Wow…I can’t believe it’s July 21st and I’m finally able to post about Aiden’s 5th birthday party, which we hosted on the 3rd! The problem has been finding the time to go through all the pictures Brian took. There are so many, I’m just going to post them in an album, but I’ll summarize the party details first.

This year, we had plans during Aiden’s actual birthday weekend (the 10th). Those plans (camping) were to include a party, but the price to get our “guests” to the campground was astronomical. Aiden decided he wouldn’t mind having his party a week earlier and combine it with a sort of 4th of July theme. He’s always LOVED red, white and blue “America” stuff. So…he requested that his party have the theme “The Great American Lizard”. Um…ok….tough theme, but I knew just what to do with his invite:

Activities were a different story (what kinds of games to lizards play??). We planned it as a “get wet” party so I came up with a sponge relay race, water balloon baseball, a lizard craft I found on oriental.com and the giant water slide we co-own with a couple other neighbors. Water balloon baseball was my favorite…hysterical! The kids used a tennis racket to bust a water balloon that I threw for them and then ran the “bases” which were three kiddie pools set up in a little mini diamond. After clearing 3rd base, they got to “slide into home” on a slip-n-slide. I think everyone had a good time with that one. The sponge relay was: two teams lined up on one side of the yard with a large tub of water between them. The first kid in each line had a giant sponge. Across the yard, Anne and I had small buckets balanced between our feet…one for each team. The first child dunked the sponge, ran across the yard, squeezed as much water as possible into the bucket, ran back and handed the sponge to the next person waiting. The first team to fill up their bucket won. I had something else planned (kid wash limbo), but everyone was ready to grab the personalized squirt bottles I made and just play in the water. Speaking of these squirt bottles. I TOTALLY lucked out and found these super cool red, white and silver spray bottles at the dollar store. I personalized them with paint markers and they made for a really fun party activity / favor.

This was also one of the only parties where I decided to make the desert. Memaw helped me by contributing adorable dipped strawberries and mini ice-cream sandwiches. I tried my hand for the first time on “fancy” frosted cupcakes. I used red velvet cake and white cake, layered together in cup cake tins. They ended up looking like red/white swirl although my idea was to make stripes inside like the flag and then top with blue icing. I guess the only other important thing to note about the party is that Aiden had been begging for a real lizard for weeks…it was the only thing he said he wanted. So, all our neighborhood friends bought stuff for the lizard and his tank. As Aiden started opening everything, Brian brought out the huge tank. It sort of took Aiden a few minutes to put it all together. You’ll see some pictures of me talking to him during the presents and I’m saying, “Aiden…do you understand why you’re getting all of this lizard stuff”. I think he said something along the lines of, “yes…um…why?” Then I told him that we were going to be going to the petstore the next day to get him a lizard. There’s a picture of that realization too. I think he’s hugging me. Oh…and one more thing: after the party, a few people hung around to make s’mores (with star shaped marshmallows in blue, pink and white!) Brian set off some small fireworks and Brady went to put on his “santa jammies”…funny kid!

		Aiden’s 5th Birthday VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL