Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Henry's birthday party

So here are the pictures from Henry’s birthday party (there aren't many because Tyler was still at work and I was busy running the party). This was the first time I attempted an at-home-themed birthday party. In the past we have been to the pool and (mostly) to the park but this year Henry really wanted a Star Wars party and since I had never thrown a birthday party for him (yep, all the previously mentioned birthday parties were Olivia’s), I decided to give him what he wanted. I think I did a pretty good job. I researched, came up with 5 games, and set up the house. I went to many, many stores and game up with items for the goodie bag. I ordered pizza and a star wars cake (I’m not that good) for the party and cupcakes for school. And the party went really well.

First, they went on a scavenger hunt in the back yard. I gave them a card with the pictures of 6 items and told them there was one of each item for every child, once they had found an item they had to find a different item. The items were: a light saber, pop rock candy, a darth vader yoyo, a star wars coloring book, a meteorite (a milkyway bar wrap in aluminum foil, and a star wars whistle. They had a great time looking for the item and then playing with their newly acquired light sabers.

For our second activity, we played “restore balance to the universe”, it’s a “pin the tail on the donkey” type game. There’s a poster of the universe with spaceships and planets, each with a different point value, you divide the kids into two teams, blindfold them and they score points for their team by trying to touch the planet/ship with the highest point value.

To calm things down, we then played a couple of games of star wars bingo. This was definitely the favorite activity, they could have played bingo until the parents came to collect them but I had one more game I wanted them to play.

For the last game (and this is when I remembered to take pictures), I had wrapped a volleyball in aluminum foil and drawn the death star unto it and we used it to play hot potato. It was great.

I had planned on a fifth game but decided to bypass it and instead went straight to opening presents. I had said no presents but do parents ever listen? No! Henry scored big time. Thanks everybody! The kids wanted to play some more but it was getting close to the end of the party and we still had pizza and cake to eat. It was tiring but very fun, especially for the children. I’ll do it again.

Henry’s cake.

This last photo is of the kids watching a star wars the clone wars episode (which I had previously DVR-ed) while waiting for their parents to pick them up. By that time they were well fed and exhausted. The perfect ending to a near perfect party.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Henry is 6

My sweet boy is now six. I would post photos but I have not wanted to figure out how to plug the card reader back into the computer, I'd rather be knitting instead, so you'll get pictures and birthday details later.

Henry has been testing the limits lately. So much so that I've noticed that Olivia started saying "my patience is running out!", mmmm, that sounds familiar. I know it’s just a phase, every child tests the limits at one point or another... The good thing is that he still has many adorable moments. Tonight I was making dinner; he came to me, hugged my leg and said: "I'm going to be a good boy for you. I'm going to sit at the table, be quiet and practice my little (understand lower case) letters." How sweet is that? I love you Henry, no matter what! Note: The picture is obviously not recent, I told you, I'd rather be knitting :)