The Ferrell Boys and Me . . .: Zach's Rodeo/ Sleep Over Birthday Party

It's hard to believe that my baby boy is 10 years old! But it's true. Zach's brithday was on the 3rd of January, but I waited until now to have his birthday party. One of Zach's best friend's birthday is in the first week of February so his mother and I planned a party for the two boys together. . . . a spend the night/rodeo birthday party for 12 boys. It conveniently worked out that on the night of the party there was also a rodeo in a neighboring town and on that Friday night . . . kids under 12 got in free!

Two words can describe the party . . . LOUD and CHAOS! Ha!

Janice (the other mother) and I picked the boys up at school at 3 o'clock along with my friend Myra who helped carry boys out to my house.

The boys played outside on the hay bales while we got the pizza and snacks ready.

Janice picked up some Pizza Hut pizzas for the boys . . . and they were starving!

Dave and I cleaned up the garage for the party. My parents had just recently pulled up the carpet in their living room to replace it with hard wood floors. I borrowed the carpet and foam and laid it out on the floor of the garage. Myra brought a radiant heater over to keep the garage warm. Dave hooked up a TV with a DVD player that also plays Netflix . . . and he hooked up another TV with the Wii player for the boys.

They all got their pizza and snacks and settled in to watch something on Netflix.

Some of the boys took advantage of the carpet and started wrestling with Dave acting as referee.

We opened presents and the boys got lots of neat presents.

And then it was time to go to the rodeo . . . but before we left I took a picture of the boys on the haybales . . . All the boys except for Shane . . .

The rodeo was so much fun! I haven't been to a rodeo in a long time. It's probably been 20 years since the last time I've been to a rodeo. I really enjoyed it.

When we got to the rodeo, we ran into Shane's best friend, Colt, and his momma and sister. Shane was in heaven. He and Colt are very best friends since birth. They played and played together.

They both loved using my camera to take pictures. Here is one that Colt took of me and Shane. Shane doesn't like the flash. Lol!

At the beginning of the rodeo, Alex started feeling bad.

I didn't realize how LOUD the rodeo is and my sweet Alex has sensitive ears. Even with earplugs, the loudness of the speakers and music hurt his ears and he started feeling sick . . . so Dave took him out to the van and let him play on the ipad. I missed Dave being at the rodeo with me, but Alex needed him more!

Shane decided part way through the rodeo that he wanted to text his girlfriend, Mary Beth so I let him use my phone.

I wish you could see the mess he sent her! Luckily her mother has received texts from Shane before so she knew what was going on.

Shane started to get hungry and the line to the concession stand was soooo long so I texted Dave and he walked back to the arena to get Shane. He took Shane and Alex to get something to eat while we stayed at the rodeo. I'm so glad he took off work and came with us!

Once Shane was gone, I began to really enjoy the rodeo. I moved up by Zach and his friends and was able to watch every event and every cowboy/girl do their thing.

Barrell racing . . .

Bull riding . . .

I don't remember the rodeo being such a dangerous sport! Several cowboys were injured.

But then it was over and it was late so we headed home.

I made some hardy bedtime snacks for the boys . . . cheesy - sausage - rotel dip with chips, bar-b-que little smokies, left-over pizza, and finally . . . birthday cake!

I baked the cake and made the icing, but my sweet friend, Myra came to the rescue and decorated it for me! I love it! It was a LOT of cake though. . . . a LOT of cake! Ha!

I also made cupcakes and used my cupcake stands again. I made cupcake toppers to match the plates, napkins, and invitations.

I also had a box of the cowboy boot mugs left over from Shane's Cowboy Birthday party so I filled them with beef jerky, beef sticks, fruit roll ups, and assorted mini chocolate candy bars. The boys loved the beef jerky!

Please overlook the magic marker writing on the wall. Shane got a magic marker and made some "pretty" pictures on the wall of the garage and they were waterproof! :/

Some of the cupcakes didn't have icing because Zach doesn't like icing! Weird child of mine! Ha!

Luckily I had lots of cowboy hats and bandanas left over from Shane's birthday party to use for decorations. The garage was really cute, but I didn't get a picture of that. :D

I did get a picture of the boys' cowboy hats hanging on the barb wire fence. I thought it looked cool.