Yesterday was my little monkey's birthday, although he's really not so little anymore! I can't believe Ashton is SIX!!! I am so proud of the boy he is becoming. He has always had so much energy, but now that energy has turned into more of an extreme excitement for everything in life, which I really admire in him! He loves people, is so outgoing, and will talk to anyone. He doesn't discriminate between age, gender, race, or anything. He will be friends with everyone he can! It often takes us longer than it should when we are shopping or eating out because he makes new friends there that we can't pull him away from! This kid also doesn't have a mean bone in his body. Even if someone is mean to him, he'd rather forgive and forget and try harder to be their friend than be mad, retaliate, or hold a grudge. He is also SO determined!! If he has something set in his mind that he is going to do, he IS going to do it, whatever it takes! It drives me crazy at times right now, but that is going to take him far in life. Ashton has always been my little entertainer, and still makes me laugh every single day, whether he's trying to or not! I love my little man so much, and want him to know, even at such a young age, that he inspires me!
For his birthday yesterday, Ashton had the whole entire day planned out the way he wanted it to go! I have to say, he was a bit of a micro-manager! But, it turned out to be a really fun day for all of us! First thing in the morning, Ashton wanted donuts for breakfast, but he wanted to come with me to pick them out, so we headed out early to get those, and I also surprised him by taking him to the party store to pick out his own balloons!
Ashton also wanted to be sure we had decorations! After his party with his friends last week, I was kind of partied and decorationed-out, but I threw a little something together so Ashton would have something fun to wake up to!
Donut time!
The next thing on the birthday agenda was to go see "Men in Black 3"! It was really good, we all loved it!
After the movie, we grabbed a quick lunch on our way home, then my parents and Aunt Mindy met us at our house and we all headed to Fat Cats! We bowled a game, then Mike's parents met us there and we all ate at The Pizza Factory for dinner, and then the kids played some arcade games! A couple of really nice people gave each of the kids a TON of tickets, so they got to get a bunch of fun things at the prize counter!!
After Fat Cats, we all went back to our house for presents and cake! (He's wearing a birthday hat he was given at what he calls his "school birthday celebration" last Friday!)
Cake time! There is a story behind this cake.....Ashton really wanted an ELECTRIC guitar cake, and I actually already had everything to make it myself, but I was sick last week and decided to make things easier on myself, so we hired someone to do it for us, a wife of a guy Mike works with who's done awesome cakes for us before. When the cake lady came to drop off the cake yesterday, I opened the box to see it for the first time to show Ashton, and he was shocked - I'll admit I was a little too. All he could say over and over was "What??! Pink? It's pink! I'm not a girl! It's the same color as Brayden's shirt!" I don't even know if he noticed the main thing I noticed, that it wasn't an electric guitar. It just really bothered him that it had pink on it! Mike had done the cake ordering, but forgot to tell her ELECTRIC guitar, so that part wasn't her fault. He remembered Ashton wanted lightning bolts on it, but forgot about the electric guitar part. Anyway, I was MORTIFIED because Ashton kept saying this in front of the cake lady. I felt so bad, I didn't want her to feel bad! I had to take Ashton aside and tell him to be polite, and he did tell her "Thank you", and I could tell he felt kind of bad, and he didn't say anything else about it for the rest of the night. I feel bad for Ashton too, though, because I know what it feels like to be excited for something and it doesn't come out in any way the way you hoped it would. The cake was delicious, though, and that's what really matters, so it was fine. But, I'm sure this will be a cake Ashton will always remember and talk about for years to come! He won't let us forget about this one!
After eating cake, Ashton was excited to play with is presents! We all stayed up a little too late so that Mike and Ashton could put this together.....this was the present Ashton was the most excited about - his cousin in New Mexico had it and he played it the whole time we were there! It's called Marble Run, very cool!
Ashton also had fun trying out his new Paper Jamz microphone! It's actually really cool! Here he is, singing his version of part of the song "We Are Young" (I was surprised how well he knew it!).....
Ashton started to act a little naughty by the end of the night, which reminded me, we had never started the tradition of birthday spankings! Last night was the perfect time to start, although, I think Ashton liked them a little too much! He kept telling us to do it harder!
And a pinch to grow an inch!
When I was tucking him into bed last night, I asked Ashton if his day was as special as he hoped it would be, and he told me it was, and what made it the most special was having his Nana, Pop, Grandma, Grandpa, and Great Aunt Mindy there to celebrate with him! Happy Birthday to the best, most fun, sweet son a mom could ask for!!! I love you, Ashton!!!
Ashton wanted to feel like a ROCK STAR for his 6th birthday party! We had his party yesterday, 10 days before his real birthday. These were the invites, V.I.P. Passes for the guests to bring to the party to get in! They had a working QR code to scan that took them to our R.S.V.P. website. Kind of a fun new thing to try out!
Decor.....I realized it probably wasn't a very smart idea to put a candy dispenser in the middle of a table surrounded by little boys, but I thought it looked cool and they loved it! I just won't be doing that again! :) Oh, and the centerpieces are sitting on old records I found at D.I. It made me feel so old having to explain to my kids what they were!!!
Microphone Cupcakes
Swag Bags
Rocker Ashton's own version of Jone's Soda
Entryway
Rocker Bling
Dressed up and ready to rock!
I even got in on the dress-up fun! Mike was supposed to, but he said he "forgot".....
As soon as the guests arrived, we ate a rock star favorite.....pizza!
Cake time!
The kids got all blinged up with accessories, then it was time to move on to the V.I.P. portion of the party!
My dad LOVED playing bouncer, being the one to choose who got to enter the V.I.P. lounge! The cute girls of course were allowed to go in first, and didn't even have to show their passes!
Luckily all of the boys had their passes! Everyone got in!
The V.I.P. lounge was all set up with hanging stars and disco lights ready for the little rock stars to have a dance party!
We played a game of "Freeze Dance", where they danced until the music stopped and then they had to freeze! Whoever was the last one still moving when the music stopped was out! Here are some of the frozen-in-place rock stars!
Then we played a game of "Pass the Mic" - they stood in a circle and had to pass the giant mic around while the music was playing, and when it stopped, whoever had the mic was out!
Oh, yeah, and when they got out, they had to do a cool rocker pose! Here they all are!
Then we played the Wii game, "Just Dance!"
The kids broke up into groups of three and got to take turns performing on stage!
Then the adults got in on it!
Thank you to everyone who came and for the awesome presents! You all made Ashton's party totally ROCK!!!!!
