JP + Cars 2 + Alamo = Best Birthday Ever

For my non-Austin friends, take note, this post may make you very sad.  You see, we have this GEM of a theatre in town, Alamo Drafthouse.  It’s very Austin.  I’m a little ashamed to admit that I did not know of its awesomeness until last year.

Sad, isn’t it?

Alamo came up with a brilliant concept, you can order from a fantastic menu, get a WAITER and enjoy a show.  I know, I told you it was awesome.  As my brother says, when he goes to a regular theatre he always finds himself looking around saying, “What do I have to do to get some service around here??”

When you have a kiddo with a “winter” birthday in Texas, even though the weather may be lovely you can’t really take it to the bank.  And, you can’t really plan on an outdoor party.  Now that John Paul has equally passionate and rambunctious friends, we have officially outgrown the house party.  {insert sad face HERE}  However, it’s stretched my creative brain in coming up with fun and new ideas.  Last year, we rocked it out at Cabela’s with his scavenger hunt/camo birthday.  This year, I took inspiration from a friend who also has a winter-birthday-kiddo in her house.  She mentioned the greatness of Alamo’s events and I was sold.

Last Saturday morning, John Paul and a whole slew of his buddies from school (along with a few parents and all-to-willing-to-come-along siblings) joined us at Alamo for one great party.  It was super easy to find the theatre because “John Paul” was showing in Three.  SWEET!  Nice touch, Alamo.  Just so my mom brain doesn’t forget, I designed this super-fun admission ticket with all the information as his birthday invites.  I loved it because some of the kids brought it with them for their “official” ticket!

You can either feature a show currently in theatres or bring your own.  We never did see “Cars 2” when it came out, so we were completely stoked that it recently came out on BluRay.  Seeing it on the big screen at the party was beyond cool.

“Tow Mater, Average Intelligence.”  I laugh everytime.

The staff setup a great table of goodies, or “sugar crash waiting to happen” as I prefer to call it.  The boys loaded up their cups and plates, ordered a coke and we all settled in for a great movie.  Our waiter, George, deserves a gold medal for all his help.  He was FANtastic.  You should ask for him next time you go to the Lake Creek location.

After the show, we brought up the house lights, took a couple of pictures, sang happy birthday and ate some Lightning McQueen cookies (compliments of Cookie Haus in Pflugerville).  You’ll have to trust me on the cute factor.  We ate them before we took any pictures!  One of the best parts of the party?  Momma didn’t have to clean up anything.  Holla!  Cousins Ava and Luke win the “we had the most fun award”.  My parents win the “thanks for taking care of Luke” award.

Instead of gifts this year, we asked the boys to bring books we could donate to Dell Children’s Medical Center.  Over the years we’ve learned two things:

1.  Our children have puh-lenty of toys.

2.  Kids at the hospital love a good read.

John Paul got some really wonderful and thoughtful gifts from his relatives and Godparents.  And, now he’s looking forward to taking all those books (three boxes worth!) to the hospital tomorow.

Happy 8th birthday John Paul!