Alp turned twelve last week!
I brought him cupcakes to his summer school class, where we sang Happy Birthday. There are only three other students in his class, and only two of them were present. They were both twelve year old boys, but they were much tinier than Alp.
One boy was Haitian and barely spoke. The teacher said he is somewhat verbal, but at home his family speaks only Creole. He was absolutely adorable. His face just lit up when he was the cake and he seemed to really enjoy it. After, we played a little game of pushing a toy bus back and forth to each other. I wanted to take him home.
Alp, meanwhile, was absolutely hyper about the idea of going to Chuck E. Cheese that evening for his party. As soon as Rachel and I walked in his classroom (Erin couldn't come because she was at computer camp) he went to get his backpack and said, "Let's go to Chuck E. Cheese!"
The teachers said he was talking about it all day long.
The other boy in his class was hyperactive, like Alp, but seemed to be lower functioning than Alp and the other boy. He didn't want a cupcake.

It was hard to get Alp to understand that we wouldn't be going to Chuck E. Cheese until 6pm. School gets out at 1:30, so there was plenty of time before the big celebration! We ended up filling some time doing errands (Office Depot for printer ink, etc.) and finally the time arrived.
I actually made sure Alp ate something around 4pm because in the past he would get very anxious for the pizza as soon as we arrived. This seemed to work well.

Alp and I went to pick Erin up from camp and had a little more time to kill, so we went to Toys R Us to let Alp help us pick out a present. However, he consistently refused even the items that seemed to interest him initially. I ended up selecting one of those inflatable punching guys, this one is shaped like a pirate and it talks back to you when you punch him (and he comes back up for more). (He loves it!)

We got to Chuck E.'s at exactly the same time Daddy pulled up with his car full of girls: Rach, Chelsea and Taylor. It was time for fun!

I love how Alp always wants to wear the little Birthday crown they give the birthday child at the door, but this time they offered a balloon instead, which was even better. He's getting a little old for the hat, and he just loves balloons.

This was Alp's fourth party here. He knows and enjoys the whole routine of it. The games, the pizza, the mechanical rat, and eventually the real one and the cake. Everything went as planned and he had a great time.

To top it off, when we got home, the neighbors slept over, so this was added fun for Alp. He loves when the house is full like that.

It was a great feeling knowing he had such a great time.

The next day, we had cupcakes and cake left over, and after lunch I was serving them to all the kids. Alp told us we were going to sing Happy Birthday again, so we obliged!