Alex’s Friend Party

We promised Alex that he could have a friend party for his 5th birthday.  We’re not elaborate planners, preferring to keep things fairly simple.  Thankfully, Alex felt the same way. 

He just wanted to invite his friends from church, and then he added on Grace and one friend who used to be at our church.  All but one of his invited friends was able to come, meaning that 6 friends were here.

We bought some Spiderman party favors, printed coloring pages, made 8 batches of homemade playdough, and I designed some Spiderman mazes on the computer.  (Special thanks to Daddy for coming to my rescue & buying more salt when I ran out mid-playdough making!)

When the kids arrived, they just enjoyed playing with our toys for a bit. 

Then we headed to the kitchen to color and do the mazes.

After that, the kids played the Spiderman ball target game.  The highest scores got a Hershey bar, and each of the other kids got a plastic spider.

After a little more play, we rounded up the kids for playdough fun.  Each child had a ziplock bag with blue, red, and black playdough and a set of google eyes and 8 pipe cleaner “legs”.  They could make something spiderman or make a spider.  Their creations were pretty cute!

Joey on the left – Alex on the right

Lillie is smelling the playdough because I used Kool-Aid powder to color it.

Cameron’s “spider snowman”

Max’s Rainbow Spider

Lillie’s ladybug spiders

Alex’s Spiderman spider

Grace & Jensyn teamed up to make a nameless variety of spider

Joey’s “snowman spider”

Caed & Jovi arrived late, but just in time for a simple lunch of
hot dogs, applesauce, strawberries, and Doritos.

After lunch came present time.  The kids started out all spread out, but they crowded closer and closer as time went on.  I guess they all wanted to be right there to see their present opened!

Superman pajamas with a CAPE!
Alex thinks this is pretty amazing!

paint your own John Deere dump truck

Alex was pretty good at saying thank you to his friends.

He also received many other fun presents:
Build A Bear gift card(!)
Spiderman puzzle and activity book
Noah’s Ark coloring book
Spiderman gummy candies
Spiderman bubble bath
Spiderman tattoos
Cars “10 feet of activities” paper roll
lots of Hot Wheels

Grandma P and Jessica made a little 8” cake.
We bought “Birthday Cake” ice cream at the grocery store –
it was vanilla with swirls of red and blue icing in it – perfect colors for a Spiderman party!

It was low key, but all the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. 
Most weren’t too excited to see their parents when it was time to go,
and I suppose that’s a pretty good sign

Each guest went home with their playdough & coloring pages and
a treat bag with party favors and a few pieces of candy.

As soon as the guests were gone, the boys wanted to paint the dump truck.
Since the table was already covered with a disposable tablecloth, why not?

The truck isn’t quite as lovely as the picture on the box, but hey…
they are VERY proud of it!

They plan to add silver details tomorrow and then add the sticker decals once the paint is dry.

Alex wanted me to take pictures of him in the pajamas from Cam.
He’s very proud of the cape.
Cute boy turned to me as he climbed the bunk bed ladder for bed and he said,
”Mom, I promise not to jump off the bunk bed to see if I can fly!”

So there you have it…the first friend party…and it was a happy, happy day!