We celebrated Sam's 5th birthday a few weeks early this year. NaNa and YaYa were coming to town as well as Rob and Anita and family. We thought that it would be great to have it while everyone was there since that never happens.
My friend, Leanne mentioned to me that our YMCA does birthday parties and when I started looking into it and checked it all out...I decided that would be a GREAT place. I don't particularly enjoy having outside birthday parties in August...too hot. :) They have a blow up slide thing and the kids can run like crazy in the gym and we had the use of one of the "party rooms". They also had 2 Y staffers that pretty much did EVERYTHING! It was amazing. Such a wonderful job by those folks at our Y! Can't say enough nice things about them!
So, we of course, already had our theme...SUPERHEROES! Sam is currently obsessed with all things superhero!
I found (on Pinterest of course) a pattern for these felt masks that I made for all the kids. I used pink and purple glittery felt along with the batman pattern for the girls! So cute.
Here was my before...still needed the final detail touches. I did learn that I am NOT the greatest of seamstresses but we made it work.
Lots of fun colors...Sam and jack really liked playing with them before the party.
Here I go...not winning any "Seamtress of the Year Awards" here! I'm not even patient enough to pin something so small...which was maybe my first problem.
Despite my lack of sewing skills, they turned out really cute. They lady that originally made these had embroidered all the details on there (eyebrows, spiderman face, etc)...not me...just busted out my trusty puff paint and it worked just great.
Next came the cake. This one was actually really easy. MUCH easier than some of my past birthday cakes. I just had to find the Superhero Squad guys to go on top. Other than that I just baked the star shape and circle shape cakes and iced them. Pretty easy. Just piped in the Happy Birthday and Sam's name...and added a few old school superhero phrases ("Hero Up" is one of the things the Superhero Squad guys always say).
Sam LOVED it.
Birthday boy with his Superhero cake!
Decorated the party room at the YMCA. Jack was REALLY wanting to stick his little fingers in that cake. And wanted to sneak the Hulk off of it.
Also made a Superhero night photo prop. Here is Sam being Spiderman and slinging webs!
I literally threw this thing together in like 30 minutes. Just used the black paper (craft paper roll that I found at Michaels), cut out some stars. Used some old boxes leftover from VBS and had the black and silver spray paint. Cutted out some squares for windows. Quick and easy...it may look that way too, but it was fun to take pics in front of it.
Masks waiting on the kids to come grab one.
Found these awesome bags at Michaels in the dollar isle. They even had Wonder Woman for the girls.
Top view of Sam's cake
Super MeiMei (Annabeth) and Super Sam flying through the sky!
The awesome Y gals that were helping us took all the kids down to the gym where they had the bounce house/slide set up. The kids had a blast sliding down the bouncy slide and jumping. They also really go into shooting baskets.
Here is Sam, Philip and MeiMei sporting their superhero masks.
They even played games with the kids. It was pretty crazy because the kids were so fired up running around everywhere...but they did a great job. The kids loved it too.
Precious...YaYa and my nephew, Drew! Drew has gotten SO big...he's grown in to such a sweet little boy! Love this picture.
More games with Ms. Sarah!
The kids actually wore their masks. I was shocked. Here is Will, Addie, Lydia, Jackson and Tucker. So cute.
Daddy playing goalie while Sam takes a shot.
The girlie girls...Lydia, Addie and Alayna! I don't think they stopped sliding the whole time.
Mommy friends are the greatest! LOVE these ladies.
Josie, Ashley, me, Anne, Katey, Leanne and Ashley.
Great mamas and great friends!
Best buddies...Jackson and Tucker.
MeiMei (still wearing her mask) playing a little soccer against her daddy (Ben's brother, Rob).
Sam sliding down the bouncy slide. So much fun! One of the dads mentioned that if good parties were judged by sweaty kids...then this one was a success!
YaYa and Anita
Alayna and Lydia...how cute are these little girls! Such fabulous superhero girls!
SpiderPhilip!
Drewie! So cute.
Alayna
Singing "Happy Birthday". Sam got really shy...always does so he was trying not to look at anyone. I was the same way when I was a kid.
Wouldn't even blow out the candles, so Camp and I helped.
Me and my sweet boy! Love him!
It's funny...up until now, we all have always just take presents home and let the kids open them at home, but it seems this round of 5 year old birthdays, all the kids wanted to watch the birthday boy/girl open their presents that they brought. It was really cute...got a little chaotic, but sweet that they were all so excited.
My little photo background seemed a little small for this big group of kids.
Superhero poses...SO CUTE! LOVE these kids!
MeiMei is still wearing a mask after the party at our house. We had Rob, Anita and kids, NaNa and YaYa and the Schultz's (cousin Tracy's family) over for dinner afterwards. It was so fun to have all of our family here!
Tried to see if Drew would wear Spiderman. He was not a fan.
Sam surrounded by all of his new presents. He was SO excited.
MeiMei celebrated her 4th birthday that week before, so she got to open some fun presents too. Uncle Ben was in charge of opening all the toys from those crazy boxes.
Excited about her new laptop from NaNa and YaYa!
Tracy brought Jack a treat too...a "Cappum Merica". He was a tad bit excited.
YaYa and NaNa with 2 of their boys...the oldests!
TEAM HAZLEWOOD! So much fun...love our family!
Grankid/Grandparent picture. Hard to get them all sitting still in one place.
Overall, we had a WONDERFUL weekend. The Y really helped us make Sam's birthday a success. He had a blast and I think the kids and parents did too.
So thankful to get to hang out with Rob and Anita...and we always love having NaNa and YaYa here. SO MUCH FUN!
