it's party time!

Graham's birthday party was this morning... it was SO much fun. I think this is the most fun I've had planning a party. We love the movie Despicable Me. I think it is the cutest kids movie ever made. I can't get enough. I was so happy when Graham picked that for his party theme. We started celebrating on his birthday by bringing in these cupcakes to his class. The instructions can be found here.

I knew his cake was going to be loads of fun. I found this tutorial on making the minions and couldn't wait to get started! It ended up taking all day long... but it was worth it. Graham was in love with it. He specifically requested that the minions be eating the cake... that made it a little less heart-breaking when Jayne dug right in before the party... Here are his invitations. I made them up all by myself. I am thrilled with how they turned out. So fun, and so easy.
The day of the party was a little crazy. Jeremy was in Columbus for the day for yet another conference. My best friend, Kristen, came to help me... which meant that we had about twice as many kids. It worked out though! It was loud and crazy, but lots of fun!

Not a lot of people know that I have some anxiety issues. I like my house to be clean and straightened. If it isn't, I get really anxious. If I have a plan for my day, and the plan gets interrupted, I get really anxious. If someone makes me late, I get really anxious. If I don't have my plan for the party written out, I get really anxious. Those are just a few of them. I'm crazy, I know.

I really did try to keep this party simple. The decorations were kept to balloons and the moon on the ceiling.

I made a Gru scarf for several of the games. Lincoln told me to put it on and pose for a picture.
When the kids arrived, I had them decorate their very own minion goggles to wear throughout the party.

Then we played "Gru Says" for a little while.

You can't have a Despicable Me party without stealing the moon! We took turns stealing it and hiding it.

Then the other kids would come find it and steal it again!

We played the "Fluffy Unicorn Game" where they shoot darts at the alien. This game had great potential... but our dart guns kept getting jammed.

Cake and ice cream time! They had a lot of fun choosing which minion they wanted to eat.

I love Jayne's little lips... trying to help blow out the candles.

Presents! His friends were so kind and generous. My favorite gift was the book, "Middle Child Blues." So adorable and so fitting since Graham is the middle child!

We had a little more time until parents came, so we played "Freeze Ray". Graham was Gru and he had them dance to the Despicable Me Soundtrack. When he said, "Freeze Ray!" They had to freeze.

Such a cute little Mini-Gru.

Things were getting crazy and I had run out of ideas... luckily my friend came up with the brilliant idea to play, Minion Minion Gru. (just like Duck Duck Goose). They had fun playing that until parents came.

We decided to skip the regular candy/junk toy gift bag and bought each friend a box of "Coconutties" as a big thank you for coming to my party. Really they were chocolate covered GRAHAM crackers. One of his favorite treats.

Overall, I think it was a success. Next time we'll keep it to the little guys. I think there were just a few too many big kids there. Graham seemed to have fun though and that's all that matters!