Eight is Great!



Ian enjoyed a very low-key birthday this year.  Hosting a party for him is difficult every year since his birthday is near Easter and ALWAYS during Spring Break.  His friends are almost always out of town or simply forget to attend.  This year it was too much for us as Ryan and I were secretly planning a vacation to Walt Disney World scheduled for the following week.  Next year he will get his Lego birthday party even if that means I have to start making the decorations now.

 

Ian's loot.  Notice the bike still in the box.  Yup, the Disney trip and Easter took up too much of our 'spare' time.  Ian is so easy-going that he didn't mind one bit.

 

 

I just love his excited expression as he came around the corner to discover his pile of gifts.  



 

Thank you Grandma & Grandpa S. and Matt & Sue for sending cash!  This is often Ian's favorite gift!  He and his brother are saving every cent they receive to buy a Nintendo DS.  Mean Mom has refused to purchase this as I am quite anti-video game and we already have a Wii.  I'm still trying to convince them that a Kindle Fire would be WAY better...and maybe I want one.  Maybe.

 

The Lego and Star Wars obsessions remain.  A gift that combines both was definitely a favorite.

Such a happy birthday boy.  He didn't even mind that I wrapped this gift inside out using Christmas paper.  Whatever works!

Ian has kept us laughing and contributed to quite a few gray hairs these past eight years.  He is way too smart which can be both incredibly entertaining and frustrating at any given time...particularly when driving.  Ian's (and Nathan's) love of reading results in trips to the various public libraries multiple times a week these days.  Always wanting to help around the house, he is just as happy folding laundry as he is assisting with yard work.  We love your positive attitude, fearlessness and quirky sense of humor.  We can't imagine our lives without you!

Angry Birds Party

When asked what theme he would like for this year's birthday party, Nathan selected Angry Birds.  Odd considering he had never played the game.  I honestly have no idea where his obsession originated.  Fortunately, Ryan is quite the Angry Birds expert and was able to answer all my questions as the planning and decorating occurred.

 

Hope you're ready for lots of pictures!

Ideally, I make all the decorations myself.  Well, with the master bathroom remodel underway the two weeks leading up to the party that just wasn't possible this time.  Party City saved the day with their cheap plastic signs.

 



A friend pointed me in the direction of THESE awesome balloon templates.  I reduced them to 55%, cut them out and glued them to plain paper bags.  Voila!  Cute goodie bags for the kids to take home along with their mini bird houses to paint.

 

Here are the BALLOON TEMPLATES mentioned above.  So cute!  We had decorated balloons all over the downstairs.

 

 



Thank you Michaels for selling these cute unfinished bird houses on stands for only $1.99.  I painted a few and set up displays using grapevine wreaths as nests and Nathan's plush toys he received as gifts.

 



 

 

The boys have three Angry Birds games like the one below.  We set these up on one of our coffee tables for the kids to play with during the party.

 

I found THESE templates online and thought they would be perfect for this inexpensive game.  I painted empty cans, cut out the pig faces and glued them onto the cans.  It doesn't get easier than that.  I found this Angry Bird playground ball at Toys R Us.

 Themed food is always fun.  I am still disappointed by the many, many ideas I had but didn't have the time to complete.  That and Nathan is currently on a gluten free diet which made planning the menu a bit tricky.  He loves raw veggies though so a tree with a bird (toy) only made sense.

 

 

Gluten free angry bird pizza!  Thank you Trader Joe's for selling a frozen gluten free cheese pizza.  Thank you Ryan for decorating it.  Ryan also made a huge angry bird pizza by altering a Papa Murphy's pepperoni pizza, but the picture didn't turn out well.

 



Bird fruit salad, of course.

 

My FAVORITE decoration!!!  I told Ryan to get some 2 X 4's and made some sort of display for me that will hold the cupcakes.  Look at this!  He made this in what seemed like just a few minutes the morning of the party.  I love it and plan to hang it in Nathan's room.

 

Can't forget to include a picture of the birthday boy!  He loved his party and I vowed never to host another party at the house...wonder if I'll stick to that.

 

And here are the "pop the pig" balloons we forgot about during the party.  Whoops!  Ryan painstakingly added candy to each balloon and blew them all up the night before.  We put them upstairs so the kids didn't get into them before we were ready and in the chaos of the party we forgot about this activity entirely.  I have a funny video of the boys popping two balloons that I will try to add soon.

 

Seven!

