traveling with 14 kids in one car.  Upon arriving to the Cinebowl, I HAD to capture the moment when every child got out of the car.  This was a clown car at it's FINEST!! How funny!!!

The boys and GIRL were excited and ready to get inside and get this party started.

I dropped off decorations the day before and the staff decorated for me.  

(Above): A matted frame, with Ty's graduation photo in it, for all of his party guests to sign! It's a perfect momento for Ty to keep for a lifetime.  

I made the below "2016" sign, in Glenvar colors, welcoming ALL of the boys to the SAME SCHOOL: NOW one heart, one goal, ONE team, after being separated by three different schools! They will be SO lucky to have such a great bond ALREADY, heading into middle school, thanks to youth sports.

I also had some "Class of 2016" balloon bouquets made.

The first plan was to BOWL! Check out the AMAZING bowling alley! We rented TWO lanes for two hours.  The lanes came with BIG SCREEN tvs and leather seating.  It's the classiest bowling alley I have ever been to.

I lined up all over their shoes and the boys grabbed some bowling shoes in their sizes.   I love how Lilah's shoes are the only girl shoes.  Haha. #lifewithbrothers

Then they grabbed a bowling ball that fit them well!

I tried NOT to take too many photos because I didn't want to annoying Ty and his guests, and I figured it would be distracting to their game.

They enjoyed bowling a ton, but they were starting to get HUNGRY!

Sweet Liley, the only girl party guest!

LUNCH time!

The boys were treated to a nice selection of food.  

I thought the presentation was so nice!

Cheese quesadillas.  

Unlimited chips and dip.

Wings.

Sliders.

Cake, made by mommy!

You don't have to tell a group of boys twice that "It's time to eat!"

The cool thing was that the boys were allowed to eat and bowl at the same time!

(Above): Cooper missed the pins and fell to the floor in disappointment.  LOL!

After they bowled a full game, you know boys, they couldn't just bowl another game in the NORMAL fashion.

They came up with the most creative ways to get the ball down the lane.

I have always wanted to have a bowling party since our last name is BOLLING, but this was the first time.  I am glad I saved the bowling theme for the best bowling lanes E-V-E-R.

After bowling, we then moved over to their movie theatres.  

The boys received the theatre popcorn pack.  Each guest had a box of freshly popped popcorn (unlimited), a pack of gummies, and full use of their drink machine (unlimited).  They were coming up with all kinds of crazy concoctions.  

They also were treated to a nice selection of candy! 

The theatre was getting packed, so I only snapped two photos, blurry, :( but at least I captured it.

The movie they saw was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Return to the Shadows.

They were all really good in the movies.

After the movie, we STILL had more on the agenda. Next up, the boys were invited to use the arcade for ONE HOUR, UNLIMITED GAMES! They were ramped up with energy after sitting still for 2 hours and beyond excited to play in the arcade.

No major explanations are needed with these photos because from all of the cute facial expressions, I think it's obvious they were having a blast.

Rather then buying these boys a game card and when the money runs out, it runs out, I chose the unlimited game card.  They did NOT receive tickets from any of the games, BUT I had a BIGGER AND BETTER IDEA.  BETTER than any prize the prize center could give out, I went around town and collected both small and big prizes that Ty and his guests would receive AFTER the arcade time was up and BEFORE heading back to Salem.

I created a baggie of numbers (1-12) for both the small and large prizes.

Each boy picked a number out of the bag and in that order they were able to choose a prize from both the small and large prize bins.  

I over bought so that the last person wasn't left with a left over prize.  I returned the items that no one chose.  

Here are just a FEW of the prizes that they were able to choose from.  I would also like to thank:

1. Five Below

2. The Candy Store, Downtown Roanoke, (candy, drinks, and unique trinkets)

3. Food Lion (fireworks)

4. Walmart (emoji pillow)

To see more photos from the party and MORE photos of the prizes I selected, feel free to double click on the Picasa Online Photo Album below.  The album CANNOT be viewed from a mobile device.  

A special thank you goes out to Beth Campbell and Janet Wilkinson for coming up to Blacksburg, to help with the transportation back.  It was also nice having some mommies to talk to since my hubby had to go back to Salem to fix a flat and to get back to work.

The ride home, for me, was quite comical.  The boys played Bean Boozled, which was given to them in their graduation party favor bag.  I will post on that later because I feel like this post is long enough! Jay made me play too and I was forced, while driving, to eat a "vomit" jelly belly.  I told the boys I couldn't play a second round or there could be a great chance that I would get another flat tire.  

This party could NOT have gone any better.  I highly recommend the Cinebowl, in Hokie Nation.   They treated us amazing from start to finish.  The customer service was spot on.  Entertainment and food was excellent and the memories will definitely last a lifetime. I am so excited to get to know these boys and watch them grow even MORE than I already have.  I bet some of these boys will one day even be in Tyson's wedding. It's so hard to believe that that is really NOT THAT FAR AWAY.  Okay... no more talking about that.  Let's focus on middle school.  

Con-GRAD-ulations boys!!!

Lilah was WIPED out from spending the entire day with 11 boys! Shhhh, so was I. Hehe.  Just kidding. It was a very EASY and fun day.  I had 12 kids in my care from 9:15 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.