My sweet baby boy turned five on Saturday. Five! Can you believe it?
We spent a lot of time gearing up for Dane's first friend party--an Angry Birds Party!
As the big day approached, Dane kept checking with me, "Do you have Angry Birds decorations? Do you have an Angry Birds cake? Will we have Angry Birds games?" He definitely didn't want to leave anything to chance.
Well, I believe the party was a success. We had decorations:
Food:
Presents:
Ninja Turtle gear from his school friend Jack.
Cool magnetic dart board from Grandma Frost.
Unfortunately, almost all of our pictures were somehow deleted off the camera. I have no idea how it happened. But amazingly, my friend left her fancy DSLR at the house, so I stole some photos off her camera. And took some of my own photos. Heehee!
We had some fun party favors, and the pictures disappeared, but we had Angry Birds eggs (brightly colored sixlets), mini Angry Birds kites, Angry Birds graham crackers, Angry Birds bandaids, and homemade yarn pom pom Angry Birds and pigs with little plastic cups so they could have their own Angry Birds games.
So, on to the games. We had a lot of fun games.
First, the kids made their own pig face on a plate. Then, they assumed their new pig identities and suddenly found themselves chased by a huge, red Angry Bird!
Joel chased the kids around for a while with the giant rubber ball, and my mom laughed that he seemed to be having even more fun than the kids.
June got a turn as the Angry Bird, too.
The we played Angry Birds bowling, inspired by this tutorial.
Things I learned:
1) Don't skimp on the paint. I was trying to conserve paint and added water to the bottles, and they just didn't cover very well.
2) 3- to 5-year-olds are not so big that empty soda bottles are too easy to knock down with a rubber ball. I added like 1/2 cup of pinto beans to the bottles for extra weight, and they had a pretty hard time knocking them down, even from just a few feet away.
And we played Pop the Pigs!
I stole a pallet from behind Ace Hardware (which is a funny story in itself) and painted an Angry Birds scene on poster board attached to the pallet. And I made Angry Birds bean bags using old t-shirts and freezer paper screen printing. Joel made clippy hooks out of baling wire from which to hang the pigs, and we strategically placed thumbtacks behind where the pigs would hang to make for easy popping.
Then the kids attacked!
This is a cool shot where you can see the pig popping and the "points" (candy!) falling:
Here you can see Dane releasing the three blue birds:
A pig carcass:
Candy!
After the kids went home, my family (who were a great help wrangling the kids), all got a turn with the pigs:
And drank in June's adorableness:
We went to dinner so Dane could have his beloved miso soup with rice (which I had made him for lunch, too). Then, his happy day ended as he prayed, "and bless me that I had a great Angry Birds party."
I think he had a good day.
So, all in all, I was happy with how it all went and I learned some good things. We invited six kids and ended up with eight, and I think it was a great number. I also learned that having a party on his actual birthday made it so we couldn't do any of the regular, special things we usually do on his birthday, like special breakfast and stuff; we had to spend all day getting ready. So I'll remember that for next time.
I can't believe Dane is five. He is a sweet, good-natured, observant kid who make me laugh all the time. We have our share of frustrations and struggles, but at the end of the day, I love to snuggle him look forward to seeing him in the morning. He is creative and affectionate, and he notices and remembers amazing details. When I took him to his five year doctor's appointment, he took his new plush Angry Bird with him and insisted that the doctor bandage the beak (which was sore from smashing so many buildings). And when the nurse came in to give him his immunizations, he asked her if he could pray, and then said a quiet little prayer that he wouldn't be so scared.
I love him so much. Happy Birthday, Dane. Don't grow up too fast, okay?
