Caleb's Birthday!

Caleb turned nine on the ninth of September. Since we had been busy going out of town and with the whole first week of school, we didn't have his party 'til the 15th, which was fine with him since he then sort-of had 2 parties. On the 9th, we gave him his presents and had a cake for him. He got lots of $$ and cards from far away relatives, and we gave him a David Beckham (soccer) shirt and 3 Reader's Digest kid's books: rocks and minerals, space, and sea creatures. I didn't think the books would be such a big hit, but Caleb loved them and the shirt, of course, and he said it was the best birthday ever. He says David Beckham is his "hero" but I don't think he actually knows anything about him except he's a soccer star.
Thankfully, not all nine of the kids he invited to his party were able to make it as we seemed to have our hands full with just five plus our three! The funny thing about birthday parties here in New Jersey is that they are never at someone's house. They are always at the skating rink, or the private movie theater, or the sportsdome, etc. So I think it might've been unusual for these kids to go to someone's house to have just a regular old birthday party. Plus, Caleb insisted on making homemade invitations that he made completely on his own (with plain white paper and pencil). And I must admit, they were awfully cute but I was worried that other parents would think that we couldn't afford to buy printed invitations! (In addition to having the party at home)! Anyway, all the kids had a great time, mainly because Dave quickly came up with a spectacular treasure hunt for them complete with secret codes, riddles, and so on.
We also had a pinata, which is a big deal for these Jersey kids since they never are at a party that has one; they were really excited about it! We let Caleb go first. As Dave lowered the pinata getting it ready to be hit, the whole thing crashed to the ground. Luckily it appeared unscathed and Dave was able to quickly rig it back up. I blindfolded Caleb, he stepped forward, swung, and barely tapped the thing. The bottom dropped right out of the pinata like a trap door and all the candy spilled to the ground! The kids dove in and collected the candy but I felt so bad for them all lined up waiting their turn and no one got one. They didn't seem to mind too much though!
Dave and I were exhausted afterwards, and it was only an hour and a half! Sam's birthday is next and we are SO trying to talk him out of a party! Here's some pictures if you want to see them.
p.s. The picture above is a candid, unstaged picture of Caleb during the party...