real parties: Alex turns 7!

This post is a really long time coming. {smirk} And in a few minutes you’ll know why it took me so long to write.

My oldest turned 7 with a robot themed birthday party in September (and my youngest turned 5 in June and I still need to share his wonderful day too!). I had it all planned. He was so excited. I was excited. I even had everything crafted early and all the details were taken care of. It was going to be wonderful. But then… there was a slight chance of rain reported on the morning news… and we had invited 19 kids for an outdoor party! I know… I said I would never do that and now I promise I’ll never do it again.

Long story short, the backyard was all decorated. The sky was blue and everything was lovely. The dessert table centerpiece was a fabulous DIY cake I made just for him, complete with robots around the edges and adorning the top… and then it hit. I walked inside to grab my camera and the wind picked up. It toppled the background for the dessert table and my pretty cake tumbled to the deck. I got there just in time to see it fall. As you can imagine, I was slightly stunned. I just stood there staring at it. I think my husband thought I was going to faint… or scream. I thought about it, but the first guests had just arrived and I had to pull it together so we scooped up the cake and replaced it with cupcakes. Thank goodness I made cupcakes!

But that wasn’t the end of it… the slight chance of rain started and the kids were running around the yard giggling. Then giggles turned into screams. See, my youngest slipped on the wet grass and fell into his brother with such force that there was an actual “crack!” sound. He had a raised goose egg an inch off his forehead while my oldest, the birthday boy, had a black eye. (If my girlfriend who happens to be a nurse wasn’t present I would have politely asked everyone to leave while I ran him to the emergency room. It looked that bad.)

Then… oh yes, there is more… the drizzle turned into a monsoon. My lovely guests grabbed all that they could and we took it indoors. My house isn’t tiny, but it certainly isn’t large enough for 19 children and 12 or so parents. Needless to say, it was crowded. The kids didn’t seem to mind, but it was very loud.

In the end, the wounds healed, I have very few pictures (and none of his cake that took a nosedive off the table… it still makes me sad), and my son and his friends had a blast. One child even told his mom it was the best party ever. I’m confident that was because the kids outnumbered the adults and I do believe they took over for a few minutes just before the cupcakes were served. {wink}

All this said, there were still some wonderful party features I want to share with you! As the kiddos entered the party they all geared up with their lab badges (which could also be great as placecards) with their names and the robot profession Alex picked out for each of them (he was so cute; he actually thought about each of their personalities and made up a few titles).

For decor, I raided my hubby’s workshop stash of nuts, bolts, washers, wire, etc. I used the items I found in various ways. One super simple idea was to use large nuts as placecard and dessert tag holders on the dessert table.

And Alex was thrilled because he loves to build and take electronic things apart. We sat on the floor for an entire afternoon making tin can robots to adorn his dessert table. The big one in the back is actually a small trash can I found at Home Goods for $5. I originally wanted the kids to be able to make these as their crafts, but I couldn’t find a way for them to adhere the metal pieces that wasn’t a bit dangerous (I used hot glue) so we settled for them being decoration.

The dessert table was full of fun treats all with robot related names

or embellished with robot designs.

And we still had fun activities for the kiddos using candies. Needless to say I didn’t get any complaints. {wink}

We made these fun “Build Your Own Robot” mats and provided the kiddos with goodies and Rice Krispie rectangles on lollipop sticks. I outlined all the candy and how to details in my robot Rice Krispies activity post.

And there were favors including these personalized cello toppers (available in the shoppe along with all the other decor),

and bags filled with candies, cookies and these awesome hand tatoos from Perpetual Kid.

And then of course there were the photo props. The gear glasses were my favorite.

Although I didn’t get great pics of all of his friends, we did get a few of my boys in their robot shirts before the party started. (Both shirts monogrammed by Sew Jewell and available in her shoppe.)

And a few of him and his friends (the storm left it dark in my house on top of everything else) playing BeyBlades, the hottest gift of the day.

It was by no means the perfect party, but sometimes perfect isn’t always important. Happy kiddos running amuck and my son hugging me to say thank you more than made up for all the missed photographs and little feet all over the house. {smile}

My robot collection (including more items than what’s seen here) is now available in the shoppe. And as always, I hope you’re inspired to craft, bake and create!

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