It's not a party til someone gets punched in the mouth.

**I have to officially turn this post over to Jason. It is the first time he has actually agreed to write one of these. But I needed him to. He was there, He was the one experiencing this first. I wish I could have gone but I just wasn't ready to see it. It was Owen's very first school birthday party. It was at a indoor sports place so it was much more fitting for dad to go than mom.**

Well with that being said....I was the only Dad there! 

Walking in, it was so nice to see that several of the boys ran up to say hi.  It was also nice to see that Tyson (also has DS and is in Owen's class) was there.  Before long, all of his classmate's parents left except me and Tyson's mom.  Awkward. We started out playing mini-golf and it was fun to see that it's fairly universal that no 5/6year old boy has the patience to play correctly.  Mini-golf didn't last very long, but it was pretty interesting that Tyson and Owen stuck with it longer than the rest. 

Then, we moved into the gym area and they had a couple inflatables in there, one was an obstacle course and one was a jumper with a ladder to a slide.  The boys all loved the slide but the ladder was really difficult for several of them to climb with socks on.  Owen had a real hard time with it because he kept slipping off and couldn't get a good hold with his feet.  Tyson's mom and I had to go in and help him and Tyson get up it a few times.  It was pretty funny because they would move on to the obstacle course and we would be left standing in there waiting for them to come back around.  One of the times that neither of us was in there, I came walking up and a little boy named Gabe was holding his mouth and looking sad.  He came up and told me that Reece had hit him.  One of the other boys told me that Owen was trying to climb up the ladder and Gabe wouldn't stop jumping.  Owen got frustrated and told him to stop but he didn't. So Reece socked him in the mouth!  I didn't know what to say.  I was so happy and proud that Reece had stuck up for Owen but I felt obligated to be a good adult/parent.  All I could come up with was "are you sure it wasn't an accident?" I think I failed that one. 

 Next it was on to laser tag.  It was dark and loud and Owen was not having it.  He did not like the vest and kept telling me that he "didn't want it."  That is until he saw that everyone else was going in. Once he got in, he LOVED it and then we had the problem that he didn't want to leave it.  By the time that it was time for hot dogs, cake, and presents...I could tell that he was pretty tired.  He found the energy for another game of laser tag before we left.

I have to admit that I was fairly nervous going into this.  I was worried about whether or not anyone would play with him.  I was worried we would have melt downs.  I was worried what the other parents might be thinking.  But overall, it was a good experience.  Yes he is behind. The other boys are stronger, faster, and more coordinated.  But he is holding his own and interacting!  It's so nice to see him being included but more importantly...he had fun!

Now that this post is done...that should hold me over for a couple more years.