Caleb's Halo Birthday Party

 

Amidst the all day conferences, baby bunnies being born, chickens dying (one with a head flying off mind you!) our sweet Caleb turned 9.

 

Nothing says Happy Birthday like a chicken head flying at you!

 

Ok. Ok. The chicken head didn't actually happen until the day after his party but more on that later.

 

Caleb loves his birthday and so does Owen. They usually start counting down in January and begin discussing what they are going to do for their party and what they would like for gifts.

 

When they are happy with each other they even say things like,

" I am going to get you the BEST present ever!"

or "I am going to spend soooo much money on you!"

 

When things are not so good between them it is more along the lines of

"I am NEVER, EVER going to buy you a present!!"

or my personal favorite

"I am going to buy you the worstest present ever!" said by Owen in a particually heated rage.

 

Countdown or not, the big day had finally come. And then it went because technically we only celebrate birthdays around here when Mark has a day off and it's a weekend. That happened to be Saturday the 20th this year.  

 

Caleb wanted to go to Chuck-E-Cheeses again but that didn't sound like fun to me so I planned out something for us to do at home instead with a Halo (ie the Lego version) theme.

 

I started with a few birthday invitations to some of his friends:

 



 

(side note here - in the invitation I asked the kids to bring some guns with them. I assumed they would bring toy guns but I had one mom text me asking if I meant Nerf, airsoft or BB. I told her to go ahead and bring all 3 and we could work them all in with some supervision of course! You might live in Eastern Oregon if...)

 

 

Then I made some camouflage cupcakes. They were so easy and fun I can't believe I haven't made them before!

 

Here they are before I baked them:

 

Here they are after I baked them:

 

And here they are all frosted up and ready to eat!

 

(I could make some jokes here about them being hard to see but I will spare you)

We threw up some camo streamers and tanks, helicopters, and other stuff. Then we fed the hungry troops some pizza before the cupcakes and ice cream were brought out.

 

Happy Birthday Caleb!

 

I hope he wished for something really cool.

 

 

The first birthday bite...

 

Then the real fun began.

I whipped out some face paint, camo bandannas and even some tank tattoos. Then I added some dog tags and toy weapons and we were ready to party!

 

Cousins..

 

Friends...

 

 

The original plan had been to go to the park, split up into two teams and play Capture the Flag. However, with the winds being what they were (cold and freaky strong) I bagged that plan and set them up with some games for outside. The first one involved Owen being a hostage, Mercy being a dog of war and children running amok out in the pasture trying not to fall head first into the ditch we have dug for our sprinklers.

 

The second game was A LOT more fun!

We played Capture the Flag on the Dad!

 

 

It was the best game ever!

Mark went outside and hid and then I made all the boys count inside to 100. While they were inside with me I told them that they had to try to get the flag he was wearing on his back pocket.

 

If he touched them first they had to give him their glow stick and be "out" for that round.

 

Then I sent them all outside.

Did I mention it was dark by this point?

I hope so, because that was the best part of it all!

 

I think that they agreed with me!

 

It was a birthday that Caleb will not soon forget!