Nerf War

Aaron turned 12 today.  We almost have a second teenager in our house!!

He wanted to have some friends over for his birthday, so he had a sleepover.  We decided on a Nerf theme and used the orange and blue colors of the Nerf guns to decorate.  We ordered mini Nerf guns and gave one to each guest.  That way I made sure everyone had a Nerf gun and it was also in place of a goody bag.  All of the boys brought their own Nerf guns, but they really liked the minis.

We started out with pizza.  Hannah hung out with the boys most of the evening and they were all really nice to her.

This was one of the easiest birthday cakes ever.  I purchased a cookie cake that was actually decorated for Father's Day.  I removed the Father's Day decorations and added this small Nerf gun and some Nerf darts.  I had the little Happy Birthday sign from a previous birthday.

After the cake, the kids had a Nerf war.

We hung hula hoops from the deck to use as target practice.  The idea was to shoot darts through the hoops.

We hung balloons on the trampoline to use as targets and then, of course, there was some jumping on the trampoline.

I think they ran around from the back yard to the front for about two hours in the course of their Nerf battle.  It was so much fun to watch.





This was Hannah's ambush position up in the tree.  She and Aaron both wore orange and blue to match the theme.

The boys chose to have Aaron open his gifts before going outside.

Hannah gave him this Webkinz.  His face in the first picture shows that he is excited, but I love the expression in the next picture.

His friend, Zac, gave him this Nerf gun which is why the boys wanted to have him open gifts before the Nerf battle.

All that running around outside wore them out.  They put their sleeping bags down in PK's office and watched a movie.  This is what I found when I went to wake them for breakfast.

 

 

The Big 1-0

Today is Aaron's 10th birthday. He is thrilled to have hit double digits and announced that he is a preteen or at least a tween. I'm not really in agreement with either, but whatever.

We had his party yesterday. PK was off, so it just made sense. We invited three of his friends and their family for a cookout. This was probably the most low key birthday party I have thrown for any of my kids. However, the kids didn't seem to mind and I was able to relax and enjoy!

The Dupuis' (The Dupuises?...I think Sarah was an English major. I'll have to ask her how they do it.) came, minus Allison. Charlie's mom is the Minister of Discipleship at our church and had a youth function, so she dropped Charlie off. With Hannah, it was a perfect number of kids. Rachel was there, but she just watched (a true tween).

We pulled out the slip and slide.

Charlie brought his water gun and Aaron pulled out a couple. They tried to ambush Hannah.

Then she got smart and took the hose off of the slip and slide.

The Dupuis' (Dupuises...whatever) came right before a thunderstorm hit, so Coleman missed out on the water activities. I also finished grilling burgers and hotdogs just before the rain hit. We also had corn on the cob, homemade macaroni and cheese and chips.

Aaron wanted a Lego theme party so I had a friend of mine make him this Lego cake.

I detest goody bags. They are expensive to put together and all the stuff inside usually breaks or is just junk. The last few years, I have tried to come up with alternatives to goody bags. For the Lego party, I bought a container of Legos, dumped them in the middle of the floor and let the kids have at 'em. They worked on this for well over and hour. Whatever they created went home with them. I guess it was a double duty party activity/favor. I spent less on the tub of Legos than I would have spent had I bought stuff for goody bags and an activity. It was also less messy than the painting activities I have done in the past. Not that those aren't fun, it was just easier.

Coleman, Aaron, Charlie and Hannah with their creations.

All in all, another successful party.

I Now Return You to the Regularly Scheduled Program

We celebrated Aaron's eighth birthday while we were visiting in Evansville. My kids have had birthday parties almost every year, but this is the first time one of them has been able to have a big family party. I rented a shelter house and P.K. was able to make it for the weekend. Aaron wanted a snake themed party. Go figure.

We used this picture to make the invitations.

There aren't many ideas to be found for a snake party other than making a snake shaped cake. I decorated the tables with thinly shredded green paper (the kind that is used to stuff gift bags) and spread it down the middle of the tables for grass. Then I hid snakes in the grass. It worked out well. Then we took all of Aaron's stuffed snakes and some stuffed snakes I bought as party favors and put them all over the room.

The kids painted wooden snakes.

Some of the adults thought it looked like so much fun, they jumped in on the craft.

This is my dad painting a snake.

I bought bug catchers at a dollar store to use as goody bags. Before I filled them with goodies, I hid small plastic snakes in the grass and the kids used them to collect snakes on a snake hunt.

Here's Aaron picking up snakes on the snake hunt.

The kids with all the snakes they found on the snake hunt.

I thought about making one of the snake cakes I saw online, but my cousin reminded me that the local bakery transfers pictures to cakes. We used the picture we used for the invitation on the cake.

Aaron received an aquarium and all the things to go in it that he will need for his pet snake. P.K. and I gave him a gift certificate for his snake which we will purchase at a reptile show the beginning of August. (We will never be able to top that gift.)

His actual birthday was the following Tuesday. My dad bought donuts for breakfast to celebrate.

One of our traditions is using the "celebration plate" on special days. One of those days is birthdays. Most of our traditions are what I call "portable" traditions. Because we move so often, our traditions need to be able to travel with us. When I realized we would be gone on Aaron's birthday, I packed the celebration plate. His eyes lit up when he realized I brought it.

Aaron with his birthday donuts on our family celebration plate.

We had dinner at my mom's house that night and I picked up another cake at the grocery store just so he could have cake on his actual birthday.

Aaron's Birthday Party

The party was scheduled for 2:00 p.m. and was to be held outside. Here is what happened at 1:00 p.m.

That would be hail in my dear hubby's hand from the severe thunderstorm that was passing through.

We had 16 children coming to our house and we really don't have enough room in any one room in our house for that many children. So I told the kids and P.K. that I had prayed that God would hold off the rain until at least 4:15 and we were going to go outside and set up.

This is a picture of the sky in the middle of the party. We didn't have any rain. We heard some thunder and our neighbor's son kept saying, "Mrs. Jody, I hate to tell you this, but it is going to start pouring any minute." I kept telling him that I had asked God to keep us dry until at least 4:15 and we were going to have a little faith. We did stay dry and the kids had a great time. Thank you, Father!

We had a representative from Noah's Ark Animal Workshop (like Build-A-Bear, but they come to you) help the kids make their own dinosaur. They all loved it.

The cake. One little boy who was invited to the party attends our church. When he saw me at church the morning before the party he asked me if we were going to have cake. Let's make sure we have the important things in order. :)

Aaron is the only kid I know who really does want to read each card before opening the gift.

These two are for Kari. If you can see in the top one, he is immediately saying thank you for the awesome water gun. I think his face in the bottom clearly expresses what he thinks about the cars. Also a thank you to my neighbor Beth in the red shirt for writing down all of the gifts for us.

I love their birthday parties. It takes a lot of work to pull one off, but they are always so happy. It is well worth it.