Party On

Carter’s SIXTH birthday fell on a Sunday this year, and, since it’s the last time for years he’ll have the chance to have a party on his birthday, we went ahead and had the Sunday party.  I spent the afternoon before hunting and gathering all the supplies and said I’d like to go to bed that day with the living room ready for the party so the next morning would be easy.  Ha.  I like to say things like that just to make myself laugh, because there is something in my genetics that prevents me from being really ready for anything more than at the last moment. 

Soooo, the morning of the party, there I was, baking the cake, which I meant to do that morning because one of the best things about homemade cake is that it’s fresh.  Thankfully, at 8:30—2 hours before I expected it—the bouncy house guy came to drop off the jumper.  Instantly the kids had something to do other than ask me how long until the party or ask to eat candy from, the pinata.  Yay!

Carter wanted his theme for his birthday to be… birthday.  I floated Angry Birds or Star Wars (I really wanted to make an Angry Birds cake!), but nope, birthday.  :)

Ready or not in the morning, by midday we were all in party mode, and ready to go.  For small kids’ parties, I think 2 hours is PLENTY of time to have them running amok, so the party pretty much consisted of playing all over the place—bouncing a lot, but also making trains in the boys’ room, taking out whatever toys they wanted, and eating pizza and cake, then whacking a pinata.

Build up their appetites.

Fill ‘em with cheese and sugar.

Let ‘em whack things.  Give ‘em more sugar to take home, plus some items Carter decided his friends all truly needed, like whoopie cushions and glow sticks.

Then send ‘em packing.  That’s how I roll.  I’m sure the sugar rush and whoopie cushions were endless fun for both guests and parents all. day. long.  :)

I also think there is some kid circle of hell that involves being forced to pretend to care one iota about the gift opening part of a birthday—for anyone that is not the birthday kid, that is.  I mean, really, how awful is that?  Even at Bun’s parties we’ve thus far put off opening anything until after the party.  Then the child is not forced to tear through the presents at some crazy speed, barely able to register what they received, much less play with it for a moment before they must open the next one.  So, we do it at a slower pace.  Carter opened a couple of presents right after the majority of the guests left, and played with them for most of the afternoon.

For months he’d been aching for the Shark Ship (if you have kids who watch TV beyond the no-commercial channels, you have seen this advertised heavily in the preholiday push).  He was so happy to take her for a spin… and let that shark munch away on all the ‘guys’ in the boat, which is also pretty cool, since it can be made into more than 2 dozen different configurations.  He pretty much opened this, and the Squid Sub, and that was all he wanted to play with all afternoon.  In the hot tub, of course.

These poor sailors pretty much exist to be eaten, extracted from the shark’s belly, and then eaten again.  It’s a rough life, being on the seas.

Fact:  sound effects are KEY.

I hope Carter remembers his 6th birthday as a special, fun day.  No party can come close to bringing anyone the joy having him in our family has brought to us, of course.  ♥