Cowabunga!

After spending the last couple posts looking back on one son's birthday celebrating, I figured it was only fair to continue my stroll down memory lane with my other son's birthday party recap.
Problem is I may be a bit behind the times already! When Colton turned 5 back in March, both of my boys were totally TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle if you're not in the know!) obsessed. Naturally, then, Colton had to have a TMNT-themed party. Flash forward six months and the poor turtles are pretty much completely off our radar...replaced by Paw Patrol, Mario, and even Star Wars...crazy how fickle these boys can be, huh?!? So the Ninja turtles may be a thing of the past, but Colton's party was a big hit so it's definitely worth a share!
We held Colton's party at Cloud 9, a local trampoline park. My boys both love it...and as a bonus, they even have a "ninja training" area, so it fit with our theme perfectly...something that was probably noticed only by me! For the first hour of the party, then, the kiddos (and grown ups) bounced, climbed, dodged, and swung to their heart's content.

And then we headed into the party room for food. Cloud 9 does "Kid Jump" from 9-10 each morning where only 6 and unders (and their parents) can jump. We made sure to book Colton's party during that time because it tends to be a lot tamer than the other times! However, it did create a little problem when it came to figuring out menu. As obvious as pizza was a food choice for our TMNT party, we had to go with breakfast-type stuff instead! Eventually, we landed on an assortment of bagels and cream cheeses, a fruit tray (oranges, purple grapes, blueberries, and strawberries to represent the four colors of the turtles...forgive me for not bothering to remember their names!) with a marshmallow fruit dip (dyed green for extra ninja turtle flair), and some of the Ninja Turtle yogurt cups. We also did coffee for the grown ups and Ninja Turtle water bottles and juice boxesfor the kids. Of course, this was all back in my non-blogging days, so I really don't have great photos but you can maybe get the idea here!

Admittedly, that's a really lame pic! But you do get a general idea of the decorations. This was a major dilemma for me. This was the first party I've ever done that I wasn't able to decorate in advance. Literally, I had to be able to throw everything up in about 30 minutes while the kids were out jumping...talk about panic-inducing for this OCD mama. Considering the time constraint, I think it turned out pretty decent. The brick background was from Hobby Lobby (hallelujah VB has finally come on board and has one now!). I made the sewer pipes from PVC pipe and the "Colton" sewer cover from a Dollar store cake pan and tin foil. I bought the banner from an Etsy store, and the only other decorative touch was the skateboard I used to put the yogurts on.

Oh, and then there was the table set up...again, not a fantastic picture, but...

Continuing with the colors of the turtles, I just used cut plastic tablecovers in half (folded a couple times) and spread them out down the table. It was also set with Ninja turtle face plates and cute polka dot napkins so it looked much better before the kids got a hold of it! I was also going to put green polka dot balloon centerpieces along the table but forgot/didn't feel like dealing with helium, so we just skipped it!

Following breakfast, we naturally moved on to cake. Again, my neighbor and I created this one with a store-bought topper for good measure. You obviously can't tell from the picture, but the inside was actually four different layers of cake, each colored red, orange, purple, and blue for reasons that I'm sure are obvious by now.  I must say it looked pretty cool when it was cut! 

And based on these sweet pics, my Colty was thrilled with it!

And then we concluded the party like we do all parties...with a Ninja turtle pinata and favors. We gave out Ninja Turtle pez dispensers and masks that I had made. I honestly thought the masks were kind of corny, but they were actually a big hit with everyone, including my boys! 

Overall, the day was a huge success! Colton is our shy kid and I often worry that he gets lost in the shuffle socially sometimes. But he had so many people that wanted to celebrate him, and watching him have a blast with all of them completely melted my heart. Josh (who was very much in attendance at the party despite being woefully absent from every pic!) and I both agreed that we feel incredibly blessed to be able to provide our boys with these memories. 

And speaking of memories, even though they didn't fit anywhere in the post, I have to leave you with my three favorite pictures from that day as they just perfectly showcase how sweet my Colty is...how I hope he always maintains that!