James's birthday party

I really can't believe it, but my little man turns 5 in two days.  He had a party this weekend and it felt so strange to put a number 5 candle on the cake.  For some reason, five sounds so old to me.  He's growing up way too fast, with help from big brother.  My baby James used to love to hold my hand whenever we were walking together, but sometime during this past year he decided he doesn't need that hand anymore. 

James really wanted a Beyblade-themed party but I just couldn't come up with any ideas for that besides the obvious beyblade battle tournament.  I was stressing out about what to do for his birthday until one day while I was on a long run (and had alot of time to let my mind wa

nder) I came up with the idea of a fall themed party.  We ended up having 8 kids and it was a beautiful fall day so we spent the entire party outside (although nobody got to see how much effort I put into cleaning the house)!

We started with pumpkin painting.  They could use paints, paint pens, markers, and glitter to decorate their small pumpkins.

 

Next, we did apple bobbing.  I don't think I've ever actually done this myself so I'm not sure why I thought the kids could do it, but it was a blast to watch them try.  I think everyone who tried got one eventually.

GOT IT!

 

Face painting was up next.  It was awesome to see what our family artists (Kalee & Barb) created on the kids faces.  There were some amazing butterflies, a tiger, a spiderman (minus the webbing), Vikings logo, and Jake the pirate.

 

James chose a chocolate chip cookie cake this year.  This is what I came up with:

We played some other miscellaneous games and then ended the party with a Beyblade tournament.  I should have realized that kids this young wouldn't understand the rules of a single elimination tournament bracket.  There were tears shed and James didn't even compete because he wanted to be in every battle and that's just not how it works!

And the winner of the tournament was Haden.  (He may have had an unfair advantage by choosing the best Beyblade and then not allowing anyone else to use it!)

FYI - Haden's costume is Gingka (a beyblade character)

James was very excited to see that he received some new beyblades as gifts from his party.  His aunt and uncle bought him the "heaviest Bey they could find" in hopes that James would finally have a Bey that can take down Haden's Pegasus.