We had Grayson's birthday party about 3 weeks early this year. This was because of Matt's work schedule in April - did not want to risk him missing the big 5th birthday party! But, I actually really liked having the party early, because I was able to spend the week of his actual birthday a little bit more relaxed....being sentimental about him turning 5, wrapping his gifts from us, baking more cupcakes, etc, instead of cleaning the house like a crazy lady, AND the house was pre-decorated, since I never got around to undecorating! Woohoo! Grayson has been talking about possible party themes for months. Whenever he'd go to someone else's party he'd ask for the same thing at his birthday, or if he saw a show or movie he especially liked...he's probably asked for at least 15 different party themes in the last 6 months. When it came time for me to start the real planning, he had a difficult time finally narrowing it down to one thing, but he finally settled on a Blue Angels party. I was very happy with his selection! Most because it's something he's been into for a couple years now, instead of a random new interest that he might not care about in a few more months. But also because it's something we could make soooo personal. It did present a new challenge for me though, because when you head to pinterest and type in "Blue Angels birthday party" you don't really get much help!! At all. Like almost nothing. Had to come up with a lot more original ideas this time around!! But it all came together nicely, I had a blast putting personal touches on this party & he had a blast both at the party and counting down to the party beforehand! The night before we are always, always, always up late. No matter how much I try to do things early so there's not so much to do the night before, there's always a lot left for the final evening. When Grayson turned 3, we waited until he was asleep to put out any decorations, to make sure he didn't mess with them & just make more work for us. The next year he remembered waking up to the house decorated the morning of his party, an asked us to do it like that again. So now, it's like our family birthday party tradition...it's kind of like Christmas morning...he goes to bed wondering what the house will look like in the morning, and wakes up all excited to see how we decorated for him. SOOOO, that means all the decorating AND all the cake decorating has to be done after the kids are in bed, which makes for a late night. This year, somebody was so excited about his party that he had trouble falling asleep that night. He kept coming out of his room and saying "I just woke up and heard noises. What are y'all doing now??" except he hadn't even had time to fall asleep and wake back up. Finally we just let him stay up for a little while, and he helped Daddy assemble an old computer desk from the attic that we were going to use for a game at the party. Usually with the 2 little boys feeding off each other, it's hard to Grayson to focus, "help", and learn on this kind of little project. But since Harrison was asleep and the house was pretty quiet, it turned into a sweet daddy-son bonding time, and Grayson learned to use a couple of tools. He still didn't know what was going on the desk he was helping assemble though!! After they assembled the desk, we tucked Grayson in for the final time that evening, and I was finally able to start decorating his cake, which was thankfully much easier than that topsy-turvy Seuss cake I did last year. The morning of the party, true to form, Grayson was beyond excited to see everything ready for his party! I framed one of his many drawings of a Blue Angel, which is what's in the white frame on the counter. One of the personal little details I was able to put into this party, because it's something he's been into for sooooo long! Can't see them in the picture, but he's pointing to 4 inflatable Blue Angels hanging from the ceiling. Now he's admiring a picture of himself giving a Blue Angel pilot a high-five at an autograph session he got to attend last year. And he finally found out what was going on that desk he helped assemble!! A Blue Angels flight simulator game! Reading his birthday banner! Looking at all the pilot licenses we made for him and his friends. On birthday party mornings, we usually have a picnic breakfast to minimize the mess! Right after breakfast, the menfolk had to try out the flight simulator game. This did keep the little ones pretty well occupied while we finished last minute prep! Harrison wasn't getting quite as many turns at the controls as the birthday boy was getting, so he was all ready to help Daddy make this runway on the living room floor!! Daddy's sweet little helper! As usual, it was a crazy rush to finish getting ready. Despite having the party a couple hours later than previous years, I ran out of time and rushed through these pictures of the set-up beforehand. Hopefully I captured most of it though... Here's the living room with runway #5, his birthday banner, and solo Blue Angels flying over the runway. You can barely see a little of the computer desk & monitor (on the far right of the picture) where the flight simulator game was set-up in the living room as well. The center picture on the mantel is a photo of Grayson watching the Blue Angels, you can see all 6 in formation in the distance. The picture is from the first time he ever saw them fly. This enlargement is actually autographed by all the pilots flying in the picture. We were fortunate enough to see them again the same year, so we printed this enlargement in advance and Matt managed to get all 6 of them to autograph it for Grayson. This is another one of the personal details I loved including in this party! The 4 inflatable Blue Angels Grayson was admiring earlier... Another shot of his drawing, and the Pin the Propeller on Fat Albert game Matt made for me! Using our own picture too. :) Love his drawing! We enlarged another one of our own photos of the Blue Angels, with a picture of Grayson inset, to use like a guest book. Asked guests to "autograph" it, to keep it in theme with the party. I loved how it turned out - full of sweet messages for Grayson! The middle picture there