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!

Chocolate Chip Waffle Cake

Since I finally shared the details of Levi's 3rd birthday party in my last post, I figured the perfect follow up was his completely delicious cake I made for his family celebration at home...
Birthdays are all about the food around here. **Who am I kidding? Most of our days revolve around food**  But, birthdays are extra special! Choice of birthday breakfast, birthday lunch, birthday dinner (out or in), birthday cake...you get the idea!
When Levi turned 3, he was very clear with his choices. He wanted donuts for breakfast, so we headed out to Krispy Kreme bright and early that Sunday morning. Unfortunately, he threw up as we were waiting in line for our treats (Josh waited in line while I rushed him to the nearest bathroom), so we had to abort mission and cancel our planned trip to the Children's Museum. After a few hours at home, it appeared Levi's issue was a fluke, so we decided to save the special day and head to hell Chuck E. Cheese per his request.

  
                            

For dinner, V had requested pork chops and green beans (his very random favorite at the time), so we had invited all of our family members over for the special meal and cake. Unfortunately, it was around that time that we noticed Levi's stomach bug from the morning was still lingering. Luckily, he didn't get sick anymore but he kept sneaking off to the bathroom thinking he was going to get sick. I just felt so bad for my boy that he wasn't able to fully enjoy his special day, especially this star of the show...

As random as pork chops and green beans were, Levi's request for a chocolate chip waffle cake was probably even more bizarre. I pride myself on being a master googler (yes, that's a thing) and being able to search for just about anything, but "chocolate chip waffle cake" just wasn't out there. So I had to get creative, and I'm a little embarrassed to reveal just how easy this thing was. A box of yellow cake mix prepared per directions + a handful of chocolate chips per waffle scoop...prepared in a waffle iron just as you would regular waffles and voila...I had some pretty yummy chocolate chip waffles. But what's a cake without frosting, right?!? Again, just a can of premade chocolate frosting spread between each waffle, plus a few sprinkles for a good, festive measure and we had a big hit of a birthday cake! Seriously, everyone raved about how great it was! 

All-Star Sports Bash

Never mind the fact that my baby is just a few months away from turning four, today we're going to talk about his third birthday party...way back in January!
For the entirety of Levi's life, he has been a sports enthusiast. If it involves a ball, the boy is naturally drawn to it. He doesn't watch tv, but if there's a sport on, he'll literally freeze in front of it to watch. He spends every waking moment playing one sport or another. I'd like to think he's destined to be some sort of athlete (or mascot, I guess?!?), but only time will tell.
Naturally, then, when it was time to start planning Levi's birthday party, I knew we had to go with a sports theme. This party represented a major turning point for us in that we had decided we would absolutely be doing no more parties at home after a debacle of Colton's last party where the weather literally forced everyone, including their chaos and mud, into our house. Luckily, Virginia Beach has an amazing indoor sports facility, the Field House, that I knew would be perfect for our boy!
And luckily, they were kind enough to let me get in the afternoon before to do a bit of decorating.

The table runners are just turf that I had cut from Home Depot's "carpet" section. I don't remember exactly what it cost, but it was super cheap. I designed the pennant flags myself (going with a black and gold theme for our beloved Steelers), and the baseball is just scrapbook paper.

One of my...and Levi's...favorite details were the sports card cake centerpieces. I didn't realize trading cards were so freaking expensive, so these came in a big higher than I had intended, but the good news is almost a year later, he still has them displayed in his room!

The favor/gift table featured a PVC goal post and field table cloth I had gotten from Target.

For the actual party, Levi got to choose 3 sports/activities from a list. He chose obstacle course, soccer, and baseball. Honestly, the staff didn't do a fantastic job of organizing the games (I think they were a bit thrown off by the 25ish 3 year olds!), but the kids...and most importantly, V...didn't notice! My boy had a blast.

After an hour, we moved into the party room for lunch (hot dogs, chips, and fruit). I had set up a concessions table, but it sadly never got filled because the place brought the food on carts right as they were serving it:(

And after lunch, we went ahead and did the cake.  My neighbor/good friend helped me make the cake, as in I did the baking and she did the decorating. It was pretty darn tasty and looked amazing, but man that was definitely more time-consuming than I had banked on! Levi was in love with those baseball guys on top, though, so in the end, we'll call it a win.

Following cake, we concluded the chaos with a baseball pinata. My boys both insist on pinatas after reading a Llama, Llama birthday party book that featured one. This one was filled with sports ball chocolates, which I'm sure the parents loved me for, but one has to stick with a theme, right?!?

To bid everyone adieu, we gave them each a favor...a sports water bottle from Oriental Trading filled with a sports bouncy ball and some Big League Chew...and sent them to the awesome indoor playground at the Field House. 

While they played, the staff brought all the gifts, decorations, etc to our car, and we happily left without having to clean up...a major plus over all those home parties where we cleaned up for days afterwards. Mom and Dad were happy, and Levi was happy because he had a blast...so much so that he is already mentioning having his fourth birthday party there. Little does this kid know mom can't repeat a theme, so we'll have to see who wins!

Superhero Party: Favors and Activities

I'm going to wrap up Colton's Superhero party today by sharing with you the favors and activities.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, the weather really put a damper on our activities.  Literally! With the rain and cold, the kids really didn't do the stuff as much as I had hoped for, but oh well!
All along the plan was to have the bounce house be the prime attraction, which I guess it was...

But I had set up some superhero-themed activities to keep the kids entertained once they were over all the bouncing.  There was some building jumping...

And I had set up a strong man barbell and photo backdrop (which my dad was happy to put to use)...

And the one activity the kids did get in to was the villain shooting.  I had set up different villains throughout the yard and put out some cans of silly string.  They ended up shooting each other more than the villains, but at least they got put to use!

 And then there was the pinata. We have a couple of birthday party books, and in each of them, the birthday party has a pinata.   A couple of weeks before his party Colton started mentioning how excited about his pinata.  So naturally, we had to have a pinata!  I made this Captain America one for him and was a little worried how it would hold up.  Well, it was near impossible to break!  Josh eventually had to tear it open for the kids...

We handed out bags for each kid to store their pinata goodies and then turned them loose on the favor table.  

On hand were some superhero bracelets and bubbles from Oriental Trading, Rice Krispie treats (pop!), superhero lollipops, kryptonite (green slime), and some color-appropriate candies the kids could scoop into their bags.  Admittedly, it was a bit heavy on the sugar quotient (especially combined with the pinata), but I just couldn't decide which ideas I wanted to eliminate so we went with it all!

Oh, and the kids did get one more favor: their own personalized cape.  These were on display at the entrance of the party, and most kids were quick to put them on (especially Levi who had seen me making these and had been eagerly awaiting his blue cape...he even slept with it that night).

And with that, I think we have concluded the superhero party recap!