Our (sometimes) sweet Nathan turned seven this week.  How is this possible?  It seems like just yesterday we were overwhelmed and slightly terrified as we drove home from the hospital with our newborn and 10.5 month-old boys.  We still laugh at that trip home.  We stopped at Dairy Queen because I was starving and Ryan never turns down ice cream.  As we sat in the parking lot one baby began crying and then the other one began crying...Ryan and I looked at each other and laughed.  Welcome to our new, increasingly noisy normal.  Seven years later and they cry a lot less, but the noise ceases only when both boys are asleep.

Happy birthday, crazy kid.  May you celebrate 100 more birthdays!

Birthday Boy

What a different four years make!  Ian enjoying the monster truck at Chuck E. Cheese's on his birthday in 2008:

And still loving the monster truck yesterday:

Pretty soon they're going to be too old for Chuck E. Cheese's!  Well, that's probably the best thing about them getting older.  (Am I right, moms???)

Six & Seven

Last night was the final evening our house was full of six-year-old boys so we snapped a quick photo.  Ian turned SEVEN today!  Can you believe it?  I cannot!  He amazes us each day with his compassion for others, his intelligence and quick wit as well as his ability to pack away more food than the rest of us without putting on any extra weight.

We don't have many photos from today's celebration as we experienced an F/A-18 plane crash a couple miles from our party site shortly after our celebration began.  As my phone began ringing off the hook, I spent quite a bit of time responding to texts, calls, emails, etc., all while shielding the kids from the event, passing out Chuck E. Cheese tokens and taking the party back to the house for cake and ice cream.  We are thankful that no casualties have been reported at this time.

I'll post at least one photo of the birthday boy soon!

Monster Party Part 3: Let's Eat!

I cannot imagine hosting a birthday party and not serving food.  That being said, it can be incredibly difficult to present a well-balanced meal while still entertaining parents and eleven 5 and 6-year-old children.  Thank goodness Ryan was home for this party!

Theme food is also a must if at all possible.  I wanted to take things further than I did, but Ryan calling me "crazy" the entire week leading up to the party combined with real life forced me to draw the line eventually.

Pretty sure that the fruit monster throwing up was the highlight of the party for a few kids.  I will have to remember this for future Halloween parties.

These monster pizzas were very simple to make, but we needed plain cheese mini pizzas for the picky children.  I always fail to accurately predict how picky other people's children will be.  I don't really tolerate that sort of behavior from my own boys and didn't think it would be a big deal to just pick off 2 olives or 2 pieces of pepperoni.  For the most part, that was the case at this party.  Thank goodness!

Most of the remaining food is pictured below, but I completely forgot to take a picture of the "monster toes" aka pigs in a blanket.  We also threw together some "monster mix" which contained preztels, popcorn, cheese crackers and dried plantains.

The dining room before the kids covered it all in crumbs, frosting, etc.

Monster Party Part 2: Monster Faces

Monsters, monsters and more monsters!  Maybe I went a little overboard with some of the details.  I spent every evening the week prior to the party cutting and gluing.  I love my Cricut and I love the monster theme set I purchased HERE on Etsy.

The birthday hats were created with shapes cut from the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge.  Nathan insisted on the pom poms.

Play-Doh remains a favorite of ours so I thought it would be a great addition to the goodie bags.  However, I couldn't just toss in a container.  Oh, no!  Each must be transformed into a monster!  Most of the features were Cricut leftovers from the hat project and a few had mouths from the Etsy set linked above.

Juice box monsters were a must!  The handcut monster feet didn't really photograph well, but I know they're there.  :)  A multipack of google eyes provided more than enough eyes to decorate 20 juice boxes.  The mouths and feet were from the Etsy set. 

I am pretty sure the parents were thrilled to drink out of cups with google eyes and water bottles wrapped in monster labels.  Wouldn't you be?

Monster Party Part 1: Cupcake Monster Factory

Saturday's Monster Birthday Party was a success!!! I'll be uploading photos all week to share all of the details with you.

The kids really enjoyed creating their own monster cupcakes. They all turned out so cute! I don't have photos of the kids' creations since I was passing out the parts to everyone, but I did make sure to set aside a few parts so I could make my own after the party.


Below is a plate full of chocolate arms, mouths and a few horns. The chocolate pieces were more durable than I expected.


Our second plate of parts contained eyes, horns and noses.


Here is the birthday boy constructing his monster cupcake.


Mom's cupcake #1. The icing I made was a bit too stiff, but I ran out of time and could not go back to fix that. So, next time I'm hoping for better fur and better spikes.


Mom's cupcake #2. I believe I had just as much as the kids fun making my monster cupcakes. What else can I make out of chocolate to decorate cupcakes? Of course, it would be for the kids...