is the picture of Grayson giving a high-five to a Blue Angel pilot at an autograph session. His first look at his cake! Grayson is not really a big cake eater, but he is always super excited to see what his cake looks like. He loves for it to be creative & unique, but he never actually eats much of it! This year, I made him a #5 runway with 4 diecast Blue Angels about to take-off. The cake idea is one of the few things I did find on pinterest, but I tried to make this cake a little more accurate than the one that gave me the original idea. I had Matt making sure I lined the planes up in the correct order, etc. Food table, ready to go... Favor table... each child had a personalized pilot license, and a box to collect pinata candy in (the candy bowl was in case little ones weren't able to fight their way in fast enough to get candy when the pinata broke...Harrison fell into this category, glad we had some extra reserved!!) I don't know if all little kids like pretend licenses, etc, but ours think that type of grown-up thing is super cool, especially if it has their picture on it. Their 2 licenses have had quite a work-out since the party...hopefully their friends like theirs too! Here's the sign at the end of the driveway... And the sign on the front door (using another one of our pictures...these turned out so well!)... Outside tables... Centerpieces... I originally made these jelly bean jars for Harrison's 1st Birthday Little Red Wagon party, but Grayson loved them so much he keeps asking me to make them for each of his parties ever since. So, I keep changing out the number & the color of the jelly beans and reusing the same idea! As long as he's happy, it's an easy decoration! The backyard! We had a pinata (labeled as a crash site), Blue Angels kites (labeled as flight training), an obstacle course (labeled as bootcamp), and of course the swingset (Air Traffic Control!). The forecast had been questionable throughout the week, and I was quite nervous that we would be rained out, since as you can see most of the entertainment was outside. Although the clouds don't look too promising in these pictures, it didn't rain afterall and the sun actually broke through during the party. I was sure the kites were a great idea, because it's nearly always windy at our house. Turned it wasn't particularly windy on party day, but some of the kids really persevered and ran around as fast as they could, keeping the kites in the air. And last but not least, the little brother is ready to party too, in his hand-me-down Blue Angels shirt, straight out of Grayson's closet! Okay, in the event you're actually still reading, that's the last of the preparation & set-up pictures! Below are the actual party pictures. There are lots of them, because I'm really recording all this for me anyway and I just couldn't narrow it down any more than this... The older he gets the harder it is to capture everything! He had so many friends join him this year, and he was all over the place playing with everyone and trying everything out, I needed 3 or 4 of me to capture everything! But, I'm happy with what I did manage to get... So, I was little nervous about the pinata. Large group of children + a teeball bat just makes this mommy nervous. Which is why we had this OCD set-up with the caution tape, to help keep the line a safe distance away and discourage crowding into bat-range during other kids' turns. I thought it worked pretty well...no injuries anyway! Okay, I guess there were a lot of things making me nervous about this party... I knew Grayson would love the flight simulator game, but I wasn't sure if it would turn out to be a bad idea for the party... since only one child can play at a time, I didn't know if it would cause arguments and sharing issues. But, since Grayson had all morning to play before the party and we made sure he knew he had to give his friends turns once the party started, he had no issues with sharing it. Every time I came inside for something, there would always be a child playing the game, but I never saw any fights over it... of course I could have just missed them, but I think this turned out okay too! Best family picture ever...Harrison has chocolate on his mouth from pinata candy he already ate, and Grayson was too busy chewing bubble gum from the pinata to smile! Lighting his #5 candle... Birthday song... Blowing out that #5 candle...such a big boy!! Cake time chaos!! We have officially reached the stage where he can open gifts faster than I can write, so when I finally get thank yous in the mail, please forgive me if we thank you for the wrong item...and rest assured that he is thankful for every single present! Afterwards...all 4 of us happy, but exhausted!! And the kids had to hold onto their party souvenirs that they scrounged up from around the yard...a busted kite and the face off the busted pinata! That pinata face is still sitting on Grayson's bedside table at this very moment, who knows how long it'll be before he lets me throw that thing away!!! He was PROUD of that pilot license! The license says "Licensed to Fly: Really Fast and Really Loud". The first time Grayson saw the Blue Angels fly, that's how he described them, "really fast and really loud". He had only just turned 3 at the time, and he told absolutely everyone, from grandparents to Sunday School teachers, that he saw the Blue Angels and they "flew really fast and really loud". Then he would demonstrate with his hands and sound effects. Funny story...he turned 3 that April. Saw the Blue Angels fly that May. Then in VBS that July, he was still talking about Blue Angels of course, so at some point during that week he asked one of his teachers to draw a Blue Angel on his coloring sheet. Friday when VBS ended and he brought all his stuff home, he showed me the back of that coloring sheet, and he was a little confused... He'd asked for a drawing of a Blue Angel and the teacher hadn't known what he was talking about, so she drew him an angel, halo and all, drawn in blue crayon!! Got laughs out of that one and had to explain it to Grayson! So anyway, that phrase was so Grayson, we had to include that on the licenses! And some post-party downtime with my boys...