A few more shots from C's 5th birthday party. As I mentioned before, we had to change the location of the party at the very last minute due to rain. C seemed a little sad as we drove home from the park where we had planned to have the party. My husband and I tried to sound cheerful and explain how much fun we would have indoors at our house, but C seemed a little unconvinced. We had planned an obstacle course for the kids which we couldn't really do inside, but we did have some other ideas...
Like rocket balloons. Have you seen these? You blow up the balloons with the hand pump and then they fly around and make a crazy noise. We had planned on doing this at the park, where the balloons can fly high into the sky and then the kids have fun trying to catch them when they fall, but they are surprisingly fun indoors as well. Each child got a balloon and they would line up patiently while JR blew them up, then they would let their balloon go, watch it fly all around our living room, then grab their balloon and line up again. The first hour of the party was a bit crazy with these balloons going off in every direction.. but the kids were having SO much fun.
I had not planned many decorations, but I did make a simple sign by printing each letter out an one 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, rounding the corners, and stringing them together. After the party, you can snip the string and stack the letters flat to use again.
We quickly unpacked all the food we had taken to the park: (clockwise from top) peanut butter and jelly finger sandwiches, star and moon cookies, potato chips, pineapple, pretzel sticks, veggies with dip, ham and cheese finger sandwiches, and some watermelon.
I love sugar cookies because you can customize them so easily to suit your theme. Blue stars and a few moons were perfect for our rocket ship party.
C wasn't so into the idea of wearing a crown, but I love having the birthday child wear something special, so we made a t-shirt with a big 5 on it. Freezer paper to the rescue.
More than anything C wanted a pinata at his birthday party. As we drove back to our house from the park, my husband was already thinking of a way to hang the pinata indoors. He is the perfect guy to have around in situations like this one. It involved a long 2x4, several clamps and carabiners, a rachet strap, and a lot of string. And looked something like this:
He hung the 2x4 from the upstairs balcony, securing it with a rachet strap, and stabilized it by putting the other end in our linen closet. The other end of the 2x4 stuck out over the balcony. The pinata was then fed through a carabiner and hung down at a height where the kids could reach it.
Then he had two strings attached to the pinata itself, one controlled the height of the pinata, and the other controlled how far out it swung from the wall. By moving both strings we could make the pinata swing out from the wall and the kids could swing to their hearts content without doing any damage to our house. (I would just like to add that I think my husband might be a genius.)
We made a little bag for each child to collect candy from the pinata. I made these the same time as the invitations, using some circle punches and more office paper.
And we added a few things to each bag: some red and white peppermints, a wind up walking robot (which for several minutes was more exciting for the children than their candy!) and some chocolate globes.
I know it wasn't the party we had planned, but kids aren't that hard to please. Friends, games, food, a little candy, and a cupcake = happy kids. Especially C, who told me it was "the best day EVER."