Joshua's 7th Birthday Party

 

Joshua's birthday party was held the weekend after his birthday on Saturday, September 20.

His first birthday was FREEZING outside and it made being outdoors impractical, but our house was too small for the number of people we invited. So, since then, I've struggled to know where to hold his party. We've done Gymboree, Universal and other fun adventures. I wanted something different this year but so many places charge an arm and a leg for parties. After doing some research, I had discovered the Country Barn (which we then visited as a family, as you read in an earlier post). For the money and everything you got, it seemed like a decent deal. I was happy that he could invite some friends from school to a fun place. I tried to get a picture of each one.

Above is Brayden, below is Henry. They were both in his kindergarten class as well.

This is Isabella, our family friend. Her parents were planning on coming, but her brother got sick in the car on the way there, so they just dropped her off.

Of course you know my little man Caleb!

This is Joshua's new friend, Macy. He begged me to invite her to his party. They play together at Universal as well. So, after asking what her last name was, I looked her up in the directory and invited her last minute and thankfully her parents were willing to bring her.

Below is Daniel, also in first grade at Joshua's school and he gets to play with his cousin at recess.

This is Joshua's friend Brooke. She also goes to Universal and is in his class at school this year. They also see each other at church.

Brooke's younger sister Julia came along. She's Caleb's age.

This is Joshua's friend Ella. She was in his kindergarten class last year as well, and she sits at his table at school. She also goes to Universal.

You know my little buddy Ryan!

This is Luke. He's on Joshua's soccer team and was last year, too.

And this is Abe, who came late to the party because he played fall ball this year and had a game that morning.

The party started off in the "party barn." They had tables and chairs set up and all the decorations were done. The children got to take with them a pumpkin cup and there was a treat bag for each child that included a fun straw, some candy, bubbles, noise makers and a few other random items. The noise makers were SO annoying but the kids loved them.

To do over again, I would have eaten last so the kids didn't have to carry their cups and treat bags with them all over the place. I didn't know that's when they were going to give out the gifts or I would have suggested that in the first place. Oh well! Live and learn!

My mom got a picture of me taking pictures of the kids. :)

She and my sister agreed to come help. I had told parents they could drop off or they could stay. Most chose to drop and leave, so we had quite a few kids to keep an eye on. It all worked out, though.

The party came with hot dogs, lemonade, chips and cupcakes for the kids. I ordered some hot dogs and lemonade for the adults, too, but I'm not sure anyone actually ate. It was nice to be able to offer lunch, though.

After singing to Joshua, we let the kids head outside to the activities. Here's Joshua taking the pony ride.

We upgraded his party to include food for the petting zoo and Gem stone mining. While the petting zoo is all but non-existent (we kept several of the bags and took them to a zoo later), the gem stone mining was really fun for the kids. They each got a paper of rocks to look for and a bag filled with dirt and gems.

Then they took their dirt and sifted it in these trays in the water to see what treasures they could discover.

Some simply dumped and dug while some really took their time to figure out what the stones were. They had a little bag that they could put their treasures in and take home with them.

I didn't get a ton of pictures that day because I was busy helping kids or keeping an eye on folks. But this is one station that I did.

Here are the Weaver girls.

And Aunt Jen and Daniel:

Mom took this picture of me helping Isabella and Shawn with Caleb.

Mamaw helped Ryan and Luke was with his Dad (who is also named Shawn).

The kids also enjoyed going down the big slide and took a tractor ride in two groups. One thing I wish the place would have done better is accommodate larger groups. There were enough seats in the tractor for our whole group, but another small group came in just as our kids were about to get on and took some of the seats. :( So, we went in two groups instead. It wasn't a big deal, but it made it hard to keep track of everyone.

The kids loved playing in the straw tunnel/hay maze. They also looked at the big tractors, etc.

We eventually went over to the potato slinger and then the pedal karts. No one was operating the karts that day, so we just took over the area. The kids weren't really strong enough to pedal on their own, so we all pushed them up the hills when they needed help. It was quite the workout, but the kids LOVED it!

We ended the day with the pig races.

Then we said our goodbyes, made sure everyone got to their parents, and went home. We had leftover cupcakes to eat!

And we opened Joshua's gifts from his friends. He was excited by the Sonic character he got from Macy and legos from Ella. He had a Visa gift card from Henry that he was pumped to be able to spend himself!

He LOVED his new Wii game from Mamaw (if you can't tell by the picture below where he is so excited he's about to jump out of his skin!).

He got so many nice things that day that I can't even remember them all. But, he was very grateful for each one. We wrote our thank you cards and he enjoyed playing with and wearing all his new things.

We were pretty tired after the day's activities, but we had a very special weekend.

He wears this dinosaur shirt all the time. :)

And legos have become a big hit in this house.