A few weeks ago, my little dude turned five. F-I-V-E!!! I can not believe it. I don't know if it's because he's the "baby" or what, but I just don't see him as a five year old. I was barely getting used to him being four.
But, five he is. This year was fun and special. His birthday was on a Saturday, and daddy was home! We had a birthday party in the morning, monster trucks and race cars in the evening, and then another birthday party at my parent's house the next day (which, by the way, he now thinks he is 6 because he had another party).
So, when the kids turn five, I always like to throw a doozy of a birthday party for them. I feel like it is the first year they will remember their party, they have actually grown into friendships with others and care about who is there, and it's a big birthday to me.
We started planning back in September (try counting down from like 83 days to your birthday and see if you go crazy!)
He decided he wanted a Wild Kratt's Birthday Party. The Wild Kratts are a really great, educational TV show about two brothers who love exploring and learning about animals and their "creature powers". I like it because the kids learn all kind of crazy details about weird animals, and we can talk about how God made them so amazing, so different, and so perfect.
Back to the party- big sisters wanted a hand in the party planning and decorating. This forced me to let go of my pinterest worthy ideas and allow a messy party with memories, instead of a stressful party that is cute.
Fun & Messy > Cute & Stressful
We made Creature Adventure Vests like what the Wild Kratts wear on the show. I guess I forgot to take a picture of the finished vest, but here Hannah is helping me cut out he laminated creature discs. Each child got 4 or 5 discs that they could Velcro to their creature vest. I just used a white shirt, and sewed the paw print on.
Face Painting.
The kids LOVED getting their faces painted. I'm learning, and want to teach Nicole how to face paint as well. It was fun!
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| Sweet siblings. Nate's a cheetah by the way, the popular face paint animal of the party. Note the "tear streaks" cheetahs are famous for. |
Games.
Nicole has been thinking about making up a business where she can do party planning, face painting, balloon animals, etc. So, she took it upon herself to come up with some games (and I threw a few ideas in there as well.)
Most of the games had a point to them or were about a specific animal. So, before the games, I read our little Creature Fact Cards that I made up.
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| I took images from google and info from Answers in Genesis. |
We started the morning with a Cheetah race. Nicole made little cheetah tails from felt and some hairy fabric. she thought this was amazing because she got to use a hot glue gun.
Each child got a cheetah tail and tucked it into their shorts. . Then, they raced around the yard and had to pull off on another's tails. No real winner, just a way for them to run around. No one got hurt, most everyone laughed..a few kids cried.
Next up was the obstacle course. This was Nicole's "baby", and unfortunately due to budget and rain, we had to change a few ideas at the last minute.
Task #1- we had to get a group of mostly home schooled kids to line up in three separate lines. You have no idea how hard this actually is. Homeschoolers don't need to stand in line..and well, they are just not good at forming them.
Back to the obstacle course. Once the lines were developed, the children each took turns, relay race style, completing a few different tasks.
#1- bounce like a kangaroo
#2- tip toe around the snake
#3- pretend you are a large mouth bass and "catch" a worm from a fishing pole (not using your hands)
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| Don't touch it Nate! |
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| Love this picture of Noell |
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| Kien's dad was holding the "fishing pole" and taunting him with the gummy worm. The dads loved this job! |
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| We love Isaiah. He was so cute, opened his mouth and grabbed his worm off the hook. Ain't Nobody got time for dat. |
#4- carry an egg on a spoon in honor of the platypus.
This was a really funny game. I think the kids liked the Large Mouth Bass portion the best.
At this point, I heard a lot of kids asking for lunch, so we stopped the games for lunch time. When they were done, the kids went outside and played ball with the dads, or climbed on the swingset. They would have been content to do that the rest of the party, but darn it...I had games planned and we were going to play them! (uh oh....Michele was getting pushy again! haha).
After plenty of free play, we brought the children back inside and played a game Hannah developed. Actually, she drew Martin and Chris Kratt.
The kids were blind folded and had to "pin the creature disc on the Wild Kratt".
You know....it would have been better if the drawings were bigger, and if this game went faster....however, it meant a lot to Hannah that she was able to contribute to the party. She was so proud of her idea, her drawing, and the fact that she had something to offer. That was more important than a perfect game. I love how the sisters wanted to bless their brother with their ideas.
We also made up two boards with games to just leave around the house. One was a board about Mimicry. There were probably 12 or so animals on the board, and the kids had to find them
The other was a board of venomous vs. non-venomous Florida snakes.
I caught the kids playing with these board, as well as Nicole making balloon animals for some of the children.
Cake.
Ahhhh...the cake. The source of MUCH discussion, some tears and hurt feelings, the need to "let it go", you know the perfect pinterest cake, and just let the kids help. Nicole was bent on creating this cake herself and using fondant to do it! We have never used fondant. However, we spent quite a bit of time watching how to videos on you tube and came up with an idea.
Nicole made the African Savanah, and wanted the Tortuga (the flying turtle ship the Wild Kratts use to get around in) to have landed on the African Savanah. Nathan wanted animals, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, and orca whales. Hannah just wanted in on the mess of decorating.
Fearing the fondant cake would be a disaster, I also suggested making animals cupcakes because I was sure they would turn out better and save the day!
I was wrong, the animals cupcakes were weird looking and the cake turned out great! Turns out that we really liked playing with fondant, however we need to find a tastier recipe for next time.
The cake turned out much better than we anticipated.
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| Sweet Birthday boy being sung to. |
We asked for no gifts, except for a hand made card. These are some precious pictures of our friends sharing their card with Nate.
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| Nathan and his buddy Ethan |
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| Nate and his other buddy Jake. |
The party was so much fun! We had a great time of fellowship with friends and celebrating our sweet Nathan.
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I love these kids. Labeled for reference when I'm 90 and I can't remember anyone's names.
Kien, Viana, Jake, Hannah, Esther, Carly, Nathan, Nicole, Noell, Naomi, Henry, Alex, Ethan, Isaiah. |
