Birthday Party

It was the event of the season! -at least in my mind. I'll admit that I'm pretty sure I had more fun thinking about, planning, preparing, and executing Asher's birthday party than the kids had attending it. I loved throwing Asher's party in our new house.

For snacks we had veggies and chips with a couple different dips, grapes, and cinnamon bears (because Asher loves these). I served the snacks in Asher's trucks to make them more exciting to the kids.

I decorated with the same birthday banners I made for last year's party. I plan on using the birthday banner for all of our kids' parties. The balloons hanging on the ceiling were part of a game for Asher, Amanda, and Leif to pull them down then Paul and Ben to pop. Some of them had dollar bills inside for the kids to find. Unfortunately for Leif, he fell asleep just before the party started and slept through this game.

The game that I have been planning the longest was Punch Out. The kids got to spin a spinner, answer a question, then punch out a circle to get a prize. The cardboard grid I put inside the box to hold the prizes wasn't as well constructed as it should have been and we ended up with a few circles without prizes behind them, but everything worked out in the end. I think the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

Asher got spoiled for his birthday! He opened some of his presents the day before the party on his actual birthday so that he wouldn't be overwhelmed and opened a bunch at the party. He got lots of cars and trucks, markers, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, a paint book, snacks, a Legos set, a new water bottle and the most exciting present which was saved for the end of the party. Asher was a little confused about why he kept opening new toys but couldn't play with them and had to keep opening more new toys.

After presents we had cake and ice cream. I made a simple yellow cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. I decorated it with a toy tractor, Oreo crumbs for dirt, and gummy worms coming out of the cake.

As you can see by the look of delight on Asher's face, the big present saved for the end was a new bike. My dad gave us money to put toward a bike and Austin's brother and sister-in-law pitched in the rest of the money to get it. Asher loves seeing other kids ride their bikes and was thrilled to get his own. It has a little bell on it, which he loves to ring and say "noise".

We ended the party by riding around outside (Asher's cousins brought their bikes too). He isn't quite big enough to get the pedals all the way round, but he loved his new bike! We look forward to exploring with our new bike for the rest of the summer.