Ethan's Over-the-top Party

So I learned a few things this last week. Like why my mom only ever allowed us to have birthday parties with our friends every other year: because they are SOOO much work. And I also learned that when you really need them, family and friends are there for you. And thank Heaven for them!
Ethan has been talking about his birthday for the last several months and I've been collecting ideas off the internet so his party turned out to be very involved and mostly "controlled chaos" because I let him invite so many friends. He invited his entire Primary class of 6 and then picked 6 friends from school plus Isaac made a very large group of 14 two, three, four, and five year olds.
The party was based around the movie How to Train Your Dragon so everything was about dragons and Vikings. First they decorated tin foil shields and colored dragon coloring sheets. Then we practiced being "good" little dragons by playing "Dragon Trainer Says". Basically just Simon Says but it was hilarious because most had never played it before. Also hilarious because Jessica is funny to watch.
My brother Jeff came up from Provo and was the official photographer and he did a great job catching all the action. Here he got all the Vikings heading downstairs to play more games. Thankfully we have a downstairs to use this year since it rained and snowed all day even though the party was on May 1st!!!
For the next game we played "Shield Practice" where the Vikings had to use their shields to deflect the dragon fire (Nerf darts) that I shot at them. Let me just say that kids LOVE being shot at. Is that weird? Sadly the game would have been more fun if we could have been outside running around but as it was, they just stood still and LOVED being shot at.
After that we played "Dragon Tail Tag". I found this fabulous shiny material at the store and couldn't resist making some tails.
We then lined the kids up into teams and the first person in the line had to grab the tail off the other dragon. Major chaos but only one child got hurt in the frequent dog piles.
Our last game was a ring toss to capture the dragon. I dressed up Isaac in an old dragon halloween costume which he loved. Having rings thrown at his head? Not so much!
So Jessica was a good sport and put on the dragon head and let the kids throw rings at her head. After the kids were thoroughly worn out we went upstairs for cake and cheetos. Yes I was going for nutrition here. I found this cute dragon cake online with great pictures and descriptions so it was actually really easy to make. It was just 2 round cakes cut into pieces to make a dragon shape.
Then I just frosted it with chocolate store frosting, used a marker cap to add textured scales, marshmallows for the eyes, square chocolate cookies cut in half on his back, red-orange slices for the claws, and fruit-rollups wrapped around skewers for the wings. I couldn't resist the candles that spelled his name since this is the only year that his name fits the right number of candles. Of course right after I finished frosting the cake Ethan came over to inspect and then informed me in a very 5-year-old way that he didn't want a brown dragon, he wanted a green one with 2 heads like he'd seen in the movie. Too bad this special order came a little too late! After a minute he decided it looked enough like Toothless from the movie that he could have this for his cake this year.
While they were eating we took them one-by-one to take their picture. Isaac makes a cute Viking don't you think?
The pictures were for these souvenir photos. Taylor has recently been learning to use Photoshop and spent until 3am Friday night making this layout so he could put each child's photo in the middle and send it home with them. Sadly, you may have noticed Taylor was not in any of the pictures even though it was a Saturday and he was in fact not present for any of the party. This is my fault. In all the busyness leading up to getting ready for the party, I set Miles in his Bumbo seat on the counter while I finished dishes. I got distracted by a child asking me something and Miles somehow tumbled out of the seat and fell from the kitchen counter to the floor. So Taylor spent 5 hours Saturday afternoon at the ER while Miles got observed and got a CT Scan. Thankfully he's perfectly fine- no broken nose and not even a bruise, but quite a scary day for us all. And the bumbo seat is now officially banned from our house.
The kids didn't get to take home their pictures since I couldn't figure out how to do these amazing things so Taylor's going to finish them tonight and we'll send them with the thank-you cards.
The end of the party was spent opening presents and playing with toys. Lots of chaos but lots of fun for the kids. I think Ethan was fully satisfied with his party.
What would I have done without my dear friend Jessica? Cry, probably! She arrived literally 30 seconds after Miles fell when I was in full freak-out mode and she was calm enough to help get kids in the house and organized. She has truly been one of the great blessings of my life and continues to be. And my kids adore her!
And Jeff was a life-saver too. We love having him close!
Maybe good to have a little perspective added to the day. I spent all week planning, preparing, cleaning and getting ready for the party and was fairly stressed and crabby Saturday morning getting it all done. Maybe I needed to be reminded that parties aren't really that important. These people are!