This past weekend was AWESOME! We had Nana and Papa visiting and Brady’s 3rd birthday party on Saturday. It seemed a little crazier than past parties, but that’s all good…as long as every one had fun! It was a “How to Train Your Dragon” party. The kids first decorated blank shields then ran around the house in teams learning how to be mighty, dragon-fighting Vikings. They all had a draw-string bag with a dragon on it to use for prize-collecting throughout their training drills. After training and other games, we ate pizza, a variety of delicious meatballs a la Brian, fruit and cake…then watched the actual movie How To Train Your Dragon (clarification: most of “us” ate some popcorn, watched part of the movie…apparently tossed the remaining popcorn on the floor and then ran off to play). We found out that Brady super loves the dust buster…and cleaning (good to know!!!!)

Among a handful of AWESOME, fun new toys, Brady got a giant dog from mommy, daddy and brothers. He’s had his eye on this guy for a while. True to Brady form (and the past 3 stuffed dogs he’s received), he named his new friend Sha Sha (again!) I call him “Giant Sha Sha”. The night after the birthday party, sometime around 1am, I heard grunting and crying in the hallway. I sat up in bed and saw little man dragging his giant dog into my room…and then into my bed. He seriously thinks this dog (who is bigger than a 3-year old!) is a cuddly, lovey, small stuffed animal and has been dragging him everywhere!

Here is Brady at Target about 3 weeks prior to his party – it was love at first sight…so I took a picture with my phone

Is it just me or does this cake really say “Nappy 3rd Birthday?” It was delicious though…all the kids wanted the far right corner…the island = mega frosting!

decorations (it’s hard finding dragon stuff so yes…I did some Asian, no-where-near Viking, lanterns…I thought they were pretty cool though…wondering if I could put them somewhere in the house now)

The girls got down to business on the craft…straight on tummies to decorate the shields

Boys sitting up and sort of decorating shields.

Dads playing Rock Band…

This is one of the games – target practice with golf balls on strings (ladder golf…if anyone knows what that is). We also had a balloon floating in the middle of the basement that they were supposed to hit with a Frisbee. Other games included “Viking, Viking, Dragon” (like Duck Duck Goose), jumping over a wooden dowel at various heights and…

Crawling through the string maze. Mike worked long and hard to fashion this for us. It was in my head…but he made it a reality! There are bells tied on to the strings and the kids had to crawl under the maze without ringing any of the bells. On the side you can’t see, was a pile of eggs (dragon eggs) filled with jelly beans.

When Aiden tested the maze for me earlier in the day, he literally crawled out of his pants! We had 3 groups of kids, led by my awesome friends (the moms), who followed a write-up I made about the Viking training throughout the house.

Cake time! Brady is sitting up in his Pottery Barn chair which is propped up on an actual dining room chair.

I think this is the “happy present time” dance. He also has a little ditty we call “the nakie dance”…I won’t post that here though ;)

Big brother Logan brings in Giant Sha Sha last

Cuddle testing

Ready for the movie!

A brief moment in time when all children were quietly sitting, watching the movie and munching on popcorn.

I guess it was a fun, but exhausting weekend. Brady fell asleep on Sha Sha (who was originally in my lap WITH Brady) during the Bears game on Sunday.

Here are some pics of my party prep crafts: these are the fronts of the draw-string bags I made. I made a stencil out of paper and packing tape (to make them water-proof) and sponge-painted the dragons on material before I sewed them together.

The finished product. These were the goody bags which the kids took around with them through Viking training and filled with little toys and candy.

Tags I made for each training station:

The thank-you cards (similar to the invites…which I won’t post because it’s got all our contact info on them) :)

My first attempt at making chocolates. I seriously did not intend to do this project, but the only dragon candy I could find was a chocolate mold. I called my resident expert, Susan, and she walked me through the whole thing. It took a few tries, but I think they turned out pretty well 

So…HAPPY BIRTHDAY my sweet baby boy. I don’t care if you’re 3 or 33…you’re still my baby!!