Football Party

We love a party theme at this house.
I've sort of passed this craziness on to my kids.
They love a theme and they always get into it.
We like to keep it simple but fun.
This year Ian wanted a football party.
I liked that - didn't seem like a hard one at all.
We kept it simple and had it our place.
8 boys and my three younger ones.

Here are some party ideas we gathered to make the party a hit.

* Used white spray paint to paint a field in our grass.
* Had all the boys wear a football jersey (I had extras for those that didn't wear one).
* My husband wore his ref shirt.
* We put black marks under their eyes. They all loved this.

(Yes that would be my twins wearing their jersey's backwards.We told them but they seemed to like it that way. It was fun to watch them try to be hang with the "big boys" in the games.)

* Hung up a tire to a tree for a throwing contest.

* Played flag football and 500 (It's a football game.).

* We tailgated - grilled food, opened presents, and ate cake all around the truck.

* We drank gatorade.

* Kept a simple menu . . . chili dogs/ chips/ and watermelon. I did cut the watermelon in the shape of a watermelon but I don't think that was noticed. :))

*  I had a cooler of water ready and thought we should pour it on the birthday boy - it ended up on the 

    ref.

Of course the party wouldn't be complete without Jas showing them his "I can eat a hotdog in one bite" trick.
How could he pass that up with an audience of 9 year old boys?
The boys loved that trick.

It really was a fun party.
Ian had a great time and his friends all had a good time.
That my friend is success for me.

Fancy Nancy Partying

Tatum's 4 year old party theme was Fancy Nancy.
You know the girl that has no limits to "dress up" and loves to use fancy words?

We celebrated several times and just kept the theme all along.
We celebrated with cousins (twice) and we had friends over for a Fancy Nancy lunch ON her actual birthday.
We celebrated over donuts for breakfast and we celebrated again just as a family when Jason came home from being out of town.
Can you really celebrate too much?
Ideally I'm all about having one celebration ON the day but that doesn't always work so we roll with it. Regardless we must celebrate in some way on the day.
As we said in my family growing up . . . "It's your day."

This is her actual birthday. 

Breakfast and Celebrate quick before boys headed off to school. 

The night before Tatum told me to tell her boys to give her a hug in the morning and say "Happy Birthday Tatum."  They were all super sweet to her that morning.

They had each bought her a present and the thought that went into that was incredible. Coleson struggled so much because as he said, "There are SO many things I want to get Tatum."

Carter even decided to add his own money to it because what he picked was out of my range for 'gifts from your brother'.  

They love this girl. 

Traditional picture of us with the birthday kid!

For one celebration I attempted to make the cake.
I am not a cake maker but Wilton, Betty and I worked together and did it.
The goal was just to make the cake look FANCY - it could even be gaudy so I figured I'd give it a try.
We struck gold when we found these glasses - they aren't Fancy Nancy glasses but look just like hers.
The cake turned out great.
Not crazy about the taste of the pre made fondant but it looked good - don't look real close I had to just bunch up some seams and stuff - I had no idea how to work with it. HA!

On her actual birthday we had 2 little friends and there mommas over (We had invited a third little friend but she got sick and couldn't come. We missed you Em - we'll get fancy together real soon!) and the kids decorated their own "fancy" cupcakes. We had "fancy" sandwiches (pbj's in shapes for kids) and fancy drinks (lemonade and sprite). The birthday girl wanted pickles.  I think her and I were the only ones eating them - like mother like daughter I guess. The invite told the girls to "accessorize their mom" for the event. Tatum wanted me in the glasses with the boa on. We got silly taking pics before guests came.

Tatum wanted to take a picture of me with my camera. 

We had fancy hot chocolate with cousins using cups that we stuck a picture of Fancy Nancy on, used fun straws, and topped with cool whip and pink sprinkles.  We also printed out something to cover the water bottles that said "Ohh La La Tatum is turning FOUR."

We had a fashion show and let the kids dig through all the dress up clothes and parade themselves in front of the adults. That was so funny - I think that activity was a hit. I have some great black mail pics of a few boys in this family now. HA!

We ended the night with family doing smores outside. Tatum stayed in costume, as always.

