Happy 6th Birthday Connor!
Every year I start thinking of birthday idea's months before his actual birthday. Then about a month before his birthday I let him choose the theme and I get busy planning, organizing and getting things ready. After his party last year he stated he wanted a "How to Train Your Dragon" party for his 6th birthday party. Then over Christmas he got into transformers and rescue bots and decided he wanted a transformer party. I had a feeling he would change back to the dragon theme when I took him to see the new How to Train Your Dragon movie in the theater at the end of the school year... and I was right. I gave him several options for his party. Not only did he get to pick the theme, but he also got to pick where we had his party and what activities we did. I love planning his parties, but I was silently kinda hoping he would want to have his party somewhere... then I wouldn't have to plan, organize, set everything up and then clean everything up afterwards. Backyard birthday parties are a lot of work. Especially because I like to make sure the kids are all having fun and keeping busy so I always plan tons of games and crafts, half of which we never even end up doing, but I still prepare for them in case the party has any lag time.
Connor decided he wanted to have his How to Train Your Dragon birthday party in our backyard. Lots of work for me, but well worth it when he tells me I'm the best mom in the world and he had the best party ever. I thought I might actually be in luck this year since the new How to Train Your Dragon movie was just released, but I wasn't. I couldn't locate any decorations in the stores, so I had to order everything on-line. When I was shopping around for the cakes they all looked really boring with just grey frosting (for rock) and 1-2 character figures on top. I found a set of 12 character figures for cake decorating on-line that Connor wanted (mainly so he could keep all 12 figures to play with after the party). He wanted a chocolate 2 tier round cake with chocolate fudge filling. So, this year I attempted to make his birthday cake myself. I'm a cook, not a cake decorator... but I tried anyway. I frosted the cake with grey frosting to look like rock and arranged the figures on top. I bought black gel frosting to write Happy Birthday across the front, but found out that the gel bleeds and runs. Which makes no sense because it's designed for decorating cakes?!? His cake tasted great, but looked a little on the boring side. My parents also brought over a bunch of veggies from Grandpa's garden, which was wonderful, but also consumed all the extra space in my fridge and I wasn't able to put the cake in the fridge... which made some of the frosting on the sides start to melt too. Ugh! His party was on Sunday at 1:00.
Grandma with her 3 grandson's: Ryan, Kaiden and Connor
Vicki and Maddux
We started the party by making viking shields, while Jason BBQ the burgers and hot dogs. I cut all the shields out of foam board, put a strip of silver duct tape around the edges, used duct tape to make a handle in the back and then attached different How to Train Your Dragon emblems to the front. Each child picked the emblem shield they wanted and then finished decorating the shield however they wanted with markers, crayons, stickers, etc.
Caden, a friend from Connor's kindergarten class
Connor, who decorated his shield with dragon stickers
Grandma getting Kaiden to take a nap
Ryan with his finished viking shield and sword
I decided cardboard swords could be dangerous with boys, so instead I let the kids choose a color and made balloon swords. This worked out great until they decided to have sword fights in the grass and the swords all popped. Tony helped me blow up and make new swords, but those popped too.
Caden
My rough, tough viking Connor
Ryan, Caden, Connor and Waylon (Elona didn't want to be in the picture)
with their personalized viking shields, balloon swords and viking hats
After we finished making the viking shields and balloon swords lunch was ready. I made potato salad, jello gigglers, watermelon slices, grapes, chips and Jason cooked up hamburgers, hot dogs and Italian sausages. For beverages we had bottled water, strawberry lemonade, rootbeer, 7-up, 100% fruit punch Capri sun, flavored water Capri sun and beer.
Laura, John and Ryan. They were only able to stay for the beginning of the party since Laura had to go to work.
After lunch the kids all wanted to swim in the pool. The pool has been the center attraction for all of Connor's parties. The kids just love it and have so much fun splashing around.
For the first game I had tons of water balloons that I filled before the party. My fingers were sore from tying them all. Everyone knows that dragon's breath fire, so the object of the game was to put out the dragon fire by hitting their flames with the water balloons. The kids had a blast doing this.
Next we made bubble wands by bending different colored pipe cleaners and adding colored beads. They are actually suppose to work better than the plastic wands because the pipe cleaner holds more bubble solution. The kids all loved making their wand, but as soon as they were done they all took off for the pool again.
Marcus did give his wand a quick try before running for the pool with the other kids.
Jon and Vicki (Connor calls Vicki his other Grandma)
Connor decided he was done with the pool and changed into some dry clothes. He wanted to go through the obstacle course, which I made smaller than last years.
me and my 6 year old birthday boy. A few minutes later all the kids decided to exit the pool and join us on the obstacle course. The kids loved the obstacle course and they all went through it several times. I think Connor went through the course 4-5 times. The course starts by crawling under pool noodles, then jumping in 3 hula hoops, bouncing on the hippity hop around cones, crawling through a tunnel, hurdling a pool noodle, walking a balance beam and ends with putting some golf balls into a circle green.
