We celebrated Allyson's 4th birthday today at Peter Piper Pizza (PPP). Hard to believe that today is her last day as a 3 year old. Where in the world did the last 4 years go?!? {sniff, sniff} Within the past 3-4 months I have really noticed how big she has gotten, she's no baby for sure. Ally is old enough to where she and Jase can play games together and I enjoy playing with them and watching.
Back to PPP. So, this was our first birthday party away from the house {aside from a birthday at a park 2 years ago}. If I am being completely honest, I was going through a bit of withdrawal not being able to party plan and set things up. I was interested to see how the party would play out there and compare it to being at home.
Early this morning I happened to look at my calendar on my phone and it said Ally's party from 12:30 - 2:00 pm. Hmmm...Really?!? The invite I made had 12:00 - 1:30 pm on it. Yikes! Sure enough, I called to confirm and it was 12:30 - 2:00. I have NO idea how I did that! I had planned on showing up at 11:30 and setting the tables up and making it a little more of our own, but then realized I couldn't be there an hour early and just camp out with my kiddos. Already off to a crazy start before the party started!
Then I got there and saw this sign...
Really?!? I've never, ever seen this spelling of Allyson. Now I do realize we spell it differently when compared to Allison/Alison/Alyson, but Alicen. C'mon people. I told them it was incorrect and was hoping they would change it, but it stayed "Alicen's party". I had bigger fish to fry so I let it go.
The cake was beautiful, as always! As soon as it came out of the box, the party next to us "ooohhh'd and aahhh'd" over it! Great job, Michelle!
I think the kids enjoyed the games at PPP. Now the token count here is much higher than at CEC, but the game selection is fresh and new. And according to my husband they had some cool adult games!
So, Alex hit 1,000 tickets TWICE on a game! Curazy!! And then he gave the tickets to Ally! Such a sweetheart!
Cake time. Moments before we called the kids over, I realized I did not bring a candle!!! How do you sing "Happy Birthday" and not have a candle to blow out!? Geez! Fail. I asked a couple of family members for a lighter and they did not have one on them. Of course. Then I start wondering if there was an app I could download that would let her blow out a candle on my phone...ahhh, no time for that. I asked PPP if they have any extra, anything...nope! At this point, I've stalled enough and I think a couple of people had started singing "Happy Birthday", but luckily others did not join in. Last resort: the party table right next to us! Borrowed their candle and lighter! {Don't worry, they had just used it, so I was not using it before them!} The other mom said "we're all in this together" and I laughed and thought "true story." As I'm putting the borrowed "6" candle on the cake I can see confusion on Ally's face. Then Jase chimes in with "why is there a 6 on her cake?" No time to explain..."Happy birthday to you..." At the end of the song I bent down and told her that she would get 2 extra wishes this year!! She got so excited when I said that!
My father-in-law caught it on video!! While the quality isn't excellent, you can see her reaction! Priceless.
She received so many gifts and she loved them ALL! What a blessing to have so many friends and family join us to help celebrate.
And nothing special, but here are the party favors we {me and the hubs!} put together. I couldn't do Tinkerbell for the boys, so I went with Toy Story.
And here is Allyson's BIG prize from cashing in all her tickets! She was proud of this bowling set!
Our group right before exiting to door.
Whew...I survived! Now don't get me wrong, I loved the no clean-up factor, but it's no secret I like to be in control. Haha! And at PPP I felt like I had zero control. Definitely out of my comfort zone, but all-in-all I would say it was a success. Happy birthday sweet girl!
My baby boy is 1! So hard to believe this...I can remember the day he was born!
He is such a sweet boy and his smile is contagious! He started taking steps at 11 months and now at 12 months, he is a full on walker! {Jase started walking at 13 months and Ally was 14 months.} He says a few words: Momma {first word}, Dadda, JJ, Ally, and no-no. Just like his brother and sister at this age, he really enjoys to be outside. Finn still has 6 teeth, but I think more are on the brink of coming through because boy oh boy does he like to teeth...on you and anything he can cram in his mouth!! He is already a biter! I'm not sure if it started off because he nursed and was used to the feel of skin, but hopefully this is short-lived! Aside from the biting, he is a sweetie! ;-)
Tonight we had family over to celebrate his birthday and it was a great time.
After presents we sang Happy Birthday to him. Poor guy, he was not a fan at all. About half way through the song he broke out in tears. I'm not sure if it was the dark, everyone staring at him or the song, but it scared him. After the lights were turned on and the song stopped, he was ok.
He scarfed down his pound cake with whipping cream and fruit!!
It was a nice and relaxing evening and glad everyone came over to celebrate Finn turning 1 with us!
Oh and Allyson was quite the entertainer! She found herself quite comfortable on the fireplace and put on a little show for us! #priceless
My baby boy is 6 years old today! I can hardly believe that I have a 6 year old. A friend of mine told me the other day "the days are long, but the years are short!" I can attest to that statement for sure!
