Angry Birds Party

Several years ago, Kory and I decided that our kids didn't need a big elaborate birthday party each year. Birthday parties are fun, but they are time consuming, can be expensive and frankly are a lot of work.  That being said, both Kory and I grew up having birthday parties and we wanted our kids to have this experience too. We decided that when the kids turned 5, 8, 12 and 16 we would have a birthday party with friends.  

Last year while living in Hurricane Hunter turned 8. This was his year to have his big friend birthday party. At that time he wanted a knight/castle theme. Unfortunatley Hunter had some friends that weren't behaving the way they should and Hunter was following in there footsteps. It got so bad that I even went and talked to his "best friends" mom about some of the things that were taking place. The mom already knew about most of them. She had even told her son that she was expecting some of his friends' parents to come to her because of his behavior and what he was "teaching/telling" his friends. After several weeks and trying different consequences, nothing seemed to be working. We felt like we were nearing the end of our rope and didn't know what else to do. After much thought we informed Hunter that any more of this inappropriate behavior and he would lose his birthday party. I HATE this part of parenting. Unfortunately, Hunter didn't believe us and purposely did something he had been told not to and then lied about it.  We had to follow through with the consequence. It was absolutely HORRIBLE. He cried, he was mad and devastated. I cried that night too because I was so sorry he had chosen to test us.

A few months ago, Hunter asked if he could "earn" a birthday party this year, even though he wasn't supposed to have one when he turned "9". Kory and I both felt that since he was willing to "earn" it and wasn't expecting it we'd go ahead and give him one. Hunter came up with his own ideas of how to earn this birthday party. He cleaned out the van and did an amazing job vacuuming it. He washed all the windows and vacuumed the blinds in the whole house. The basement is a dark and cold storage room. He took flashlights down, vacuumed the spiderwebs, wiped down the shelves, and organized all the canned goods. It looked so good! He definitely earned his birthday party.  

 Hunter decided he wanted an Angry Birds Birthday.   

Here is one of the 12 invitations that he and I made one day after school just using cardstock and googly eyes. On the back we had printed out all the party info. I loved the way it turned out.

  

 
One of the games the boys got to do was a wrist rocket game. I searched for quite some time for some cheap sling shots/wrist rockets. I was a bit amazed to see wrist rockets going for $5-10 a piece. I couldn't spend that much and then I saw on eBay 20 wrist rockets for $40. This was a bit more than I had wanted to pay, and I didn't need 20 of them however $2 piece sounded much better than $5-10. So, I bought them, and this became our thankyou gift to each of the boys. When the boys realized they got to take them home I won "the best mom of the year" award. During the party I heard over and over how I was the coolest mom, or the best mom cause their mom. I'm glad I found a party favor that the boys will LOVE!

 Here is our game. Uncle Jason was able to get me the canvas for free and then I spent a day painting on it to match our theme.

 The boys used their wrist rockets to shoot giant marshmallows through the holes. Some of these boys had quite the aim.

 We borrowed some foam noodle swords, and the boys had a sword fight!

 The biggest part of the party was supposed to be a "live" angry bird's game. Kory and I made up a sling shot area using our swing set,

 We then piled a ton of boxes in the front lawn to build with. Unfortunately, we had 30-mile hour wind during the party. We had an incredibly hard time keeping the boxes on top of each other to give the boys a chance to knock the tower over using the sling shot. The wind was just too strong! But they still had fun trying. 

 We also did a scavenger hunt. We ended up having a total of 13 boys including Hunter at the party. I split them up into 2 teams and sent them off with their 1st clue. After their 1st clue, I had the 2 teams going in different directions. I had 9 different clues around town. The clues would then lead them to the fire station, the school bus garage, post office, milking barn, church, etc. Their goal was to find the golden eggs that the green pigs had supposedly hidden. With easter being just a few weeks ago I took some of our eggs and spray painted them gold. The last clue lead everyone back to the house where the eggs were waiting to be found in our tire swing in our front yard.

 We had plenty of color full food to enjoy. I had a fruit tray with banana's, strawberries, apples and grapes. Then the fun part was gum balls, mini jaw breakers, mike n' ikes and a bowl of gummy worms with green juice to help wash it all down.

 I really, really wish the dang wind would have stopped. I considered moving his party indoors but there was no way my house could handle 13 wild boys! So, we stayed outside. I don't think the kids minded as much as I did. It was pain in the neck having plates and cups flying all over the yard. I put 2 rocks in the bottom of the garbage can and it still got blown over and I had to run around and pick up the blowing garbage.

Near the end of the party Hunter opened his presents.

 Afterwards I brought out his requested cupcakes instead of cake this year! I was impressed with the way my birds turned out. They were fun to make!

Every single boy whined and complained when their moms came to get them after the party. It made me feel good that even though some of the games were harder to do with the dang wind that they all had such a wonderful time and didn't want to go home. Hunter has told me many times that it was the best birthday party ever. All that hard work was worth it!

I had to share this picture when I saw it. Brayden being the typical little brother, running around with a stick in his hand yelling, "Expelliarmus" to all the boys. The boys were great with the 3-year-old trying to tag along and play with them.