Angry Birds and Eating Fried Worms

My baby boy turned 8 on Monday!

Wow, has the time flown by! I can't believe that my little boy, who was 6 weeks early, and only 4 pounds when we left the hospital, is now to my shoulders, and big enough to be out of a booster seat!

Sigh.

This year we had a very difficult time coming up with a Birthday Party idea. Parents who live in cold climates, and have kids with Winter Birthdays understand my dilema.

1) The weather in Maryland is soo unpredictable. For example, it flurried on Saturday morning, and we had 40 mph winds, plus 30 degree temperatures. On Sunday, it was 60 degrees and sunny!

2) When your child wants to invite more then 10 friends and you live in a modest house, that is going through a remodel due to the flooded basement....you don't want to have a party at home.

3) 8 years old, well that means that we have had to come up with 7 previous party ideas for places, and it's no fun duplicating a party.

Here's the rundown

Age 1- Pirate party at home (just family and close friends)

Age 2- Bob the Builder Party at a local Kids gym

Age 3- Curious George/Firetruck Party at a local volunteer Fire House (Very cool party)

Age 4- Indoor Treehouse and obstacle course at Athletic Center

Age 5- Indoor Bounce House Party

Age 6- Pirate Party at Indoor Swim Club

Age 7- Ice Skating Party at indoor ice rink

Age 8- ??? What to do??

E loves Angry Birds, so I was trying to come up with a theme related to them. Like what??

Well...there is a local up and coming business close to our home that hosts video game parties.

So, I asked what E thought of that idea..and it was quickly shot down. I was surprised by his reaction, but when he explained that he wanted all of his friends to be together, and not in separate cubbies playing individual games, I understood.

When I went to the video game center, they showed me another option for a party. They have a Private screening room! It's awesome! It's a room with speakers lining all of the walls, and three levels of chairs, all leather, some reclining.  The movie screen is an 133inch HD screen where you can play the movie of your choice.

So, what movie could keep 15 8 year old boys (3 girls) interested in a movie theater that 's not too babyish, but fun? I had no clue!!

So I searched a mom forum, and found out about a movie from 2006 (the kids would have been 2) called HOW TO EAT FRIED WORMS

Angry Birds and FRIED WORMS...OMG, it was meant to be!!!

I repurposed an easle that I recently used at a bridal tea, and made it a Now showing board.

I decorated it with worm balloons that I found at party city, but I didn't get a picture prior to the kids deflating them.

I had all of the parents write down their names and provide cell #'s in case of an emergency,and told them to enjoy the next 2-1/2 hours...we'd see them when they came back!

I gave each of the kids a ticket stub and prior to them going into the theater I drew 5 tickets.

These are the 5 kids that would get to sit in the reclining chairs with E. I didn't want there to be any fighting, so I thought that this was the most fair way to do this.

I also gave each of the kids a glow bracelet and had them put them on. I instructed them that if they needed an adult during the movie, or needed to use the restroom, to raise their hand and someone would help them.

 (This was a pretty genius idea if I must say so!!)

Right before the movie started, I gave the kids a party horn, and told them that whenever they saw a worm or the word worm was shown, to blow their horms!! (This kept the movie interactive!!)

After the movie, we had popcorn, pizza, dirt cake, worm(jello) shots, giant marshmallows, licorice, gummy worms, spiral worm cheese doodles, worms(squirt cheese) on crackers, and a cake made by my neighbor!

Here's a glimpse of some of the party..

Notice that E and his daddy are wearing the same shirt!!

For goodie bags, I made Angry Birds and Pigs, thanks to this link that I found from The Party Animal.

I filled them with spiral straws from the dollar store, Angry Bird Gummie snacks from 5 Below, and a custom made cookie from my local bakery.

It was a fun and different party! And I've received messages form many of the parents about how much their kids liked it!!

Linking to:

Ice Skating 7th Birthday Party

We decided to have an ice skating birthday party this year for E's 7th Birthday.

The party was for 3 hours for 14 kids!

We were in a party room for the first hour. The kids got a slice of pizza and soda, and we had cake and cupcakes.

I made goodie bags for all of the kids that included bubbles, hot chocolate mix, a mini flute,a sparkling bouncey ball and a crazy straw.

I also made jumbo marshmallows dipped in white chocolate and blue sparkle sugar and packaged them on lollipop sticks.

Scott and I made homemade snowflake sugar cookies from scratch, and decorated them with Royal icing and silver candy beads. 

I also got each of the kids a pair of gloves from the Target Dollar section...only I got them for 75% off...that's 25 cents per pair!! I'm such a good bargain shopper!!

Scott wanted to make  E's birthday cake, and E's request was a vanilla number 7 and vanilla cupcakes.

We fancied them up by making toppers from the invitation design, and added a little "ice" to the frosting with blue sugar.

We played one game, Guess how many snowflakes "marshmallows" were in the vase, and I had a prize for the girl and the boy who guessed the closest. Any guess as to how many are in this vase?

520 mini mashmallows!!

We sang, and the energy level was waaaaayyyyyy to high for the kids to be in this mini room any longer, it was time to ice skate!!

Before we skated, we informed the kids that if they needed any help while skating, to ask one of the parents from our group who were out on the ice. WE identified them by these cute little snowflake pins that took me all of 5 minutes to make.

The kids all had a great time!

We took presents home to open, and went to dinner at the restaurant of E's choice, "Outback" with mom-mom and pop-pop.

Happy 7th Birthday E, Mommy and Daddy love you more then you'll ever know!



Party Prep

Let me start this post by saying how jealous I am of parents with kids who have Summer/Spring/Fall Birthdays!  Winter Birthday parties are tough. It's hard to come up with different place to host the parties without breaking the bank. And it's tough to be the host of  a bunch of kids in your own home. Any other season but winter allows parties to be held outdoors. And there are sooo many options for outdoor parties. I envy you parents!

E turns 7 on Sunday!

We are having his party at an ice Skating Rink.

We are expecting fifteen kids.

I have not been ice skating in at least 15 years. Scott has not been ice skating in at least 15 years.
E has never been ice skating, nor has most of the kids that are attending.

I am scared!

Since the party is at the rink, I don't have to clean my house I don't really have my normal "Party Prep" extravaganza to worry about. And, since the only food that I can bring into the arena is the cake, (I'm sneaking in ice cream, even though the party coordinator told me that they typically don't allow that), I don't really have a bunch to do.

I wanted to keep it simple, (yeah right), and minimial, and not go over the top.

Buuuuttttt, I couldn't help myself with some of the details.

Here's just a glimpse for you: (Sorry for the bad pictures, cell phone pictures, uggh)