For Jack's Birthday this year we decided on a Camping theme. His birthday was set for June 4th the day before his actual birthday. Even though Michael's mom passed away the day before we decided to still go ahead with the party. For one thing Jackson is young and his birthday is a big deal...he didn't really know Grandma Martin so he wasn't as affected by her death. Secondly we invited quite a few of Jack's school friends and for some reason people don't seem to know what those 4 uppercase letters are at the bottom of an invitation so we had no idea who was actually coming. Lastly it was a great distraction! We had to get up, get the house cleaned up...thank you Micah for mowing our lawn so the outside looked nice too...put on a smile and have fun!
I had fun using my My Memories program to design his cards.
Thankfully I designed and printed out the party decorations at the same time I printed out Zeke's decorations. We don't really have that many camping items so I just used this bandanna and a lantern flashlight as the centerpiece for the food table.
The Birthday Boy!
We of course served camping themed food. Hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls were 'Sleeping bags'!
Aunt Stephie brought 'The Garden'!
Ga-Ga & Pa brought the 'Berry Picking' section!
There were 'Campfire Flames'!
Teddy Grahams for the 'Don't Feed The Bears' section!
Gummy worms were 'Fish Bait'!
I put mini marshmallows on pretzel sticks dipped them in water and then in red sprinkles and made 'Matches'. I also had plain pretzels since Ella can't have dye...I figured they were the burnt out matches.
The green punch was the 'Bug Juice' and it was Saweeeet!!!
Time to eat!
For some reason at Zeke's party the kids got confused on which way to go around the table so I tried to get the kids to all go in the same direction.
Here are two of Jack's school friends...Diego & Armando!
Aunt Stephie and Ga-Ga working in the kitchen!
Aunt Becky and I were still quite drained from the day before, but we did manage to smile!
Papa Martin even came out to celebrate Jack. He also hugged on Owen as well!
That's quite a lot of grub my man!
Ga-Ga & Uncle Ry decided to sit inside and hang out!
Michael, Papa & I were being silly with our fish bait!
Aunt Becky looking good!
Uncle Jon with his two girls...Samantha & Camryn!
The first activity for the kids was the scavenger hunt. I had done something similar with the kids a couple summers ago and thought it would be fun. I just found the images online, printed them at the library and attached them to egg cartons.
All the kids ready to scavenge! Back row....Owen, Deigo, Jack, Hansi, Jacob, Ella and Samantha. Front row....Caitlynn, Zeke, Armando, Josiah and Andrew.
And there off!
I did not feel like running around after them to take pictures so I gave that job to Camryn instead.
I was upstairs chatting with friends and all of a sudden Hansi came running in saying he had everything. I was shocked at how fast he found everything. However, upon further inspection he found a yellow flower instead of a dandelion so he did have it correct.
About 5 seconds after Hansi showed up Andrew was right behind him and he did have everything correct. Right before the party it occurred to me that I hadn't actually bought a prize for the winner of the scavenger hunt. I decided to put a few....9 to be exact...cookies that I used for the cake in a baggie and that end up being the prize.
The next event required that I give the kids their camping kits. I got these fun boxes for free somewhere...I honestly can't remember, but they were perfect for each kid to have there own.
Inside the camping kit was a smores kit and then an empty trail mix container they would get to fill later.
Time to head down to the backyard to make smores.
Now when I thought up this I didn't really take into consideration how crazy it might be around an open flame with a bunch of kids. Oops!
I ran down there to see if everything was okay and get a picture with the birthday boy. I noticed that Michael, Micah and my Dad were all down there so I figured they wouldn't mind if I didn't stick around.
My Dad was nice enough to take a bunch of pictures for me during this time with the kids.
I was a bit concerned that Ella might not have fun at this party because two families that have a lot of her girl friends weren't able to come.
However....it was a perfect excuse for her and her cousin Samantha to have some good quality time together. They had so much fun in fact that Aunt Becky had a hard time getting Samantha to leave.
I can not believe how grown up Camryn is!
We only had 3 roasting sticks, but thankfully my parents had tons!
This year it was much cooler for Jack's party. Last year for it was 92 degrees!!!
Each of the kids had enough stuff to make 2 smores and then roast 1 extra marshmallow.
Armando was wearing the right shirt!! Jackson LOVES Pokemon!
So thankful that the guys took care of this portion of the party.
Next up was cake!
I had seen this cake on Pinterest and then my friend Christina made it for her son's party. I just used the homemade Hershey Chocolate Cake & Frosting recipe like I did for Zeke's party. Then I bought these Pepperidge Farm cookies for logs....they are the same cookies that Andrew won by finding all the scavenger hunt items. The flames were made using butterscotch candies and fire jolly ranchers. You just melt them together in the oven and then break them into pieces for flames.
Happy Birthday sweet Jackson!
Make A....
Wish!!!
Three generations!
The Storer family needed to leave right after cake time so Jackson opened his present from them. They got him Pokemon cards!
Such a great picture of their family!
This was where the party got nuts. The school friends parents were showing up, we were trying to cut the cake and serve that and the other kids were wanting Jack to open their presents. It was crazy! Jack's friend Armando got him these squirt guns and Pokemon cards.
We don't usually have the kids open gifts in the dining room, but once Jack opened one present then he needed to open them all.
Uncle Ry & Aunt Stephie got Jack a $50 gift certificate to Toy's R Us!
They also got him a bag of his favorite chips....Puffy Cheetos!
Jacob got his of course...Pokemon cards!
And more Pokemon cards!
And more Pokemon cards!
The last gift was from Ga-Ga & Pa. They got him a super cool Spiderman card that made noise.
Pa built this awesome tent to conceal this gift!
Jackson had to work to get his gift out!
Jack had wanted a new red bike that was as big as Owen's.
He took it on an inaugural ride right then and there. The cool thing about this bike was I found it at the Mill Creek Garage Sales. It was brand new! The lady told us to make her an offer so I started low. I told her $20 and she said...how about $25! Sold! Ga-Ga was totally going to spend over a $100 on a new one from the store so this was awesome!
Jackson is very leery on a bike and since this was new he was extra cautious. I think it was a mix of that and wanting to check out his new Pokemon stuff, but he only rode for a few minutes.
And for the party treats for the kids they got to fill up their trail mix containers with all sorts of goodies before they headed out. There were yogurt covered raisins, pretzels, M&M's, chocolate chips, pecans, sunflower seeds, dark chocolate & butterscotch chips, mini marshmallows and multigrain Cheerios.
I'm so glad we didn't postpone the party. It was a great day and it was fun celebrating Jackson's Birthday!!!!
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