Drew's Friend Birthday Party

Drew has never had a birthday party with friends before this year.  We had wanted to do one last year when he turned five, but we had a three week-old baby at the time, and it didn't seem like a great idea.  We decided to have a friend party for Drew this year instead.  The party was originally scheduled for his actual birthday, but we had to reschedule when he got sick the afternoon before his party was supposed to happen.  We rescheduled for this past Saturday, and we were thrilled that the birthday boy stayed healthy this time, and we were able to have the party as planned.  We invited five friends - two sets of brothers and another boy, and the six of them had lots of fun.

Since March is usually still pretty cold here in Michigan, we had to do an indoor party, and since our house is small, we didn't think we should try to do the party here.  We decided to go ahead and do the party at a big field house in our town.  They have lots of activities to pick from, and all the activities are indoors.  It ended up being a very easy party to plan - hardly any prep - just show up, pay, and play!

We started the party with breakfast at Dunkin Donuts.  We got a big box of Munchkins and a bunch of milks.  The boys ate through almost 50 Munchkins!

 Donuts were the perfect choice for these guys!

 Maddie sat with my BFF, Kristen, whose two boys were at the party.

 Maddie loves donuts, and she helped the boys by eating three of the Munchkins.

 The boys finished up their breakfast,

 and then Drew opened his gifts.

 He loved everything he got, and the other boys were very interested in all his gifts!

 After he opened his gifts, Drew passed out treat bags for all the boys, and they opened them up.  We gave them each an Angry Birds coloring book, some Angry Birds stickers, a Matchbox car, a Rice Krispie treat, and a little pack of Skittles.  I have been using coupons and gathering things for the treat bags for the past several months.

 We finished up at Dunkin Donuts and then packed up all the boys to drive right up the street to the field house, where the rest of the party was going to take place.  We started with putt putt.  I had secretly been dreading this part of the party, because whenever we have taken Drew putt putting, it has taken forever.  The boys raced through this little course and were done in about 15 minutes!

 Good form and rule-following were not part of their game at all, but they enjoyed themselves!

 Maddie played with an extra ball.  She stayed in her stroller the whole time and was a very good girl!

 We were supposed to do slot car racing after we putt putted, but the track was broken, so we did laser tag instead.  They got their gear

 and went in to play.  Jim said that they did pretty well and actually shot each other some.  They enjoyed laser tag too.

 They each got a few tokens to use in the arcade, so they finished by playing air hockey

 and a few other arcade games.

Drew loved his party, and we were glad that we were finally able to have a friend party for him!

Project Life - Week 11

We had Drew's family birthday party on Sunday, and then Drew's birthday spilled over into this week, with birthday mail coming from his aunts and uncles in South Carolina.

 Drew decided to color in his new birthday coloring book, and he was frustrated that Maddie tried to join him.  We got her her own coloring book, but she still wanted to color in his with him.  She loves to do whatever he is doing!

 Jim, Drew, and I played Drew's new Battleship game one evening.  The boys were a team, and I beat them - just barely!

 Drew had a "Turn Off the TV and Read" week for school, so we did a lot of extra reading.

 We ate lunch at Pizza Hut with friends one day after school.  The boys used their free pizza coupons from "Book-It," and the rest of us got the pizza buffet.  Maddie and Ella shared some vanilla wafers,

 and the boys ate up their pizza.

 On our way home from lunch, we decided to drive out to Jim's work to see him for a little while.  He has been busy at work lately, and he's been having to work longer days the past few weeks.  It was fun to spend some time there with him.  Drew loved his ride through the clubhouse, and Maddie liked having lots of space where she could walk around.

 Drew crawled into a golf ball display case.

 Drew had Storybook Character Day at school on Friday.  He was Curious George, of course!

 Jim and Drew ran out to Jim's work early on Saturday morning, and they stopped for donuts on the way home.  Maddie ate a whole donut!

 This is this week's layout, alongside last week's page.  I made an insert about Drew's family birthday party.

 Here are the two weeks' pages, with the insert flipped.

Here is this week's page.  I have been keeping things simple lately with 4x6 and 3x4 photos.

 Here is the front of the birthday insert.  I cut down a 4x6 journaling card (Simple Stories) and added a 6 sticker as a title.

 This is the back of the insert.

