Brandt's Birthday Party

Brandt. Loves. Trains.

So when it came to deciding what to do for his birthday, there was no decision to  make.  I knew it would be trains.  Now, when my kids turn two, I think they're still too young for a party with friends so we always just have a little party with the family.  No big deal.  Still, I try to make it a special day.  Here are some of the things we did.

We swam in the pool.  You might ask what this had to do with trains.  Nothing.  We just did it because it sounded fun/cool.  And it was!

I just posted three pictures of us swimming because I hardly have any others from this day!  I am looking at my pictures in shock because I can't believe I didn't take more.  *sigh*
That means I'll just have to explain it to you.
This was Brandt's cake, made following an idea from familyfun.

And just for fun I got a roll of wide masking tape and made "tracks" from our front door all the way around out kitchen island.  I placed a covered card table over the tracks to make a "tunnel".  Brandt and the other boys had a blast hooking up together to make a long train (Mitch and I joined in too, of course) and making our way around the track.  Everyone took a turn being the "engine."

I had prepared this egg carton train craft, which my boys all had fun with.  Brandt, was to young to join in the crafting, but he had fun playing with the finished product!

After gifts, I presented each boy with a "ticket" to the train at a local park, where we would take the boys that weekend.

The day we rode the train I tried to get Brandt to wear an engineer's hat for the train ride but he would have none of it.  That's okay.  The train ride ended up being  a lot of fun, even though it was hot outside.  The train even went across a little bridge and through a tunnel.  Overall this was a simple, fun birthday party that made Brand't day special.

Caleb Turned Nine

Caleb has been growing.  It happens so gradually that I hardly notice until his pant legs no longer cover his ankles, I have to raise my hand higher to ruffle his hair.  He's nine now.  Wow.  I love this boy with all  my heart. Love his quirks, his intelligence, his sense of right.  I love his shy smile.  His helpfulness, his determination.  Even if he does develop a little attitude when it comes to having his picture taken.

Here he is eating crepes, his favorite breakfast.

Here he is blowing candles out on his actual birthday.

Here are some pictures from his birthday party.

These cake pops are now adorning my thighs.  They are so good!

Tug of war!

Here's Dallin eating a cookie on a string.  He's climbed on the column in order to reach it better.

Caleb's favorite game was Capture the Flag, which got a little intense when Mitch joined in.

Water balloons, then squirt guns.  One boy said, "Now this is what I call fun!"

After blowing out candles on the cake.

Those boys had a ton of energy, and they had a great time.  Happy birthday, Caleb!

Adam's 4th Birthday Party

Bugs!  This one was all about creepy-crawly critters.

I tweaked an idea from a  familyfun Valentine's Day card for the invitations:

The kids helped me decorate with tissue paper "grass", plastic bugs from our collection, simple napkin butterflies, and balloon bugs.

At the front door:

We played fun games like this carry-the-bug relay (while listening to some cool bug tunes),

We played pin the spot on the ladybug (the spots are Oreo halves).

Brandt thought that one was a lot of fun.

We rolled "tumble bugs" down a ramp.

Hunted for plastic bugs in our front yard,

And, most exciting of all, swatted "bubble bugs!"

Here's a shot of the cake:

I'm pretty sure Adam and all his little friends had lots of fun.  Happy birthday, Adam.  I love you.

Dallin's Robot Birthday Party

I love birthday parties!  This one was really fun.  There are so many possibilities with robots.  Here are some of the things we did.

These were the invitations.  The information was printed and rolled up inside.

The robot centerpiece is made from cardboard boxes, wrapping paper, aluminum foil...you get the idea.

These felt robots were simple to make and added a lot of atmosphere.

Party food:

Mitch and I built D6 out of cardboard boxes and stationed him outside the front door.  And with a carefully placed walkie talkie and D6's remote-activated-leaf-blower arm, we had a lot of fun "greeting" the kids as they arrived.

For our first activity the kids decorated a robot body.  We utilized a lot of spray paint and a lot of, well...trash...to prepare this activity.

In this picture above they did a game called Around the World (okay, I just stole the name from the song I played while they did this).  Basically it's like a cake walk where they walk around the circle of robot images stand still when the music stops and when their image is drawn out they get a prize (candy buttons on their robot body).

This is called Can-Do Robots by familyfun, and the kids got really got creative putting their hardware on their can-robot heads (there's a completed example on the right side of the table).

They had to move a bunch of "robot components" in an assembly line fashion without moving their feet.  I called this one Conveyor Belt.  Brandt got into this one.  It was so cute.

Each team was blindfolded and had to listen to their robot controller to sort out the components into red and blue piles.  Then they tore off the blindfolds and assembled their robots as quickly as possible.  I gave them these photos to reference.

We did a game called Robot Rescue where they had to use the robotic arm to rescue the robots from the doorknobs and place them in the "decontamination unit."

We had a really close nuts-and-bolts relay race.  Dallin's team won by the skin of their teeth.

Update: I've had some questions about the relay race so I've added some details.  My husband had a bunch of large bolts with wing-nuts in the garage that we used.  I recommend wing-nuts so the kids have something more to grab with their little fingers but regular ones would do.  I broke the kids into two teams and at the opposite end of the yard I placed two bowls (one per team) containing one bolt and wing nut for each kid.  You can even thrown in some nuts of the wrong size in there to throw them off.  The kids line up single file and at GO! the first person in line on each team runs as quickly as they can to their bowl, screws the nut completely on the bolt, and then carries it (as fast as they can) back over the starting line.  As soon as they return, the next person in line runs to the bowl to screw a nut on a bolt and carry it back, and so on.  The first team whose last player crosses the finish line with his completed nut/bolt wins!  

We also did a Robot Freeze Dance to this cute song, and when I stopped the music they had to stand still, and if they moved they were out.  Dallin loved this!  It turned out to be his favorite activity of all.

Then we did cake and presents.

Birthday cake.

And I gotta say, D6 looked even cooler at night.

We discovered he's also very useful for spooking teenagers in the neighborhood.

All in all it was a lot of work, but Dallin loved it, which is what really matters.

Caleb's 8th Birthday Party

The invitation:



Some of the decorations:



And, of course,  lots and lots of Legos!

We had a bunch of minifigures for the boys to choose from for the Minifig Obstacle Course (the favorite game of the day).

The boys spent a lot of time building their creations.  We ran out of time for all the activities because they were having so much fun just building.  And that's okay.  

One of Caleb's creations.  Yes, that's Darth Vader driving.  This vehicle won a ribbon for going the farthest off the ramp.



Dallin's favorite:

Demolition derby:

The cake:



Eight candles!



Homemade Lego gummies and minifigure stickers for goody bags:



Caleb told me afterward that it was the funnest birthday party he's ever been to or had.  That  means he had a blast, and that means it was worth it.  Happy birthday, Caleb!