Will's party was small and fun. I knew I wanted to make homemade pizzas, but I didn't have a lot of other details in mind. It just sort of came together casually after I selected these invitations at Target: 
The morning of the party, while Sophie was napping, Craig took Will out for a drive to survey the damage and keep him entertained while I got to work making the pizzas. I made the same recipe as last week but with all white flour. Six pizzas total: two Hawaiian, two veggie, and two pepperoni and banana pepper. Craig snapped these before leaving. I was rolling out the dough.
And then just for fun... :)
LOL - authentic, huh? That was only for one picture. I just rolled the rest out. :)So I just worked around the monkey theme for the rest of the details. I took a blank invitation to the bakery and had one of those yummy donut cakes decorated to coordinate. Here, Will gets a look at his cake just before the party starts:
Orange and green plates and napkins to match the invitation. We also served a veggie tray and fruit salad and my grandma made a rhubarb coffee cake.
Casey loaned me some bulletin board decorations from her classroom and we used them to play a game later on during the party. I also set out Will's barrel of monkeys game for the little ones to play with.
A quick pic with the birthday boy. 
Will was so excited about all the presents that were set out for him. We had to distract him with his circus book until more guests arrived. Great Grandma and Grandpa sat and looked at his book with him at the beginning of the party.
The Rethman crew.
I know I haven't made a birth announcement yet, but Lincoln James (Cora's baby brother who was due on Will's birthday) was born on the twins birthday, June 2nd. And just four days later, the Pearson family joined us to celebrate Will's birthday! So now there are four June birthdays in the family. Everyone gathered around to meet baby Lincoln when they arrived. 
My mom requested to get a picture of my kids together and I'm so glad because I snapped this in a hurry and it turned out so good! Both kids looking with pleasant (if not smiling) faces? What?! I love it! A current favorite for sure.
Missy Mya is getting close to walking! Aren't the twins outfits so cute? 
I think this picture is sooooo sweet. My mom (the baby magnet) was holding Lincoln and Cora came over to introduce them. She's the watchful big sister. So sweet!
We actually got started with presents right away while we were waiting for all the pizzas to bake. I'd like to apologize again to all our guests for Will's gift-opening behavior. I know it's not terribly unusual at this age, but he just ripped through everything and barely gave it a glance (let alone acknowledging the giver) before moving on. That's very embarrassing as the parent.
I found him a noise-maker, monkey card that makes a pretty loud monkey sound when you open it. It was funny. Those sound cards are huge hits with kids! They're as entertaining as toys!
Opening his back pack.
I love this dress on Sophie. Guess where I got it... Walmart (online) for $2! I bought another one just like it for next summer too.
Sophie got to open a little present from Papa and Grandma Riedeman (just like Will did on her birthday) - a new Dora cup! Thanks Papa and Grandma!
Aww! Daddy and Will are psyched about his new tools! 
Once again, the picnic table was a huge help for the little kids. 
I found some "ZooPals" cups with lids and small, divided plates at the grocery store. I'm blanking on who makes them. I thought they'd be handy for picnics and parties. When I looked through, I was pleased to find monkey cups that Will and Cora could drink out of, but there were no monkey plates. So they used frog plates, which you can see above. Here's the cup:
Will and Cora enjoyed playing with the new Melissa & Doug magnets from Craig and I.
Then, we played "pin the banana on the monkey's hand/foot" - LOL. Craig just cut an old t-shirt sleeve because he thought that would be easier to put over the kids' heads for a blindfold. Aunt Casey was a good sport and went first.
LOL - Cora cracks me up. She loved this and wanted to do it again and again.
You can see that Will felt it necessary to wear his new safety goggles that came with his tool set under the blindfold.
Aunt Kelly wore a silly "hat" on her head for her turn.
Mya and Stella got to play too!
Stella wants to share. :)
This picture just makes me smile every time. I LOVE both kids expressions. Cora is so stinkin' cute and sweet, sitting there with her hands folded patiently and just watching. What a good girl. Will was excited too. 
Will surprised me with his ability to blow out all the candles (not in one breath).