Thank you Lord for loaning Jase to us for these past 6 years. I pray that we are raising him in a way that would be pleasing to you.
Today Shawn celebrated his 25th birthday (again)! Jase made all of us name tags for this special occasion. If you are unaware, we are all a member of the Star Wars family (we live in a fantasy land over here)! Shawn is Anakin, I am Padme, Jase is Luke and Allyson is Princess Leia. Oh and Finn is R2D2, but he didn't get a name tag because he would chew it up! And if you notice, Jase's name tag has 5/6 on it because he is about to be 6 next month! I love it!
Yesterday I took the kids to Walmart and let them pick out their own card (and stickers to decorate with) for Daddy! It should be no surprise that Jase bought a Star Wars card that plays the theme song and Allyson's card is Cinderella that's sings Bippity-Boppity-Boo! It was priceless when Shawn opened up her card; he could not stop laughing when the song was playing and she could not stop dancing!
We love you Daddy and are so thankful for you! May the force be with you on your birthday!
So, let me just start off this post with telling you that I really had fun planning this party. By no means have I ever been into Star Wars (SW) prior to Jase liking it. And a year ago I would have told you Star Wars, Smar Wars; I just was not a fan. Last fall, we started checking out EVERY Star Wars easy reader at the library and from there our SW knowledge took off! Shawn has been a fan since he was kid, so when Jase got interested he got excited; I think he enjoys reliving that era of his life!
Jase was right there with me, helping me plan the party from day 1. I made an invitation in Picasa and was proud of myself, it had a Lego Yoda on it and at the top said "Invited You Are". I thought it was catchy and cute. The next morning I showed it to Jase and asked if he liked it and he said NO! I couldn't believe it. He told me that he wanted more characters on it! Shawn said, "just use that one and don't worry about it." It's his birthday and I wanted him to love it though. So, the next day I made two more "options" for him to choose from. When I showed him all 3 options he said "what is the 4th one?" Can I blame him for knowing what he wants? ;-) He ended up going with option 3.
For Ally's party I had a table of food set-up in our playroom, so I created this banner above the table for decoration.
Well, it has just stayed up since her party. For Jase's party I wasn't going to have anything in the playroom, so I wasn't going to mess with it. Mr. Jase had other plans. Like 2 days before the party he tells me that we need to change the banner with his name and the number 5. Off to Hobby Lobby we went!! I got out the cricut to cut paper and letters for his name and put it together. I even thought about cutting out Finn's name, but I have over a year for that! ;-)
Ah the food and drinks . . . probably my favorite part of the party!! Shawn, Jase and I had fun coming up with the names for the food and drinks. Some of them I found on the Internet and others we made up.
I found a Lego Star Wars figure on-line that corresponded with every item that we had. I created a word document and formatted it to print on an Avery label (5163). I downloaded the Star Jedi Rounded font free on-line and added the description next to the Lego picture. I put the labels on some black card stock I had and just had to trim one side after folding the signs in half. Here are the food items and descriptions we went with:
Padme Pizza - Domino's Pizza
Yoda Soda - Lime Sherbet with Sprite Punch
Jedi Juice - Capri Suns
Wampa Water - Bottled water
Stormtrooper Sweet Tea
Luke Skywalker Lemonade
Princess Lays - Lays potato chips (plain & wavy)
Jedi Jase French Onion Dip - French Onion Dip (my favorite one)
Vader Veggies - Veggie tray
Battle Droid Dip - Ranch dip
Edible Ewoks - Sour Patch kids
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sweet & Salty Sabers - Pretzel rods dipped in almond bark
Jango Fett Fruit Tray
C-3PO Cheese & Crackers
Star Wars Snacks - HEB brand Star Wars fruit snacks
Han Solo Rolos
Hoth Ice - Ice for tea and lemonade
Yodamole - Guacamole
Sandtrooper Scoops - Tostito Scoops
Use the Fork, Luke - Plastic ware
Now to keep all the kiddos entertained, I decided on a few things that I thought they would enjoy. And again, Jase was right there with me looking on the Internet, watching YouTube videos and giving suggestions left and right. I enjoyed this time together with him and it was a project for us to do together. :-)
When the kids first arrived we had a Lego Star Wars DVD playing for about 10-15 minutes until everyone arrived. This was a great idea I found on-line and it kept all the kids in one place and let us get everything set-up for the events that were to come.
Shawn telling the kids what they were about to do next
Next, the kids went outside and lined up for an obstacle course that Shawn put together. It was designed around our playset and we tried to keep it very basic for the kids. Jase started the kids off on the course and had a bit of a rough start, but he did great and finished it up!