Elona crawling under the pool noodles
Brayden getting ready to crawl under the pool noodles, Marcus just finished the hula hoops and is waiting for Elona to finish on the hippity hop and Connor hurdling the pool noodle
Brayden going under noodles, Marcus on hippity hop and Connor now putting golf balls
Brayden crawling out of the tunnel as Marcus enters the tunnel
Waylon on the hippity hop
Connor getting ready for balance beam, Brayden decided to crawl under the noodle vs. hurdling it, Marcus behind him, Waylon on the hippity hop and Caden getting ready to jump through the hula hoops
Marcus and Elona playing on the slip-n-slide. This year the obstacle course was a huge hit, but the slip-n-slide wasn't. Last year the slip-n-slide was a huge hit and the obstacle course wasn't. Go figure?!? The kids wanted to slide on the slip-n-slide, but didn't want the cold water to hit them. The problem is in order to make the slide slippery so they can slide down it the water has to be turned on and hitting the slide. Marcus and Elona are the only two kids that actually slid down the slide, but they didn't play on it long.
Caden in front exiting the tunnel, followed by Connor with Brayden ready to enter the tube. The three of them had fun rolling around inside the tube too.
Staci and Tony
They were such great help. Tony helped make the balloon swords since they kept popping. Staci and my mom were great help with setting up the food table and then putting the food away afterwards.
The adults all relaxing in the shade... well except me. I was busy entertaining the kids and taking pictures during the entire party. I'm usually exhausted by the end of his party since I've spent weeks preparing things. I'm baking all day prior to his party. I get up early the day of his party to set things up and then I'm up late taking everything down after the party. His party started at 1:00pm and our last guest left at 6:00pm.
Time for cake! The sides had melted a little bit sitting on the counter in the kitchen so I had to try to fix them. The weather for his party was 81 degree's with an occasional slight breeze.
Elona and Connor enjoying their cake
The twins, Brayden and Marcus. They were both in Connor's kindergarten class this year.
Connor, Jason (who is imitating Kaiden blowing bubbles) and Kaiden
Presents! All the kids gathered around to watch Connor open his gifts
Connor opening his Switch and Go Dino from Grandma and Grandpa... or maybe this was the Blades rescue bot from them? He was really excited to get both gifts from them.
Pinata. Jason used a 20 foot pole to hang the pinata off. He wasn't taking any chances of getting hit even if it was with a plastic bat. Connor was really excited about his pinata. He picked out a black dragon pinata and I filled it with several types of candy and spider-man spinning tops.
All the kids grabbing candy and toys
group shot: Brayden Durbin, Connor, Elona Grimes, Maddux Raugust, Caden Stoltz, Marcus Durbin, and Waylon Grimes (not pictured is Max Raugust, who had to stop at another birthday party and Ryan Kortus, who had to leave early). 8 boys and 1 girl
Our family
Brayden and Marcus Durbin. They arrived at the party after we made the viking shields. I gave them 3 shields to take home and decorate (they have an older brother that didn't come).
Vicki and Kaiden
Our neighbors from across the street: Larry, Dani, Elona and Waylon. Today was Elona's actual birthday. She loves horses, so we got her a toy horse for her birthday.
Vicki blowing bubbles with one of the bubble wands the kids made
another group shot of my family. Happy 6th birthday Connor! Connor is such a sweet and loving kid. I'm constantly getting compliments on how well behaved he is and how amazing his manners are. He always says Please, Thank you, etc. He asks permission before doing things. He is a fantastic listener and has an incredible memory. He has a heart of gold and really cares about other peoples feelings. He's the first to give a hug when your not feeling well or you get hurt. He always asks if he can help everyone around him with chores or anything that needs to be done. He has a sensitive side that can get hurt... he cries if we raise our voices at him. If he does anything wrong (which it's strange to say that it's rare for a 5 year old to do something wrong, but it's true for Connor's case... he's such a good kid!), all we have to do is get down on his level and talk about what he did wrong, why it was wrong and suggest better options for the next time. We rationalize and talk through his mistakes, which works great. He's such a responsible kid and responds well to rationalizing. He's really good at following rules. Better than I am. It drives Jason nuts to have lights on throughout the house and he's constantly telling me to turn off lights, but Connor is so good at turning all the lights off when he leaves a room. He is also incredibly helpful and always carries the diaper bag for me in public. He knows his little brother loves his pacifier and will get him a pacifier when he cries. He's gentle and caring with Kaiden. He loves to cuddle with Kaiden or make him laugh and smile. His favorite cartoon is still Wild Kratt's (which is mine too). His favorite toys are the rescue bots and his dragons. His favorite food is Nutella. He loves peanut butter and nutella sandwiches. Favorite candy (which he doesn't get very often) is York candy. He loves to go fishing. Favorite TV show is Big Bang (also Jason and my favorite show), America Ninja Warier or America's funniest home video's. Favorite movie is Wall-e and How to Train Your Dragon. He loves to draw and color. Art is his favorite subject in school. He is extremely outgoing and loves to talk to everyone we see. He loves to tell everyone about his little brother, who he adores. Connor is so excited to have a little brother. He currently wants to be a Veterinarian when he grows up, followed by artist, fisherman and master chef. He loves the feel of soft fleece and would wear his fleece sweats year round if we let him. He still loves his stuffed animals and has about 20 of them on his bed.
Grandpa and Grandma
Grandpa made this incredible wood boat for Connor. I actually found some pictures of a boat similar on Pinterest that I showed to Grandpa for Kaiden's room. It was painted all white. Grandpa found a pattern for the boat in his wood working magazines and scaled it down. He made it so we can sit it on the floor for a book shelf or hang it on the wall for a knick knack/trophy shelf. We decided we wanted one for each of the boys rooms. He did such a great job and it looks so amazing that we decided not to paint it white and to leave the gorgeous wood grain showing.