We cut Will the first piece and he went to town. Meanwhile, Cora's still waiting patiently with her hands folded. :)
Haha!
Uncle Taylor and Will play with his new train set from Grandma & Papa Riedeman.
And to cap off the party, we went out to the garage for a monkey pinata!
Will couldn't quite get enough force to do any damage, so daddy helped out.
After several unsuccessful hits, Will watched as Taylor, Amanda, Zach and Kelly all took swings.
Finally, after many jokes that this pinata was purchased at a Kevlar store, Uncle Zach took the final, deadly swing and broke it open. :)
And then immediately, Will was double-fisted with lollipops again. :)All in all, the party was a success. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and Will had a great time. What a lucky little boy! Even with a small-ish guest list, Will was totally spoiled with presents. At the end of the night, we piled everything on the table to sweep the floors and begin to sort through it all. I took pictures (of course) to show all the clever gifts people came up with.
Casey and Wes always win the award for "most educational" gifts. (Duh! They're teachers.) The First Words puzzle set looks like 2-piece picture cards where the bottom half contains the name of the object and you match the two pieces to complete the picture. I'd seen something similar (but homemade) on a Tot School blog that I was thinking of trying, so this saved me a TON of time! The Chicky Boom game is a balance beam of sorts with "chickens" and "bales of straw" stacked on it. Each player takes turns removing and collecting pieces while trying not to offset the balance, I think? Should be a great math lesson! And the Melissa & Doug pattern blocks set is similar to the one we already have but the boards are wooden and not magnetic so it should be a bit more challenging. So those three gifts are all from the Rethmans. You can also see the backpack from us on the table.
Another train set (smaller and more portable) with wooden pieces to decorate around the track from Papa & Grandma Riedeman. He's already played with this a ton. The wooden box just behind the train set contains the Melissa & Doug animal magnets set from Craig and I.
The Honey Bee Tree game is similar to something we used to play with (and loved!) as kids except ours had colored sticks and marbles. Sound familiar? My parents gave him this. It has tree leaf picks and honey bees. I think he's going to love it. The Monkey Balance Board was something I'd been looking at since Christmas and purchased long before I even knew we'd have a monkey themed party. It's sort of like a teeter totter for one person and it will be a fun way to practice coordination and balance.
On this side of table you can see the huge magnifying glass from my parents, which will be fun for inspecting all sorts of bugs or nature things outside. Some giant coloring books from both sets of grandparents, swimming goggles from my parents, a sweet tool set from Uncle Taylor and a "Craftsman" chainsaw from Uncle Zach.
More cool gifts from the Rethmans: magnetic face books with blank faces on each page that we can rearrange facial features and details onto to create silly pictures, and also the Dora story book in the top right. The box of 3 Bitty Books are from Amanda. What a clever idea! They're blank books that Will can write and illustrate his own stories in!
The Diego puzzle is from the Rethmans too. The Diego bubble blowing kit and stickers are from Nana & Papa. Grandma & Papa Riedeman got him the Fisher Price Doctors Kit, the Melissa & Doug Under the Sea puzzle and a Diego cup (not pictured). That Brainy Baby book in the center is from Aunt Kelly & Uncle Steve. It was actually a gift that someone gave to baby Cecilia and Will and I happened to read it over at their house. It is sooo cool! It's called a Left-Brain book and each page is a sort of puzzle that challenges you to see and think in a different way than your brain immediately wants to. Kind of like reading the word "purple" that's written in red marker. Anyway, I asked Kelly if she would consider getting a copy of that book for Will and she had to search high and low for it because it's apparently no longer printed and isn't available on Amazon. We love it! Thank you Aunt Kelly!
Cards
Clothes from Nana & Papa & the Rethmans.
Clothes from Grandma & Papa Riedeman.
Surprisingly, the sheer exhaustion from a previously sleepless night didn't really hit me. I still went to bed at a reasonable time, but I didn't feel so exhausted. Thank you family for celebrating with us and for your generosity. Will's college savings fund thanks you too! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment