Wednesday was Eli's actual birthday. On Tuesday afternoon I brought a balloon and playdoh (little containers for all his class) so that he would have something to share with is daycare friends. I only get to see the boys for about 15-20 minutes in the morning so it made me feel slightly better planning ahead and leaving something at daycare. My mom cooked a yummy dinner made up of spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and green beans (all his favorite). We then skyped with daddy to sing Happy Birthday to Eli and he got to have a big cupcake that Nana made.
On Thursday Aiden and Nana help me put up the Cars scene. This thing is about 9 ft tall and about 15 feet long. It's huge and takes up the entire kitchen wall space.
We had Eli's birthday party at our house on Saturday. We invited his daycare friends (12) to help celebrate. Most of the kid friends that we have at church are Aiden's age so I felt like it wouldn't really be Eli's party so I invited his class. So I must ask - what is the problem with RSVP's these days? In Alabama I had almost no RSVP's for Aiden and a ton of people came. For Eli's party, I did have 3 RSVP by wednesday (the please RSVP by date) and then another 1 on Thursday evening and 2 on Friday morning. Needless to say, I had already made the goodie bags and bought stuff for the party on Wednesday and then went back out on Friday and had to buy more stuff to make sure we had enough.
I went to set up the backyard in the morning (the party was at 10am) and saw how wet the grass was so I decided to try and blow it dry. That wasn't working out so well so then I decide to just quickly mow it. Well, that didn't work out so well either because it was so wet that the grass wouldn't shoot to the bag of the bag so I was having to empty the bag every lap. On the bright side, our backyard looked great!! :) Our first guest arrived promptly at 10am. I had a trampoline set out, a bean bag toss game, and little race track boards I made earlier in the week (which I found on Pinterest).
After it seemed like most of the kids were here, I asked if anyone wanted to make a race car to eat. I got a few strange looks and then showed them mine and then a bunch of them wanted to make it. I was actually going to make these ahead of time and have for snacks and then Aiden suggest we make it a craft. Great idea. It's just an apple slice, with 2 tooth picks in it and 1/2 grape stuck on the end of the tooth pick to act as tires. Here is Aiden sowing me his. It was fun meeting the other mom's and dad's from the class although I really didn't get a chance to talk to anyone since I was running around do random stuff.
Mike and Arin (and Grace) came as well and they showed up and Arin iced a bunch of mini cupcakes so they would match the awesome car cake she made, and Mike just went out to the backyard and picked up a ball and started playing with some of the kids. That was awesome.
There was one other daddy there too and he was playing ball with the kids too which was great. The little race car track things turned out pretty good. I just spray painted 2 pieces of wood that Brad said I could use and then glued pipe cleaners down the side and middles so that the cars wouldn't fall off the track or crash into each other. I then propped one side up on a stool and brought out a small basket of cars and we were in business.
Arin used a cake mold that we had and made Eli a really cool race car cake. I think the funniest part is that when I was trying to find the pictures of when we used the mold before (and Grandma Jo decorated it) I found out it was for Eli's 3rd birthday. Haha. He didn't care and was excited about it. We were going to do Mr. Potato Head theme and then he changed his mind a few weeks before his party. Now he's says he will do Mr. Potato Head when he turns 5 but I keep telling him he has a while and he might change his mind before then. The cake turned out awesome!!
Here are Eli (left, green shirt), Aiden, Grace (far right, purple shirt), and Reagan eating some cake. My mom even bought little ice cream bowls for them too.
It was getting a little hot outside and I already moved all the tables from under the patio out to the grass since there was more shade out in the yard than under the patio but now it was just getting hot. Change of plans. We brought everyone inside after they were done eating, and let Eli open gifts inside. Eli was taking his sweet time eating so he was the last one done so Mr. Mike gave him first class service by bringing him inside in while still sitting in his chair.
We let the kids come over and take pictures in front of the giant Lighting McQueen/Cars scene and most of them did. I'll return those pictures in the thank you cards!
Aiden was an awesome helper and opened the front door to all our guests and then showed them to the back yard and put their presents on the table for Eli.
This was Eli's first party with kids his own age and he was a little overwhelmed a few times. Other kids were opening his presents and he didn't care too much. He would open it, someone would take it and look at it and it was all good.
He actually even came up to me at one point and just gave me a hug and stood by me because he was so overwhelmed. There ended up being 9 kids including Aiden and Eli.
Overall he had a great time. My mom, Arin, and Mike were a huge help. Oh yeah. Let me comment on that a little more. Mike was helping hand presents to Eli and was taking the old paper to throw it away and stuff and someone says, "doing a good job dad." I didn't think much of it but then I realized someone really did think he was Eli's dad. Another woman starts looking up at the huge family picture over the fire place and is seeing that Mike is not the guy in the picture. We finally had to clarify that Eli and Aiden's daddy was gone but they Mr. Mike was doing a great job of filling in for a few hours. It was too funny.
I was so glad Eli was letting the other kids play with all his stuff although he was (and still is) possessive about a Cars 2 car.
After he was all done opening present Eli comes to me and says, "can I open one of my presents?" I say sure what do you want to open? My new nap mat. This kid got cool Superman outfit stuff, a musical guitar thing, and a few Cars and Planes toys and he wants to open the nap mat.
Thankfully Mike and the other daddy (John I believe) helped put all the toys together.
And this toy by Eli is the winner. It's his favorite (and Aiden's) toy. Eli had a blast and his friends had fun too. I think I am making a deal with myself though and anymore birthdays that daddy is not around, I give myself permission to go have them hosted at some other place so I don't stress as much.
I meant to take a picture of the goodie bags. We had mainly food in them Luigi's Tires (oreo cookies), Mater's Tow Cables (red twizzlers), Cars gummies, and Red Light, Green Light Playdoh (the home made stuff). At least it's stuff that kids will eat and won't be thrown away.
Wednesday was Eli's actual birthday. On Tuesday afternoon I brought a balloon and playdoh (little containers for all his class) so that he would have something to share with is daycare friends. I only get to see the boys for about 15-20 minutes in the morning so it made me feel slightly better planning ahead and leaving something at daycare. My mom cooked a yummy dinner made up of spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and green beans (all his favorite). We then skyped with daddy to sing Happy Birthday to Eli and he got to have a big cupcake that Nana made.
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