Birthday bash

So, we had Brandon's birthday party (with his friends) this weekend. It was the first one we'd ever hosted. He's only had one other party and it was at Chuck E. Cheese's. (Surprise, surprise.)

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and I'd do it again. He had seven friends come, which was a good number. There was a little bit of fighting and B got punched in the face before the party started and was crying for a minute, but he shook it off quickly and I think he's still friends with the boy who punched him. :)

We went with a Star Wars theme.

Our backyard is really fun for parties.
I drew this huge target on our b-ball court.

I didn't realize how hard it would be to draw
concentric circles that were this big.

I had bought one of those Hoverdiscs--kind of like a huge, flat mylar balloon. And our first game was throwing the Hoverdisc onto the target. (Sorry for the lack of pictures. It's hard when you're the one in charge!)

Then we turned the target into a track and had a "Podracer Challenge" with the new remote control car B got for his birthday.

Then I had hidden a Luke Skywalker and a Darth Vader figure around in the yard and divided the kids into two teams and sent them on two separate bounty hunter missions to seek out Luke and Vader. They had to follow four clues and bring their figures back. Loved that.

These balloons were part of the bounty they collected.

And we ended the night with a pinata.

Andrew believes all good parties involve a pinata at some point. I had bought a Star Wars pinata at first, but when I got it home, I realized it was a pull-string pinata. I'd never heard of that, but it doesn't involve hitting. The kids just take turns pulling a ribbon on the bottom and one of the ribbons opens a secret compartment where the candy gently falls out. Andrew's comment was, "Five and six-year-old boys need to hit things." So, I took it back and got this #6 instead. It was, of course, a huge success. (After a slight malfunction following the first swing Brandon took at it.)

The kids loved the Star Wars cake and made very specific requests of me. "I want a piece of Darth Vader's head." "Can I have part of Yoda's robe?" I tried to be accommodating, but thankfully, they were just happy to have a piece of cake. (As you can see, B isn't the only one who loves to make the "Rock on!" sign.)

Brandon had a blast opening his gifts. He mainly got Transformers and Pokemon cards and was completely THRILLED. I don't get the whole Pokemon thing, but he is sure into it right now.

And after giving all the boys their biggest sugar high of the summer, we sent them home to their families. Very successful party, I'd say.