Jack Turns 8

My baby turned 8 years old... yikes!  Jack is such a sweet boy and we love him a lot!

He had a fun party with some of his friends on Saturday.  I threw it together in the few days before, but it turned out really fun, and it was pretty easy.

Jack's past party themes have been Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Carnival, and Army.  For a theme this year we decided on "Every Holiday of the Year."  I don't know if this has been done before, but it was really fun.

As the boys were arriving they sat down and made Valentine's for each of their family members.... they fought over the "Star Wars" themed ones.

Then I dressed up in my leprechaun hat, put green shamrocks on each of the boys (so they wouldn't get pinched), and we played "Lucky Leprechaun Says" (Simon Says), and then ate green jello.  Meanwhile, Jay was hiding Easter eggs in the backyard.

So, of course, the Easter Egg Hunt was next (are you following this?) which the boys loved, of course.  They were quite please with the hilarious marshmallow chicks (not Peeps, but cute dressed-up chicks with faces from Dollar Tree) they found inside some of them (the rest had boring jelly beans).

After that they each got a patriotic boat hat and an American Flag and I made them sing "God Bless America" for me.  Then they got to "explode" a bunch of party poppers, which was a huge hit with this group of 8-year-old boys, naturally. 

Then I pulled out our "dress up box" and they dressed up for Halloween.  We had six stations around the backyard where they could go trick-or-treating, but we made them do "tricks" at each one before they got candy.  Most of the tricks were pretty silly (karate chops, kicks, cape twirls, head banging), but I saw several impressive cartwheels.

For Thanksgiving we had a "Turkey Hunt".... they shot paper turkeys with the Nerf guns.  I couldn't think of anything else (eat a lot?  watch a football game?), but the boys thought it was great. 

Naturally, Christmas meant it was time for Jack to open the gifts from his friends, but I also had a bunch of wrapped dollar store gifts so each of the boys go to unwrap one too.

Finally, we brought out the party hats, blowers, noisemakers, tinsel confetti, and (birthday) cake & ice cream to celebrate New Year's Eve.  (Jack could NOT decide on chocolate or vanilla cake/frosting, so I ended up making half-and-half.  It turned out pretty good.... all from scratch.) 

For "loot bags" I was really cheap and pulled out my stash of Godiva Chocolates gift bags (from the many times Jay has purchased them for me over the years) that I have been saving for some strange reason (now I know why) and it was perfect.  :)

Anyway, it was a really fun party and it was pretty easy.  Fortunately, the timing was great because my local Dollar Tree has stuff for Valentine's, St. Patrick's Day AND Easter right now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!  It's a big year for him... he gets to join Cub Scouts and will be baptized as a member of our church.  We are very proud of him.