I can not believe he is 5 now! It sounds cliche to say, but it really seems like just yesterday I was bringing home this little guy and was so scared and looked at the world and felt like it was nowhere near good enough to have this little child in it. And now he has made the world better just by being a part of it. He has made friends and learned so much and its all still SO brand new and amazing.
Today we celebrated his day by hosting Avengers Training Camp.
For snacks we had Hulk SPLASH! Punch, Thor's Hammer Cheese on a Pretzel, Hulk colored grapes and not Avengers related, but Nana Judy's Special Birthday Cookies. She has been making these for 18 years now for 6 grand children and great nephew's and niece's birthdays. It is just a simple sugar cookie recipe, but something about it is just perfect. This year I didn't even get to eat a single one before they all got munched!!!! We also did some hot dogs on the grill but I couldn't think of an Avengers theme to those, so they were just hot dogs.
I made the cake myself. I am a big believer in home made cakes, but I want to make them awesome too, so I had to learn. I am still learning and its far from perfect, but as the kids grow so will my skills (I Hope!). He really wanted Spiderman included, so I made it work even though there was no room on top for him.
The games were Captain America's Shield Bean Bag Toss. Yes I made the bean bags, I tried gluing the stars and stripe to the red and blue parts and it was a no go so I stayed up late last night sewing the parts back on. We nailed (yes nails, they hold the plate down and come up easy enough) paper plates into the lawn with the score, but no one was keeping score for real of course!
My husband and I have been hoarding the boxes we buy milk in (2 gallons at a time so it comes in a box) and we taped the handles shut and 4 (!!!) cans of spray paint later we had bricks for the Mjölnir throw. It was this game that was the biggest hit, the kids seemed to really enjoy smashing down the wall of "bricks"
We also did a fun event of Hulk Smash Balloon Pop. It was fun watching the younger kids try to pop the balloons and most of the bigger kids bit theirs.
Then we had a mask making table, but the glitter glue didn't dry in time, so many masks were left behind.... I felt a bit sad about this and if I had to do it again I would use metallic sharpies instead of glitter glue. Also, these plastic masks from Michael's craft stores were pretty gross to wear because of the sweat they held against the skin.... if I had thought about it sooner I would have bought some cardboard ones online before the party. But the big bowl of shape stickers were a big hit and easy to put on the plastic mask, plus now I have a bunch of leftovers for craft projects this summer.
Of course we ended with cake and gifts and lots of thank you's.
I had a box of sticker books and little craft projects to do that came from the bins at Target or the clearance section of Fred Meyer and some of the little dry towels crammed into a little square that you put in the bath tub to make them big. Each kiddo got to pick a couple of toys to take home with them. I don't really do the cheapo goodie bag crap, I wanted it to be something they could enjoy and it didn't have to be Avengers themed since I wanted each kiddo to feel like they got something THEY wanted, so we had everything from Avengers stationary sets to Frozen word search games to packs of mini glo sticks.
We saved the gifts from family members who couldn't be here for Liam to open on his actual birthday so that they would have their own special time for him to enjoy them.
All in all, it was an AWESOME day.
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