Jared's Birthday Party

It has been a year since my last post, but Kristin inspired me to try blogging again, so here goes!  Today was Jared's birthday party.  We celebrated on his actual birthday with the family, but it has taken a full month to be able to find a good day to have his friends over for a little celebration.  At one point (I think we were eating pizza), Jared leaned over and said to his friend, "This is the best party ever" (or something along those lines!).  I'm so glad he had a good time! 

During the third hour of our Wal*Mart shopping trip for the party, Jared started repeating the word "hibernation" over and over and over again.  He actually did really well for such a long shopping spree.  As soon as we got home, he wanted to fill the piñata with candy.  He picked out a really cute dinosaur piñata and named it Tommy.  It was actually almost too cute to hit with a stick. 

We invited 2 friends from church, and a friend from the library, plus siblings!  It ended up being a really nice party, I thought.  Jared opened each present as it arrived... a bit non-traditional, but it was the way it worked out!  Emily had prepared a bunch of water balloons and a tic-tac-toe game. 

As soon as the pizza got here, we dug in!  Then we did the treasure hunt.  Matthew prepared the coolest map, with a puzzle piece at each location.  The map and puzzle were both painted with watercolors!  The kids had to put together the puzzle to reveal a picture of where the treasure was hidden.  The puzzle was a bit harder for the kids to do than we had thought it would be, but they eventually figured it out!  The treasure was hidden in the cabinet under the TV.  Each of the kids got a brown paper bag with a Hot Wheels car (for the boys), a mini composition book and pencil, bubbles, and Play-Doh.  The little girls got a Dora bracelet with lip gloss.  It was kind of hard to find cool treasures at Wal*Mart without spending a lot. 

Next up was the piñata ("Tommy")!  It didn't take long for the kids to crack it open...Emily and her friends didn't even get a chance to to hit it!  But the kids all seemed to get plenty of candy, and no one fought or got upset about it! 

Whenever there was a little break between activities, the kids would go back to Jared's room and play with his toys.  They tried out the bow and arrows, and the cash register and McDonald's play set were a big hit!  I guess it was a big deal, because Jared hasn't had very many friends over to play since we've moved in here.  There aren't many neighbor kids around here at all.  We invited one little girl from across the street, but didn't hear back from them.  I didn't know Patty's grandkids were here visiting, or we would have invited them.  Patty is a really nice neighbor lady. 

After the piñata, we sang Happy Birthday and had cupcakes and ice cream.  Some of Jared's friends requested their own candle in their cupcake.  His friends were all very sweet and polite.  After the cake, we got ready to do water balloons.  Em had spent a lot of time getting them ready, so it was a real bummer that all the balloons were broken by the time she and her friends got outside.  The little kids were so intrigued by the balloons, they just kept throwing them on the grass and watching them burst!  It only took a couple of minutes for all of the balloons to be broken :(  We ended up continuing the party for an extra hour, with the sprinkler and then the Slip 'n Slide.  The kids all seemed to have fun in the water! 

I'm glad Jared finally got to have his party.  He's already talking about his future birthday parties!

Hopefully, we can post some party pictures tomorrow!

Now I'm thinking of all the other posts I can write...Emily's birthday, Spring Break... San Diego (in a week!!!)  I'm so excited about this trip, I can hardly believe we're really going!!!