Invasion of the Ninja Warriors

Having your birthday fall during the cool weather season and during a major holiday week makes party planning difficult. However, that was not what Kevin and I thought about when we had kids and we ended up with one baby born the week of Thanksgiving and the other with a birthday that often collides with Easter. Needless to say parties can be tricky as people are often out of town. Plus, the weather can be iffy that time of year and I prefer outside parties if possible as cramming ten second-graders in my house and the place might not survive. There is a lot of energy packed in those little bodies!

This year we devised a clever plan. We have learned through trail and error that we seem to get better turn-out having parties after school on Friday. So we picked two Fridays and watched the forecast hawks. Then when it looked like the first one would be rain free, Jack took invitations to school and handed them out. This year we lucked out and the weather was more than rain-free, it was a downright gorgeous day to be an American Ninja Warrior.

 

Both the kids love watching this show and are always trying to make their own elements in the house. Mom, is a bit of a killjoy about that though. It came to us that setting one up for a Birthday party would be a great way to keep the kids moving and engaged and Jack was all for it. Most of the course is made from firewood logs, pallets, and wood scraps we had lying around the place. The only board we bought was for the teeter-totter (even the pipe that acts as fulcrum was a “found lying around” piece). The kids had a BLAST!

(Author’s Note: The course pictures are not mine. An awesome Mom offered to take some picture for me with my Camera since Kevin and I were busy wrangling kids…I am eternally grateful!)

We timed them all once, but by the end they were just practicing different elements and coming up with ways to terrifying me on the teeter-totter. In the between playing on the course we did manage to squeeze in some Birthday cupcakes and a Piñata. I mean if you're going to  put them through their paces why not throw some sugar in the mix?

The only real bummer of the whole day was there was just enough breeze that I couldn’t get the candles on the cake to light. Everyone was fine with faking it…..guess we’ll save candles for his actual birthday. Here’s the whole party crew. I’ve been told that they had a great time by several Moms, and one kid cried when he had to leave so I’m going to mark this party a success. Now I just have to wrap my head around the fact we have an eight-year old……