Our guests came dressed fancy - some looked fancy and normal and others looked costume like fancy. All was good!  Tatum changed several times before each party looking for the perfect Fancy combination.  For her cousin party she ended up as Spidergirl and for her friend party she was a Mermaid. Her brothers changed the Happy Birthday song just a little for her.  The boys usually say . . . "Happy Birthday to you. Cha Cha Cha. Happy Birthday to you. Cha Cha Cha. . . (guess they learned that at school) ....." Instead they sang Happy Birthday to you. Ooh La La. Happy Birthday to you. Ooh La La. . . . "  She loved it!!!

It was a very fun theme and a great fit for my Fancy Tatum.  Tatum oohed and aahhed over each little fancy thing we did to get ready for the parties. That made it all worth it - she noticed all the details.I found the plates and napkins at Birthday Express .  The ideas for a party theme like this are endless.  You could paint fancy fingernails, do fancy hair, and the menu could be as fancy as you'd like.

Yeah for Four!!

Super Mario Brothers Party

It was a Mario and Lugi Party and turned out to be a great theme.
I love a themed party and I think I've passed this love onto my kids because they really get into it too.
Simple is best for me and this party was very simple.
I searched many blogs and sites for party ideas but they were all overcomplicated to me.
Maybe this post will help someone with an idea or too.

We had the party outside at the pool and park right next to the pool.
We started at the park for a game/cake/and presents.
Then we went into the pool for swimming/another game/ and snacks.

The cake was the hardest part to figure out.
Their is a cake pan for Mario but it's considered a collectible or something so you are going to pay a nice penny for it.
You can find little figurines for cupcakes but again - pricey.
I asked the boys what they thought the cake should look like and they said, "Just do the colors of Mario and Luigi."
Simple! Why didn't I ask them before I spent hours googling Mario cake ideas that I wouldn't have been able to make.
Walmart didn't have a cake kit for it either or I would have just ordered it.
We got creative and decided to put the cupcakes ON bricks since in the game you jump up and break bricks all the time.
My Mother in law had some cardboard bricks we used but you could totally do this with real bricks and it could look so cute.
I didn't make the frosting cover the entire cupcake because I wanted you to see the color.
You just use a white cake mix and add food coloring - lots of it for red.

I just make a pyramid and put the cupcakes on them.
I found plastic coins to put on top of each cupcake.
The coins were found in the party toy aisle at Walmart.
To me the coins made the cupcakes.
For the top I bought the centerpiece from Birthday Express for 4.99.
This is also where I got the plates, invites etc.
I always buy a la cart because I don't need all the extra stuff in the packages.
For twins this cake was perfect because they both had a side that was theirs.

For games my experienced youth pastor of a husband had great ideas.
We played one organized game at the park.
As organized as it gets for a party of mostly 6 year old boys.
We had two teams - a Mario team and a Lugi team.
We took a green hat and a red hat we had and pinned M and L letters on them.

When it was their turn they put the hat on their head and ran through the play structure to one station where they had to jump up and use their head to pop a balloon.
(In the game the characters are always busting things with their head and coins or things pop out.)
When they hit the balloon with their head the person holding the balloon popped the balloon with a pin.
Some took their hat off to pop it, others left it on.
The first balloon had cool whip in it.
They then ran through the play structure again to another balloon where water came out.

Then ran back to home and hit the final balloon where a dime fell out.
This worked best if the third balloon was on cement so they could hear and find the dime fall out.
They then turned their dime in for a prize.
I think all the kids enjoyed this game.

It was then into the pool for some snacks and swimming.
For snacks I did fruit kabobs (they kind of went with all the colors of the party), bags of chips, and little cups of sherbet ice cream.
Kids could swim and eat whenever.

Our one other game was not organized - it was more of a fun activity.

I threw a hand full of the plastic coins into the shallow end and they got to swim and dive for them.

I wondered if their would be a problem over how many everyone found. It wasn't a problem one bit. Everyone just enjoyed the dive.

The twins were so excited for this activity because they said it was just like the swimming level of the game.
The kids all seemed to like this.

I didn't do party bags.
Instead they got to keep the coins and they turned their dime in for a little nerf like ball they got to play with at the pool and take home.

It was a great party and was suited well for kids and adults to all come and hang out.

For other party theme ideas check out these posts.

SCIENCE PARTY

BASKETBALL PARTY 

Sometime I should go back and post on some parties we did pre-blogging days - we did a

 cool Lego party once and a Dino party once too.