After they finished the obstacle course they ended up at a table where they were "robed" and given a light saber. The robes I made were very simple, no sewing involved and perfect for us. I bought 3 different shades of brown fabric and made 3 different sizes: one for our toddlers, another for Jase's size, and one for the older kids. The majority of the ones I made were for Jase's size. I kept the fabric folded in half and cut them at 24 inches (I believe) wide. Then I folded them in half, with the fold still at the top and cut a triangle out at the neck to give the robes a v-neck look. After all of the robes were cut, extra material was used for the belts (2" wide strips). The belts really helped gather the sides and made up for not sewing the sides in my opinion. A special thanks to Michelle, Alisha and my mom for helping me with this!
I assigned the light saber construction to Shawn! I picked up the thinner pool noodles (from Walmart and Academy) and they were cut in half. Shawn bought PVC pipe and hot glued about 12-18 inches inside the pool noodle, leaving about 6-8 inches on the outside for the handle. Shawn covered the PVC pipe on the outside with AC aluminum foil duct tape and it really gave it that shiny pop. He did an awesome job on them!! A special thanks to Jay and Joseph for lending a hand and their SW expertise on the light sabers.
The kiddos lined up against the fence and they were given their next assignment. They were each given a balloon and they had to balance the balloon on their light saber for Light Saber Training. The wind was blowing pretty good that day (I'm not complaining because it was warm outside) so it made it a little tough to keep the balloons from flying away, but the kids had fun. After they balanced it for a minute they had to Rescue Princess Leia. Every balloon had a Lego Star Wars figure in it that I printed on card stock. The kids had to pop their balloon to see if they had Princess Leia. It was a fast game, but they they had fun searching for her. And Jase's balloon ended up having the Princess! :-)
Lastly, their next mission was the Destroy the Death Star. Shawn spray painted two sports pinatas and decorated them like the Death Star. This was a good ole fashion, bash the pinata with a baseball bat activity. I gave the kids small gift bags to collect their candy in. They could also use this as a bag to put their robe and belt in if they wanted to take it off.
Here's a short clip of Jase and Allyson attempting to Destroy the Death Star.
Allyson was my little Princess Leia for the day! I made her a shirt with Princess Leia's face on it and I think it turned out too cute. I printed a simple coloring page of Princess Leia and cut out the hair and face separately. I then pinned the two different patterns (hair and face) to fabric I had on-hand and cut them out. I ironed on heat and bond, but it did not stick very well to the shirt. I sewed on the face, then the hair and hand stitched the eyes and lips. Of course I didn't get a good picture of her in it the day of the party!
After the Death Star, the kids had to stay strong in The Force with food and drink! Next, we went inside for presents and cupcakes!
Most of the Jedi Knights!
After looking at cakes and cupcakes, I decided to go with cupcakes. I found these super cute Star Wars cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma and had to get them. My sister made the cupcakes, icing and cookies and did a fabulous job!! They were a big hit! I made the cupcake toppers for the cupcakes without cookies on them to bring in the Lego part of the Lego Star Wars theme.
Jase and his friends had a blast with the theme. The kids enjoyed dressing up and pretending to be Jedi Knights. Allyson did not take her robe off until it was bath time that evening!!
Here are some of the websites I used for inspiration:
Saturday was super busy, but a great day! We spent most of the day out in Angleton, watching Coby's baseball game and celebrating Lance's 1st birthday and Seth's 10th birthday.
Seth's birthday party was pretty cool; it was at Crocodile Encounter in Angleton. You started off in a room where they had snakes on display. I am NOT a snake person!!
After the snake room the guide took us outside to look at a couple pins that house crocodiles and alligators. Then we went over to an area where they have 16 huge tortoises. We were able to roam around, touch their shells and feed them . . . it was pretty cool. Both Allyson and Jase enjoyed this. I was surprised that Ally was not all that scared of them (except when one of them started walking fast towards her LOL), and Jase was a little more timid, but he loved them just the same.
Next, we saw the alligators, which have a rounded snout. Here is a pic of one . . . up close and personal!
Then it was onto the crocodiles. We were able to watch the guide feed some of the crocodiles and that was pretty cool. He fed them part of a chicken and they just gobbled it up like it was nothing. Below is a picture of a crocodile while he was getting fed; he just jumped up on the fence!!
And here is a video of a feeding in action!! I'm so glad I was on the other side of the fence!
What a neat birthday party, for the parents and kids!! Happy 10th birthday, Seth!
After that party, we headed back home to clean up for our best friend's Mom's 70th birthday party. What a great time and celebration it was! Happy birthday Ms. Carolyn!
Shawn and I are high school sweethearts. Married for 12 years with 4 beautiful children and reside in the great state of Texas. We are sinners who have been saved by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus. In our home we enjoy: laughing, praising and learning about God, watching sports, and homeschooling.
