Now if you've ever come to one of the birthday parties for my boys, you know I go all out to make the event special for them and all that come. A question I get a lot is "how do you have time for all this?" The answer, I don't have time. As my parents, who always come stay with us for birthday party weeks can attest, I am a seriously stressed out crazy person leading up to the event. In fact, I prepare for these things for months. First the kid picks the theme, then I do tons of research on decorating\games\unique ideas for the party then I spend a lot of late nights preparing those ideas for the parties. Work for all of it starts after the boys go to bed. So from 8-11 or 12 at night, it's party prep. After weeks of that and time running short, I turn into full speed in the days leading up to the party with literally no seconds to spare in my life. And is it worth it? After seeing my sweet kids have an awesome time with their friends....you bet! It's worth every second!
Dylan's been obsessed with the Skylanders game for some time now. You might recall his Halloween costume a couple of years ago - I made him an
Eyebrawl costume (a character from the game). Well, this year it was the theme he wanted for his party. Here's some of the things we did\made for decorations for the party.
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Gift Bags
Decorated with Skylanders and their associated Element. |
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Hanging Lanterns (Bouncer and Gusto) and Skylands Centerpiece
I spent a TON of time making these paper lanterns into Skylander characters.
Luckily, Dylan LOVED them and they are now having an extended life as decorations in his bedroom. |
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The centerpiece was made out of an outdoor rug (cut up and used around the house),
Skylanders toys (Flynn's Ship in middle) and Skylander characters on top of
kids' cardboard bricks wrapped in paper. I loved how it turned out. |
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| As usual, my Mom made the cake masterpiece - Skylands! |
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| My favorite part was the little green Chompies on the bridge. |
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Lanterns - Blast Zone, Pop Fizz and Chop Chop
Lots of food to keep the Skylanders fueled. |
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| Lanterns - Legendary Jawbreaker, the evil Kaos, MagnaCharge |
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We added sticker mouths to the green balloons to make them Chompie balloons.
The Eyebrawl costume head was used as a decoration as well. |
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I used sticker paper to print Skylanders and Elements. I stuck them to plates
and stuck them up as decorations all over the house. More Skylands toys seen here to add to the decor. |
I really didn't even get a chance to take pictures of all the decorations before it was party time. I had an activity planned for the kids to plant some seeds and decorate their pot (Life Element) while we waited for all the guests to arrive. The only ones who were interested were Dylan and his friend Sam:
The rest of the kids were distracted by our new pirate ship (Flynn's Ship for the Skylanders party):
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| Cade |
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| Luke (left), Emily (right) |
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| Elyse and Julia |
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| More Decorations |
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| Taylor and Jake |
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| Mackenzie and Libby - Synchronized Swinging |
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| The Hat Table |
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| Maureen and Mom |
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| Baby Alexander |
Once everyone had arrived and had a chance to play, we started the party. I gave the kids a brief description of Skylanders (Skylanders are the good guys that protect Skylands from the evil Kaos and are transported around Skylands by Flynn on his ship) and let them know we would be completing levels and challenges to make it to the end where we would be able to defeat Kaos!
In Skylands, you can earn hats that give you extra power. So everyone picked out a fun hat to amp up their powers (which they also got to take home).
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Jake, Chloe, Luke, Cade, Me, Mackenzie, Emily, Corwin, Jacob
Sam, Elyse, Julia, Isabella, Libby, B'day Boy Dylan (in birthday cake hat of course) |
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| Got Chris to hop in for this picture too (top left) |
Then it was time for the games. I had scoured the dollar store for items I thought could be used to make up some games. The kids were great sports and totally up for trying them all, but a few of them were maybe a bit to advanced for the 6 year olds. Like throwing the frisbee into the hula hoop and using a sling shot to throw a water ball at the Chompie.
After a few games, the pizza was delivered and it was time for lunch. In the Skylanders game, you have to grab food to keep your power up....obviously, we had to do the same!
Then a few more games that went over really well. Next up was destroying Chompie balloons.
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| Chloe |
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| Cade and Dylan |
They also had to destroy the flying Chompies (aka bubble). Emily was a great helper and ran around with the bubble machine.....followed by a trail of kiddo\Skylander destroyers.
Then it was time to defeat Kaos! The Kaos pinata was a very last minute thing. When scouring Pinterest for ideas, Dylan had noticed one and asked for it. With all the other projects in mind, I told him that I wouldn't be able to make one. 3 days before the party, I said what the heck? If my baby wants it, I'm going to make it happen! I did some research to see if I would even have enough time to make one and found a "quick recipe" for pinata making. Around 11pm Wednesday night, I started cutting paper and dipping it into flour water to make the form. By Friday night, it was dry. I made the hanger for it, stuffed it with candy and covered the ball in crepe paper. It wasn't until about 20 minutes before the party that I was able to very quickly make the details out of construction paper. For my first pinata that was made hurriedly, I was pretty pleased with the result. I even painted a dowel rod to look like a sword so we would have an appropriate weapon for the destruction.
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| Kaos Pinata |
The kids lined up to hit it. Dylan wanted to go first (even though he understood he likely wouldn't be the one to break it). Honestly, I had no idea how this would turn out. Was it strong enough to withhold 1 hit or would it be indestructible? I had no clue. This would be interesting.
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| The Birthday Boy Taking His 3 Hits |
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Neighbor Mikey
I helped out some of the smaller guys. |
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| Cade Having A Go At It |
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| Isabella |
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| Libby |
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| Arden (One Handed) |
Sure enough, it worked out better than I could have possibly imagined. ALL the kids got a turn. Then, we let Luke's big brother, Jake, go at it. Being the baseball star that he is, it took him no time at all to destroy Kaos and release the treats! I could hear the sound of the pinata changing as Jake took his hits and announced to the kids that he was getting really weak and we'd almost destroyed him. You could feel the electricity of anticipation from the crowd. Very fun.
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| Jake the Destroyer |
With the games done, the food eaten and the pinata destroyed, it was time for cake and ice cream!
And this year, Dylan didn't even try to hide while we sang to him! That is MAJOR progress! My little boy is certainly growing up. While Mike was searching for a lighter for the candles, I had an opportunity to read a poem that I remembered from my childhood. I have to admit, these birthdays make me a bit emotional and I might have even showed it a bit as I read:
Now We Are Six
A.A. Milne
When I was one I had just begun
When I was two I was nearly new
When I was three I was hardly me
When I was four I was not much more
When I was five I was just alive
But now I am six, I'm as clever as clever;
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.
So there you have it. That's how our wonderful family and friends helped us celebrate my Dylan turning 6! It was a wonderful day! And it took me quite a while to recover from it......
