Today was Per's 8th birthday party.  (If you're keeping track, he doesn't actually turn 8 until next week, but b/c of the holiday, it's hard to throw a party then)  Per decided he'd like to have a Bakugan themed party at the local hibachi restaurant.  Because this is a pricey sort of outing, we limited him to 6 friends, although only 4 could make it.  In the immortal words of Top Gear, "What could go wrong?"

The party started off well.  With so few kids, it was easy to get everyone settled, and we soon had the infamous Ramune marble soda on hand for all the kids.  At that point, it was time to order.  2 had been to the restaurant before, and knew what they wanted.  2 had never been, and of those two, one was a picky eater.  I mean to the level of "I will only eat plain rice with soy sauce" sort of picky.  I tried to work my "Unfamiliar Parent" mojo and get him to open up and try the other foods.  He would only touch the (plain) noodles.  Oh well!  His mom, who warned me in advance, will get to enjoy the leftovers!

When dessert rolled around, Per decided that he no longer wanted the Bittersweet Chocolate Blast Cake that he'd announced he wanted when he walked in.  This would have been okay, except that the cake takes 30 minutes to make, and they'd already started it for him.  Guess what you're having, Dean!  Of course, the chef didn't know about the last minute dessert switch, so Per's candle was on the chocolate cake rather than the cheese cake he ultimately wanted.

At this point, the food was done, and we still had 45 minutes left before the party was officially over.  Oops!  Okay...I try to get Per to open his presents.  No, he insists he wants to open them at home.  Quick, let the kids open their goody bags.  This seemed like a good idea until noisemakers were being aimed directly at unsuspecting eyes, and multiple children were getting up and trying to run around.  I suddenly was the jerk with all the badly behaved kids!  Yikes!  I then managed to get them focused on the presents, and hoped to stretch that out, but the waitresses decided to be "helpful" (I think they thought we would just take off after the presents were opened), so they stood next to Perry and helped him open the gifts.  This might sound pushy, but they are actually the sweetest, nicest women, and I wasn't upset or anything, except for the fact that we still had 30 minutes to go, and now the boys were completely sugared up.

The restaurant was now officially closed for the break between lunch and dinner, so we were the only people in the place, and we quickly turned to our iPhones as distraction.  First I gave my phone to each of the boys to take photos.  Then Dean got the virtual lightsabers fired up, and fake lightsaber fights went on.  At this point, I frantically asked each boy for their phone number, and let the parents know that we'd finished up a little earlier than expected.  I felt like a jerk, but there was no safe place to take the boys to wait, and the restaurant would not survive the whole 30 minutes.  Luckily, all the parents were close by, and we were able to apologize to the waitresses for the chaos (I did tip them extremely well, btw).  Then we took Per to the playground, and finally back home, where he actually got all his thank you notes done in record time!

So, yes, I survived.  But you'd better believe I'm pushing for the "1 friend, big outing" type of party for next year!!!