Birthday Parties

We had three birthdays in one week: Adele's, Jude's, and Stephanie's. Jude was the only one who got a real, organized party. He had been planning it for months, and changed the theme like five times -- from Minecraft to Ninja Turtles to Star Wars to Terraria to (finally) "Video Games" in General. It was a good compromise that covered all his previous ideas. He and Josh left lists of detailed, made-up party games around the house. There was a lot of pressure to incorporate all his ideas, but in the end, he was too busy being excited to notice where I fell short. 

Grandma Cheri was in town for all the birthdays. She was an excellent lovely assistant.

With all these boys, it was pure chaos and noise. A few of them were overwhelmed and watched quietly from the side. Jude ran around barking orders at everyone, as was his birthday boy prerogative. His emotions were on overload, which triggered spontaneous hugs and screeches.

We made balloon animals, played a balloon toss game, fought with balloon swords, and went outside for the no-hands donut game. I think I played this game at every one of my birthday parties growing up.

Jude was really excited about his birthday cake. He told me exactly what he wanted and directed every step of the decorating process, 

I love how kids' faces look so concerned when a cool cake gets cut and destroyed.

We played video game music and the boys danced stop-and-go style. Which morphed into a Matt attack.

After opening presents, everyone got Skylanders masks and a shot at breaking the pinata.

It's a Death Star. It's what Jude wanted, and both boys helped make it. I love that homemade pinatas are becoming a tradition for us.

Matt was not even a tiny bit worried about holding that pinata at arms length while five-year-olds swung a bat at it.

James ~ Jude ~ Casey ~ Zeke ~ Liam ~ Oliver ~ Alex ~ Josh

The next day we had a family party to celebrate all the birthdays.

Little Princess Adele was so excited about her presents.

Besides our family and Grandma Cheri, we invited my cousin Clifford and his girls, Reese and Maeve, my cousin Trevor, and Steph and Teague.

She was so mad that we couldn't open this packaging fast enough. 

Jude got Jenga, Boggle, Minecraft mini-figures, a Minecraft Lego set, and a BB8 robot.

Adele got Disney Princess figurines, the movie Frozen, a baby stroller, and brand new crayons.

And Steph got a bowl of succulents and some bath bombs. 

 Birthday cake was a pan of amazing mint brownies. We required lots of candles.

  

 Adele got a really fun birthday package from Grandma Sara. The best part was the ponies.