Grant's 4th Birthday Party

On Saturday we had Grant's 4th birthday party! Even though this party was going to be bigger - it was his first party inviting friends from school - I still wanted to have it at the house. Although they're fun, I'm not ready to have his parties somewhere else. We have a lot of family at Grant's parties so it's nice to have everyone at the house so we can all spend time together and they can spend some time with Grant. My anxiety level was at an all time high knowing that other parents would be coming over but I'm still glad it was at the house. We were a bit cramped but I think the party went well and the kids seemed to have a BLAST!

This year was, of course, Avengers themed. There is a surprising lack of Avengers party decorations so I had to make do with what I could find. With the party being more hectic I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do.

There were also some things on the walls you can't see (that are
still currently hanging in my kitchen).

I almost didn't get this because I thought it was cheesy. I'm glad I did
because I needed more Avengers decor AND Grant loved it.

 The cake. It was supposed to be much more impressive and I decided no. I did a lot of DIY for this party (and I enjoyed that, not complaining!) so I figured I could still make a nice cake without spending 20 hours on it - since Grant doesn't eat it anyway. So this is what I ended up with:

Grant declared it "awesome".

A while back I started making some fun Avengers masks from foam using a sewing pattern that someone so kindly posted (you can see some of them HERE). I thought they'd be fun for the kids to wear. Our activity was going to be for the kids to decorate their own capes, I found blank ones on Oriental Trading. Guess what? Sold out. I was super upset about it for a while but I'M SO GLAD THEY DIDN'T HAVE THEM. I ended up finding a way to make capes for all the kids personalized with their first initial and I think they were a hit. I can't imagine all these rambunctious boys sitting still long enough to decorate capes. (I know that almost none of the Avengers wear capes but I couldn't do a superhero party without capes. What boy doesn't love capes?!)

Posing with his cake wearing his cape and one of the Iron Man masks I made.

Being Iron Man (can you tell his favorite Avenger?)

Grant was over the moon about his school friends coming to his party and as soon as the boys started arriving and getting dressed up, it was like a bunch of mini superheroes running around our house. They were having so much fun! I really had no activities planned but that turned out to be fine. They played in Grant's room, the living room - entertaining the adults - and then headed outside to Grant's new sandbox (built by Husband & me for Grant's birthday present).

Dressed up superheroes!

Having so much fun :)

Superheroes like to play in the sand.

At some point it was time for presents and cake. I'm terrible at keeping the flow of a birthday party and was surprised to look at a clock and realize that we were an hour and a half into the party! It goes by so fast.

When there is extra help opening presents, it's very hectic and
hard to keep a list to write thank you notes later! 

Telling his friend thank you

The kids loved those thingies.

That wagon for his tractor is going to come in handy
when we build leaf piles this year :)

Cape in action!

And cake. I lit the candles and Grant almost immediately blew them out until I mentioned the birthday song. He said "Yes. Everyone sing happy birthday to me!"

And that was that. We all had cake and ice cream (except Grant, who only wanted ice cream) and then most people had to get going. Grant had such an awesome time with everyone and I'm SO glad his friends from school were able to come!

Hugs goodbye (so freaking cute!)

The rest of the day/night was Grant opening any toy that hadn't already been opened AND entertaining us all with his new whoopee cushion.

No matter the age, boys think farts are funny.

Sunday was a rest day for us, thank goodness. I got to relax at the picnic table with my coffee while Grant enjoyed his sandbox and then some TV and a snack before a nap.

I love this kid!

What an awesome weekend :)

A BIG thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us! Grant was so excited about this party and almost a week later is still talking about how much he loved it!