Jack's LEGO Party--6 years old!

I think Jack gets just as into planning a theme party just as much as me!  He enjoys looking at ideas on Pinterest with me and planning ideas! We debated over  a Superhero party or a RAC party (no work for me), but we ultimately settled on a LEGO party this year.  Jack's been increasingly more interested in Legos over the last few months, so the theme seemed fitting.

I found an invitation on Pinterest that looked similar to this one, so I enlisted the help of my very creative cousin, Stacy, to create this invitation.  I thought it turned out so cute!

I hung the #6 Lego we built on the front door and made Jack stand outside in his Lego shirt for a picture. It was super sunny, so he was squinting like crazy!

As we were looking at cake possibilities, he was very ambitious for me.  He wanted some 3D cake that stood very tall with Lego guys and mini Legos made out of fondant.  I told him I'd have to quit my job to take more cake decorating classes to be able to do some of his fancy ideas.  We settled on some version of a Lego man cake.  Here's how his cake turned out.

It was actually a combo of two cakes.  I had to cut them up to make the Lego guy.  The hands cut out nicely but were ultimately impossible to frost, so I just used frosting on the board.  That worked quite well.

Weeks prior to his party, I began work on the favor bags and decorations.  Usually I like to take a day off work the day before the party, but I used my time off for an Arizona vacation with Jay, so the work was spread out over several days.  Jack was able to help me too!

I saw the idea of square Lego man heads for plates.  Jack and I had fun coming up with faces to create for the place settings.  We also ended up using one of the plates for the "head" of Pin the head on the Lego man!

There were three "games" at the party with a Lego man prize.  Guess how many Legos are in the jar, pin the head on the Lego man, and one of the plates had a Lego sticker on the bottom which won the kid a prize.  The prizes were mini Lego guys.

We also had a pinata.  We decided to string it up in the garage.  There's so much winter gunk on the floor, that Jay had to cover with painting drop cloths.  It worked well and the pinata seemed to be a highlight of the party.  I wasn't ambitious enough to paper mache my own Lego pinata, though!

Jack invited 6 friends from his kindergarten class and one friend from Sunday School.  All but one school friend came to the party.  It was a nice group of boys and they played well together.  They were NOISY, though!  Right at the start of the party, they started getting a little too rambunctious in the basement, so Jay went downstairs to lay down the ground rules.  It was so cute, he started by yelling, "Alright boys, huddle up, huddle up!"  He had their attention and then told them the rules.  They all listened so well and were well behaved.  I got this picture of Jay in action!

Jack has twins in his class, Gavin and Mason.  He told us how to tell them apart, one has a white stripe on his glasses and the other a red stripe.  That was a very subtle difference and we had a hard time telling them apart.  Those two could really crack the baseball bat on the pinata just like Jack.  I think they'll be baseball buddies this summer!

All of the boys!

Opening presents and eating cake was last.  What they enjoyed most was just playing and the pinata, of course!

Another successful birthday party!  My absolute favorite part was when Jack came up to me in the kitchen while I was cleaning up and gave my leg a huge hug and said, "Thank you, Mommy!  You throw the best birthday parties!"  Love that kid.  That makes all the work 100% worth it!

Happy 6th Birthday, Jack!

Christmas 2011--Part One (Our family)

Christmas was a true joy this year (as it always is, really).  Jack was so fun as he got the concept of Santa and presents and even the true meaning of Christmas, Baby Jesus' birthday.  Luke was able to open (some) of his own presents and he enjoyed his new toys.  As always, we had a very busy schedule!

December 23rd I was off school.  Jay worked a last day before he was off for TEN DAYS!  Natalee babysat for the morning while I ran last minute errands and wrapped last minute gifts!  That even we were set to have our family Christmas with our family traditions of homemade pizza, Christmas cookies, family PJs, gifts and Polar Express.  Unfortunately that afternoon I got some sort of migraine that had me hanging over the toilet while the boys watched!  I wasn't able to enjoy our pizzas, but I did start to perk up for gifts!

Making homemade pizzas:

Brotherly Love!

Gifts:

Family PJs:

Getting Santa's snack ready:

Jack's note to Elfie as it was his night to return to the North Pole til next year.  Jack was genuinely sad he wouldn't be leaving our family for a year!

Presents Santa left before the boys dove in!

Elfie's personal message to the boys!

"Christmas" (eve) morning:

Jack's new Razor scooter!

Luke's new vacuum (that he didn't put down for days)!

New traditions! Christmas morning caramel rolls!  YUM!