Birthday Boy 3

Birthday boy number three is William! A few days before his birthday he mentioned a friend's name that he was going to invite to his birthday party. You'd think that with 5 kids, all of whom have done this to me I would have been prepared but as usual I hadn't even thought about the notion of a friend party. Some people have a system for this problem like a friend party every other year, or every 3rd year, and that is very wise. We have no system and I always forget that when they are little they assume that "birthday" means "birthday party". Glenn and I quickly calculated that this was William's 5th birthday and that he had never had a friend party so we knew we were stuck. The thought of keeping children entertained for a certain length of time is what always scares me about these things until I actually start planning it. Then the creative juices kick in and it gets kind of fun, especially when the theme is decided and I can adapt everything around the theme. I remembered that I had some left over invitations from a Scooby Doo party that Garrett had when he was 7. I found them and there were just enough. It was perfect because William and the kids had been watching Scooby Doo all summer long so he liked Scooby. Since I'd already done a Scooby Doo party I just had to re-do it basically. The finale of the party was to do a scavenger hunt to find the treat bags and the treat bags were just brown paper bags marked Scooby Snacks. We even had a big cardboard treasure chest that's been sitting around in Glenn's office. Really. I don't know what it's for or why he brought it home but it was perfect for the treat bags. Cool side note: When I did this with Garrett the house next door was being built and a backhoe showed up on the day of his party. I went over and asked the guy if he would take a scoop out of our backyard, (our lawn wasn't in yet) and then I actually buried the cooler with the treat bags in it so the kids had to dig it up. Garrett still talks about it- fondly even.
With the party a go, William prepares the invitations:

William's birthday was on a Thursday so we had a family party on his birthday and planned the friend party for Friday. That gave me a chance to do the the Rocket ship cake that he had picked out earlier. His swimming teacher's family had offered use of their pool on the night of his birthday so we went swimming as a family and had a great time. Will finally decided he could dunk his head under the water and he spent the whole time on the steps dunking his head.
Here are pictures from Thursday. The first 3 are from earlier in the day at his last swimming lesson being dunked by his teacher.



Card and cash from Grandma Taylor:

Opening presents:


The cake:


His friend party wasn't until 3:00 pm Friday so I planned to do most of the party prep on Friday. What's a little pressure? I still had to write out the scavenger hunt, find some filler games, bake and frost cupcakes, hit the store and prepare the treat bags. The only problem was that the night before I had a sore throat and it was still with me on Friday morning. I did the scavenger hunt, found the filler games and baked the cupcakes then set out for the store. At the store I knew I wasn't feeling well and told myself that I better get everything I needed cause one trip was all I had in me. I made it home and put the treat bags together and wrapped a couple of presents. (We were doing a gift exchange instead of having presents come for William, which was a fabulous idea by the way.) By 1:00 I conceded that there was no way I was doing this party so I started writing out an itinerary and all the instructions for the games. Glenn thought he was coming home for moral support but he got the whole shebang. He walked in at 2:30 and I briefed him and then walked out to go to urgent care. I know Glenn and his 3 eager helpers, Garrett, Abby and Emily, did a great job but it was a little disappointing not to see how things went first hand. Oh well I'm just so glad I had Glenn, he is an incredible support to me. (Thanks again honey.) He even got a picture, he knows me well. Party goers L-R boys Weston, Nathan, Will, Braxton, Austin, L-R girls Gabby, Ora, Emily, Abby and Jennica.

Post script: It was strep although I didn't find out for sure until 5 days later. Luckily they started me on antibiotics anyway. Hopefully no one else got it, I was really good about washing and I went straight to my room when I got back from the Dr:)