background

July 3, 2010

Torin's 7th birthday party

I decided that this was year that we would let Tor ask 5 friends to his birthday and that we would take them to a waterpark, a movie or something else. I thought that at 7, a few other 7 year olds would be something we could handle and would be fun to do something besides just a party at the house. Assuming that he would pick a waterpark Torin completely surprised us by asking if he could have a hunting party and that he wanted to invite Jack and Brock. Jack and Brock are two boys that he went to daycare with almost two years ago. I wasn't really sure what a hunting party entailed or what he thought it entailed and I was surprised that he wanted only two friends invited to this party. This is so Torin any time that we think that he is going to be impressed with something or be excited by having something different he throws us by surprise. Bjorn and I started thinking about taking them to an archery place but couldn't really find anything that would make sense for 7 year olds.

I reached out to a VERY creative friend of mine who helped me with the ideas of the party. I used to be creative and would love to do things unique and fun. Now with three boys, working full time and volunteering I go for what is quick, easy and cheap :) My friends suggestions were face painting, a treasure hunt and a relay race of dressing up in "army" clothes. To do this we needed to convince Torin that he needed to invite more than 2 friends. We had talked about inviting the neighborhood boys since there are only 3 that are in his age range. Torin wasn't too keen on this idea. I think it's because it wasn't HIS idea. Literally, two days after we talked about this we were driving behind one of our neighbors to swimming lessons when Torin said "Mom, look Collin is in front of us. Did you invite him to my party? I sure hope that he can come." Seriously, I guess he is just one of those people that it has to be HIS idea in order for it to work :)

The night started off with some pizza and lemonade ($20), followed by me painting their faces in camouflage ($13 for the face paint), treasure hunt to find their nerf guns ($23), which they used for "target practice" on our sliding glass doors with a painted target and animals that Daddy had drawn ($5 for the window markers), a relay race of adult army clothes (free) and lastly a camouflage birthday cake made by Mommy ($10). This is by FAR the cheapest birthday I have ever put on for either of the boys but when we tucked him into bed that night he thanked us both for the most awesomest birthday party that he has EVER had. That my friends made the night priceless!

Here are a few pics of the cake and boys. I wish that I would have gotten pictures or video of them in the relay race of army clothes because really it was quite the sight. I've been trying to be better about living in the moment versus behind a camera. If you know me, you know that this is hard for me to do but it's been a little fun too :)
Jaiden, Connor, Collin, Tor, Jack, Brock and Vaugh (aka Siperman)
All the boys thought the camouflage cake was super cool. I guess I can still be a little creative...

No comments: