The Birthday Extravaganza

Well first we have to say Happy Birthday, Joshua!! I can hardly believe he is 11. He had a great morning that he wanted to start at 5:30am. All 4 boys were up then and we had to send them back to their room until at least 6am. He had Enteman's Cheese Crumb Coffee Cake with scrambled eggs and sausage for breakfast. Then he opened his presents and a mom knows when she's done well when the birthday boy says he got everything he ever wanted and more. Since he really didn't get all that much I think that speaks volumes about his personality. Joshua was a good sport about going to school and having to take the state MCAS exams today. I traditionally bring lunch of their choice to school when it falls on a weekday, Joshua chose Subway. I think he had a great day.

Something else that speaks volumes about Joshua's personality was his complete willingness to let Andrew and Sam have their birthday parties on his birthday. Sam's birthday is next week and we usually do a half birthday for Andrew in June. However, since we're moving we thought it would be fun to have one last big hurrah! So, welcome to Jedi training. We had 15 children for a birthday party today. They ranged in age from 3 to 11. While it was truly chaotic it couldn't have gone any better. The older children helped out a lot. Everyone made a light saber out of PVC and swim noodles and then we did a bunch of Jedi "training" exercises.

We used the force to pin the light saber on Yoda, we went through an obstacle course that included fighting the Sith (the older children) and practiced our aim by swatting balls with the light sabers on the trampoline.

Then came pizza.

After dinner they all "graduated" from Jedi training and they received their Jedi uniform. We paid a young woman in our ward who has a Silhouette printer to make t-shirts with Master Yoda on it. The light sabers and t-shirts were our goody bag and I'm terribly pleased to not have invested in the usual goody bag fare.

We then went to open presents and discovered the evil Sith had stolen them. We went on a treasure hunt to find the presents and then had a massive "battle" to retrieve the presents. I have to say it was one of the most successful parties we've done.

Of course we had cake and ice cream. If you use your imagination you can even see the red and yellow light sabers in this "cake." Our final activity was battling the poisonous bubbles (ie. whacking bubbles with the light sabers - it was a good distraction from whacking each other).

Finally, I can't have a post without Eliza. She spent the party with a friend, which is the only way this whole thing worked.