The Party!

It turned out to be such a big group.  Thank goodness for Trey, Elyse, Ray Ray, Ju Ju, Brad, Bo – they manned my stations!

              

I only had two little girls at the party – Conlee and Caroline.  They lost interest in the football stuff and pulled out the hula hoops and played with the eye black stickers :)

      

Trenton, Cole and Crawford – Best buddies for a long time.  SO SAD that Trenton is moving to Memphis!

    

And new friends – Jude and Kohnly.  They aren’t in Cole’s class at school, but he plays with them on the playground and insisted that they come.  In fact, the whole invite list was a mix of old and new friends.  Really glad that he has a lot of friends old and new.

 

After “halftime” we headed back downstairs for a game of flag football.  I had ribbons that they tucked in their pants and wore for the game.  The kids had so much fun.  And, so did the dads :)

    

Cade even ran for a touchdown!

   

Fun party…after it was all over, we headed home and Cole opened up all of his presents.  At bedtime Cole said “mama, you throw the best parties.  Not all mamas have parties like you do.”  Makes it all worth it!

  

Cole’s 7th Birthday – Football Party Decor

Cole has recently started loving football since playing flag football this fall.  He watches it on TV, asks Kyle questions ALL the time, and says his favorite teams are the Razorbacks 1st, Cowboys next, Denver Broncos 3rd and then Auburn and LSU.  After our trip to Cowboys stadium, he has started talking football even more.  So, a football party was definitely fitting this year.  We rented the Fayetteville Athletic Club Fit Fun Factory kids gym.  It’s the perfect place for kids to be able to run and play and it gives me a clean slate for figuring out the party.   I did a terrible job taking pictures before the party because we only had 30 minutes to set up and I had kids arriving 20 and 25 minutes early!

The idea was “Cole’s Football Training Camp.”  We had 6 stations set up like Speed Ladder, Field Goal Kick, Pass Accuracy, etc.  The kids got to go to each station and record their passes completed or their time.  The “coaches” at each station wrote it on their little lanyard tags that they all wore around their necks.  The kids had a ball.  Their favorite stations were Pass Accuracy which had these 2 wooden standees that Trey got from work.  PERFECT!  The other station they loved was the field goal kick.  So fun!

Upstairs we had the party food or “Halftime.”  Gatorade, popcorn, cheeseballs, pretzels…I never dreamed that almost all of the kids we invited would come, but they did and it was fun (but it was a bit loud and rowdy at one point!).  Didn’t help that I had football whistles and party blowers on the table…

Cole does not like cake much so he asked for a cookie cake, but he doesn’t like chocolate either so it had to be a sugar cookie cake.  Ricks did this awesome football cake made out of a sugar cookie with a cake in the middle shaped like a football! 

 

      

Jitter Bugs

This is totally embarrassment material for when Cade graduates high school…When I started working at the store on Wednesdays and Fridays, I had to put Cade in school full time.  They had him participate in a little class that comes to the school every Friday called Jitter Bugs as a free trial.  He talked and talked about how much fun it was so I signed him up.  Each week they do different songs and it’s all about moving and having fun.  Well, they sent home a letter for their “performance” and Cade kept telling me that he was going to get to perform on a real stage.  So, on Saturday we went and got him there about 10 minutes early so he could get in “costume.”  Out he comes (tallest kid in the group and one of like 3 boys) wearing a neon hat.  I about wet my pants.  He knew the moves.  And he was having fun.  Oh my goodness.  Kyle said “that’s gonna be Cade’s last Jitter Bug performance.”  ha!

       

All the parents were buying these candy “bouquets” to give to their performers after their big show so I got one for Cole to give to Cade.  After 4 songs and 4 costume changes, it was over.  He came out of the dressing room with a $1 in his hand.  Asked him where he got that and he said “well, I didn’t want to wear the hat so my teacher said she’d give me a dollar if I wore one and so I got it.”  Then cole gave him his bouquet and as we walked out, Cade said “this is the most awesomist day ever! (because he got candy and $1 – had nothing to do with Jitter Bugs!)