Party Central

Our three youngest children all have birthdays within two weeks so this past little while our house has been PaRtY CeNtRaL!!!

I am the meanest mom on the planet (just ask my kiddos) and I DO NOT do birthday parties every year.  They make me tired, but this year we had three pivotal birthday so it was triple the party fun at the DeMoux house!

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Party #1Elinor: Moana Theme

I'll be honest, I put off buying decorations and such for too long and a couple days before the party everything in stores was all "back-to-school" no one was thinking "tropical Hawaiian vacation" anymore.

But no worries, Walmart had tiki torches on clearance and we hung Japanese lanterns in the trees (not strictly tropical, but Ellie was pleased and that's all I care about).

We played pin the feather on Hei-Hei (the chicken became kind of the accidental mascot of our party),

shot stretchy rubber chickens into baskets,

and dug through the sand tand shells to find our own "Heart of Tafiti" (some lovely blue rocks).

We also had a treasure hunt in search of Maui's magical hook (which was, of course, protected by a treasure-laden crab -- don't laugh, I tried)

We wore flower leis and Hawaiian sashes (when we can't find much for our theme, we punt, it was fun!).

Aaaaaand, keeping with our chicken theme, everyone got to hold one of our feathered ladies for a picture (this was maybe the favorite part of the whole party for some of them...who knew).

It was a good afternoon for my baby girl and her pals.  

Party #2

Gavin: Water Theme

Gavin wanted a water party.  It was supposed to have lots of water balloons.  But remember how I put off buying stuff until the last minute.  Yeah, three stores and no water balloons available.

FINE!

We just filled regular balloons with water and pretended like it was the same thing...but fatter.

People arrived and some soggy fun ensued.

The kids popped hanging, water filled, balloons which were hanging in the trees with their hands.  

They wore a pair of nylons from their head with a baseball in the bottom and had to knock over cups of water.

We also teamed up so one person poured water from a cup on their head to fill a cup on the belly of their partner who was laying on the ground, tried to drop pennies into a jar submerged in a bucket of water, and more.  Everyone was wet but happy.

Aubrey decorated Gavin's cupcakes and did a great job.

We ended the afternoon with water balloon volleyball and then some fun on the slip and slide.  A good time was had by all.

Party #3

Logan: Lego Theme

Logan's was the last party in our trio, but it was still a good one.

We played pin the head on the Lego guy.

then 'unwrap the prize while wearing oven mitts.'  Although not technically a Lego-themed game, this baby was the hit of the party (you get to unwrap if you roll 7, 11, or doubles on a pair of dice...but the next person to roll those gets to take it away for their own turn). 

We also played Lego Bingo (find a printable version here) and guessed how many Legos were in a jar.

For our main activity, we had each of the boys build a Lego car and then we had a set of races using those cars.  The boys had TONS of fun challenging each other and pitting their cars against their friends.

I did manage to find Lego shaped candles and we made a (sad) Lego shaped cake.  Nothing fancy, but the boys had fun and Logan was thrilled and nothing else really matters if you ask me.

And so, tri-party excitement has ebbed and life is back to normal around here (and I am excited about that).  Thanks to all who shared your kidlets with us because a party pretty much stinks without friends to share it with.

Hooray for birthdays!  (sort of)