I am linking up at The Mom Creative.
I am planning to post later this week about Drew's friend birthday party this past weekend.  The boys had lots of fun!

Drew's Family Birthday Party

Drew celebrated his sixth birthday with Jim's side of the family at his traditional party - the Drew, Brandon, and Sherry party.  There are three family members with birthdays within the same week, so we always celebrate them together each year.  The party was at Jim's sister's house this year, and it started with appetizers.  Maddie hung out in the kitchen with the adults.  Here she is with Jim's sister, Sharon.

 Maddie loves to eat, so the appetizer table was the perfect place for her to be!

 Drew went downstairs to play Wii and pillow-fight with the older kids.

 Drew's cousin, Danny, is a couple months older than he is, and they always enjoy playing together at all the family gatherings.  Here they were waiting for their dinner.

 After dinner, the birthday people opened their gifts.

 Drew got some DS and Wii games, and a lot of Angry Birds stuff.

 Maddie spent some time with her Uncle Larry.

One of the things that Jim's sister and brother-in-law got Drew was an Angry Birds hat.

 He loved it!

 Maddie loves Jim's nephew, Greg!

 He can always make her smile.

 Drew danced around while everyone sang "Happy Birthday," and then he decided to skip dessert and go back downstairs to play.

 Maddie was happy to eat her cupcake, of course!

It was a fun evening with the family!  We were worried that we might have to miss the family party after Drew got sick, but he was feeling fine.  We were glad that he was able to make it to one of his two parties that weekend!  We had to postpone his friend party, and we've rescheduled it for this weekend.  I'll be sure to post some pictures after that party.

Project Life - Week 10

This week started with a rash!  Drew developed a rough, red, itchy rash over the weekend, so we started giving him Benadryl on Sunday.  It didn't seem to be getting any better, so I called the doctor Monday morning.  The nurse I spoke to thought that the rash sounded like Scarlet Fever, so she wanted me to bring Drew in for a strep test.  His test came back negative, but they said that they would send it to the hospital for more testing and call me if it turned out to be strep.  We kept Drew home from school on Tuesday, but he still had no symptoms of strep, and the rash seemed to be improving a little, so we sent him back to school on Wednesday.

 Drew got birthday mail from my parents on Wednesday.  He was excited to get some mail!

 One of the things they sent him was a "Wooly Willy" magnet toy.  We all had to take several turns making funny hair on Willy that evening!

I made cupcakes for Drew to take to school for his birthday, and Maddie decided to help herself to one while they were cooling on the table.

 I made Oreo cupcakes with some little chocolate Lego guys on the tops.  I thought they turned out really fun, and Drew loved them!  I used Wilton candy melts and a Lego man mold.

 

 Drew took his cupcakes to school on Friday and had a great morning, but as soon as we got home that afternoon, he started crying and saying that he had a bad headache.  I had him lie down on the couch (Nurse Maddie was right by his side), and after a bit, he told me that he was really feeling sick.  He ended up throwing up a few minutes later.  After he threw up, he felt a lot better.  I called the doctor to see if they thought he might be developing strep after all.  The nurse said that it sounded like symptoms of strep, but since he was feeling better after throwing up and since his throat didn't hurt, she thought we could wait and see how things went that night and he could come in Saturday morning if he started feeling sick again.  He ended up feeling fine all weekend, and we didn't go back to the doctor.  He was supposed to have a little friend birthday party on Saturday morning, but we decided to postpone it, just in case.

 We let Drew open one of his gifts on Friday night since we were taking it easy after his rough afternoon.  He was excited about getting a new movie, and we watched it that evening.

 Drew opened the rest of his gifts from us on Saturday morning.  We got him a couple of new Wii games and some Detroit Tigers wall art for his bedroom.

 We stayed home and played a lot of Wii on Drew's birthday.  He was feeling great all day, so that night, we had pizza (his requested birthday dinner), and I surprised him by making an Angry Birds pizza!

 He couldn't tell what it was supposed to be at first, but once Jim lifted him up above the pizza, he could see the angry bird better.

 This is my layout for Week 10.  I kept this week's page very simple again with 3x4 and 4x6 photos.

I am linking up with The Mom Creative.
I didn't ever get back and blog about Drew's family birthday party last week, but I will try to do it later this week!