Spencer's Birthday

So, this weekend we celebrated Spencer's 7th birthday. As per tradition in our family, every odd birthday is a friend party. I figure that the even birthdays are usually significant with church, so we would keep those ones family affairs. Spencer took quite a while deciding what kind of party he wanted. First he thought that he wanted an Indiana Jones party, but I think the video game has kind of gotten him sick of that idea. I even had that one all planned out. So, then he thought maybe he would do a Kameo party. It is also a video game, but I put the nix on that one, so we went back to the good old Star Wars theme. Last week was a pretty busy week, so I thought that I would just run to Sam's Club on Thursday night and pick up a 1/4 sheet cake, they are pretty cheap, and then I would just decorate the top to be Star Wars-ish. Steve didn't get home from work until around 8:30, so I hurried out the door to make to Sam's by 9. But then as I was driving over there, there were some things I had to pick up at Walmart as well and so I figured I would just pick up a cake there with the rest of the stuff. The cakes at Walmart though are EXPENSIVE. But I figured that out too late. So instead I made my own. Which, as you can tell from the photo, it sucks, my photo that is. I did such a bad job taking pictures for his party. I really thought that I took a ton, but then when I went to download them I realized that I didn't. So, if you can't tell from the angle, that is Darth Vader on top. It didn't turn out all that bad. And Spencer was happy with it, and that's all that matters. Right?

So, what did we do? We did a Star Wars Training Academy. When the kids came, we started off with a game of "The force". I put stickers on each of their foreheads that had a different Star Wars character and they had to go around asking each other questions to figure out who they were. We played that a couple of times.

Next, we learned how to shoot some blaster guns. I had a sheet hung on one wall that had some targets taped to it, and the boys took turns shooting at the targets, and that kind of turned into the boys having a gun fight with each other. Next, I sent them on a Jedi quest in the backyard to find a crystal that was hiddent in the grass and they used the crystals to make a power core for their lightsabers that they made. I bought some pipe insulation foam so that it wouldn't hurt when they hit each other to make the light sabers out of. They made a power core out of aluminum foil and then used Duct Tape to make a handle. Then, they went out back and had a Jedi lightsaber war. That wasn't planned, but I totally underestimated how aggressive they all were. They LOVED beating on each other and that gave me time to set up dinner. We did Lightsaber dogs, with chips, and Jabba juice. (It was some green punch that my next door neighbor told me she makes for Halloween) After we ate (and this is the part that makes me sad I didn't get ANY pictures of) we went downstairs. Melissa and her friends had set up an obstacle course in the basement for the boys to go through. And I couldn't get any pictures of it after because the boys totally destroyed it afterwards. (Melissa was NOT happy about that because she and her friends took a couople of hours setting it up)

The obstacle course was set up like the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland. They had different targets set up on the wall that the boys used their blaster guns to shoot at as they went through different "tunnels" that were "ventilation shafts". They had made a giant path on the floor out of red streamers that was a lava maze that they had different step stones that they had to jump from one to the other. Then, one of the girls was standing there throwing some foam balls at them that they had to use their light sabers to deflect the balls. Then, they had some more "ventilation shafts" to go through. Then they got to a bunch of streamers that they had taped down the hall, and the boys had to crawl under, and step over to get down the hall. Then at the end of the hall, before they got in the last room, they set up some boxes that was a pretend wall that they had to blast through and then one of the girls was there dressed as Darth Vader and the boys fought her.

Once that was done, it left barely enough time for presents and cake. And in the end, we had A LOT of fun, and a BIG mess. Here's the kids enjoying playing with Spencer's new toys. I should have gotten a picture of the mess that was made. We had 12 boys come. I was just surprised how CRAZY they were. Spencer is such a mellow boy and I guess you could say it ended up with me thinking that Jayden isn't all that bad. There was one boy that could not walk past any other kid without wrestling them to the ground. Spencer told me last night that next time he wouldn't invite that kid because he couldn't stand being tackled all the time. He was also the same kid that started ripping down the obstacle course Melissa and her friends had made. You can see in the picture below that he even ripped down the targets from the sheet. I am thinking though that next time we will limit the number of friends that Spencer invites. Or just hope that they mellow out in the next 2 years because I have a hard time leaving anyone out.