Party Time

Today we had G's 5th Birthday Party.  This year we decided to do a Winter Party Theme.  We (and by we I mean K and I) made snowflake ornaments that could be used as magnets for an easy reminder. 

The boys and I delivered most of them at church the week before and took the rest around the next Monday.  We invited all the kids from G's combined CTR 5-6 class and the Sunbeam class, our neighbor Vila and good friend Lilly.  Only one of the invited friends didn't come.

Before the party we rearranged the furniture and made sure we had some fun decorations up, including all four of our Happy Birthday banners.  I tried calling G a big five year old, but he said he wasn't five until he had cake.

 We set out the food including the uber fancy (not) snowman cake I made. 

When we were discussing his cake the week before I had asked G if he wanted snowman cupcakes or a snowman cake.  He said, "Cake, and I want Heather to make it."  "Don't you want me to make it?" I asked.  " No.  You can bring me a gift and I'll give you a goody bag."  I am happy to report that he changed his mind later and allowed me to make the cake, which I'm sure my friend Heather was quite happy about. :)

While he was impatiently waiting we decided to let G open our birthday present to him.  We gave him a Moon Sand set with some extra colors.  A couple of months ago all I heard when we went in the store was, "Can I have moon sand, Mom?' over and over and over again.  When I found some on sale I decided to give it a try, so I bought it and stuck it in my closet to wait for his birthday.  This is the problem with buying presents early, for the last few weeks I've heard not a thing about moon sand but Everything about Remote Control.   Oh well.  He seemed happy enough with it, and I hope I can get over my dislike of messes enough to let him play with it sometimes.

When the guests started arriving G would direct them where to put the gifts down and would try to give them a goody bag right away, until he finally understood that they were for the end of the party.  A few of his friends had never been invited to a friend party before and they were all VERY excited.  We had Grandpa Gene and Grandma Marta watching the chaos through Skype and I'm sure they turned the volume down LOW.  I sort of wish I could have.  The first thing we did was let them have a 'snowball' fight.  We'd blown up a bunch of white balloons and they had a blast and a half throwing them at each other.  I wish I would have thought to get pictures or a little video of that.  It was hilarious.

After about 15 minutes of snowball fight I got them to clean up the balloons and we started on our next game, Pin the Stuff on the Snowman.  I had the snowman up on the wall correctly put together so they could get an idea of how it should look

then everyone got a piece and they each took turns putting him back together.  I had them wear a black beanie over their eyes and spun them around a few times, just to make it more fun.  Things were going really well until we got to the eyes.  Colter, not being able to see, ended up putting them on under the carrot nose.  Not a big deal for most people, I even thought it was kind of cute.  G freaked out.  This is why he is not in the picture with all of his friends and their completed snowman. 

After the tantrum was over, we had a relay race.  I divided the kids into two teams.  Each person had to run toward the couch, put on a snow hat, scarf and pair of gloves, then run around through the kitchen and back to the couch, take off the stuff and run back to their team and give a high five to the next person.  As soon as I said go we had tantrum number two, this time from H.  He stormed off to his room, I think because he didn't get to go first?, and stayed there the entire game.  I ran his part for him.  I think the kids enjoyed the game, but if I do anything like that again I'll use mittens instead of gloves.  Too many kids got hung up on getting all their fingers in right.

When the relay race was over we got out the craft.  I had more foam and stickers like we'd used to make the invitations so I let each kid make their own Christmas ornament to take home.  During the craft, I was sitting next to a certain little girl who had never been invited to a friend party before.  She looked over at me, coughed, then threw up all down her front.  I quickly scooped her up and took her to the bathtub where she continued throwing up for a few minutes.  K was left in charge of the kids and their craft, and calling this little girls mom, while I tried to get her cleaned up and changed into some of G's sweats.   Luckily the mess was pretty much contained to her clothes and the bathtub.  At some point while I was taking care of the mess a sharpie marker found it's way into some little crafting hands, but that's another story altogether.  L's mom came and picked her up and we sent her home with a goody bag and wishes to feel better and got back to the party.

We sang happy birthday to G, he eventually blew out the candles and we all enjoyed some cake and ice cream, muddy buddies, and carrot sticks (because that's what snowmen have for noses).

When the goodies were all eaten it was, of course, present time.  All the kids crowded around G, so excited to give him their presets.  He got a pretty nice haul: some books, Nerf guns, iron man action figures, play-doh, goldfish crackers, and toy boats.  The most exciting part of the day was opening the present from Grandma Marta and Grandpa Gene.  He got his very....own....Remote Control Car!  I so wish we had it on video, but when he opened the present he was practically screaming, "It's an RC! I have been waiting my whole life! This is the best present EVER!"  He was one happy kid.   Pretty much talked about that car the rest of the day.  We were glad Grandma and Grandpa were 'virtually' there to see that.

After all the presents were opened the kids ran down to the playroom to jump on the love sac and pull out the dress-ups until their parents came to pick them up.  On their way out the door they got their ornaments and a goody bag with a chocolate candy, a snowman lollipop, a snowflake straw and their own pair of gloves.

It was a super fun party, but I've already told G he's not getting another party until he turns 8.

To finish off the birthday, we did 'looking' at Cabelas, bought batteries for his RC car at Walmart,  went to a little story time play at the library where they sang 'Happy Birthday' to G and then we had dinner at McDonald's, complete with Happy Meal toys for both boys.  We did attend a surprise birthday party that night for my cousin, which G was perfectly happy to do because, as he said, then he got cake twice.