Isaac's Ninjago Party

I always feel a little bad for Isaac that his birthday is Christmas Eve.  I never feel like planning a birthday party for him and I also feel like no one really has the time during the busy season to have to take their kid one more place.  So this year I promised Isaac a party (he'd been drooling for months over pinterest posts) but didn't get around to doing it until the middle of January.  That turned out to be fine with him- he actually really loved counting down to his "birthday" and talking about it all the time.  He is currently obsessed with legos and the Ninjago ones specifically so when I saw pinterest posts on Ninjago parties, the theme was cemented.

He helped me get everything ready including our party favor to-go boxes.  So cute!

And he gave me specifications for his cake- no fondant, and he wanted his lego men on top fighting the snake guys.

So in the end I frosted the cake with just regular icing and let him (mostly) do the rest.  Mostly because he'd have spent the rest of the day having his guys fight on top of and around the cake so I let him place them and then made him leave them.

And we had to have cupcakes since there was extra batter.

I promise I'm really not that creative- I just find fabulously creative people and totally copy all their ideas.  So this other lady made this cute banner and I copied it.

And the Ninjago angry eyes of course had to be everywhere including the water bottles and balloons.

And I made all the boys karate headbands with their names- again super easy and stolen from a lady on Pinterest.  I started the boys all out with a quiet coloring activity while we waited for everyone to arrive- much better than them just running around and being crazy.

Then it was time for Sensei Wu to teach the boys how to defend themselves.  Technically it was Sensei Taylor but the Sensei in the show is named Sensei Wu and since Isaac was called E-sock Woo in Spanish school (long story) Taylor declared himself Sensei Woo.  Taylor took karate lessons as a child and was excited (okay he agreed after a little coaxing from me :) to lead the instruction.

Much kicking practice.

And some punches.

And Taylor's genius idea was to add a move called "ninja vanish" otherwise known as hide and seek.  The boys thought this was hilarious.  And Taylor enjoyed the bits of quiet.

He also let them practice jumping through hoops...

diving through hoops.

And then they got to practice their moves on the balloons which was a much better idea than practicing moves on each other.

And then they had to bow to their fabulous sensei.

Then it was time for singing and blowing out candles and eating.

I love Isla in the back watching the whole thing.

It is so nice to have family around.  Taylor's dad, sister, brother-in-law, and another sister-in-law all ran over from work to join the party.

Couldn't resist more pictures of Isla.  I gave her a celery stick to gnaw on and a cupcake minus it's frosting.  Bizarrely she preferred the celery.

Sometimes these parties are crazy and I feel like just curling up for a nap afterwards but this little group was great.  They were quiet and well behaved and really a joy to have.  It helps that all but 1 of them are in Isaac's sunbeam class and know each other really well from neighborhood sports teams and playgroups and Sundays.

Miles was so excited to be a part of the big boy party.

Isaac's big request was that we have strawberries.  Done!  I'm happy to add a little nutrition to the party.

Then there was much ripping and jumping up and down.

Isla especially enjoyed her turn at the wrapping paper.

And I love that she's turned her karate headband into a fashion statement all on her own- with her crazy hair to go along with it.

We played bingo and then I was planning to let the kids watch a Ninjago show but they just wanted to break out the toys and play.  Fine by me!!!

Once the party was over and I was cleaning up, I'd walked through the streamers several times carrying Isla and finally noticed that she was freaking out each time I did.  Not screaming, but she'd put her arm in front of her face and hide her face in my shoulder even if I just started to head that way.

Apparently streamers are scary.  I took a quick picture and then stopped torturing her.

The rest of the afternoon my boys enjoyed chasing each other around with the cool new disc shooters Isaac got.  A successful party and a happy 5 year old boy.