Halloween '18

Shark Family...
Doo, doo, doo

Collin (9) as Steve from Minecraft
Brennan (7) as Squirtle from Pokemon
Ethan (5) as The Hulk

Collin with his best friend Jayden as a Creeper from Minecraft

Kate with her best friend Calvin as a robot

Ethan is FIVE!

Happy 5th birthday, Ninja Ethan! 

On Ethan's actual birthday, he woke up to his requested cereal - peanut butter balls. After sending his brothers and sister off to school and a quick grocery pickup at Walmart, we met his best friend at Chick-fil-a for brunch. More than anything, Ethan wanted a kids' meal for his birthday. (Middle child syndrome has had him sharing an adult meal with at least one sibling most of his life, and he wanted the toy. You got it, man!)

His buddy Evan gave him a little pack of M&Ms wrapped in hand-colored paper and a homemade card too. It was cute. After eating, playing and then picking up Kate from school, Ethan got to go to school too.

This year - instead of bringing a treat or picking a favorite book to be read to the class - he got to help teach his class something he enjoys. Any guesses?

You got it: He wanted to give ninja lessons to his friends. So I grabbed Collin from school - because I don't have the first clue about being a ninja - and let him come with me.

I read them The Three Ninja Pigs (cute fractured fairy tale to kill some time), and Collin demonstrated a front kick and a jab/punch combination.

His taekwondo school let me borrow a board for breaking and hand pads for punching, so then we headed outside for the kids to all try it.

His buddy Evan - that went to brunch with us in the morning - is the one kicking in this pic.

Birthday boy ninja kick!

It was great fun! No one got hurt, and none of the equipment got broken, so I'd say it went well. Collin was a great instructor, and Ethan was super proud to be the little brother of someone so big and cool. ;-)

When he got home, I'd inflated a giant Ninjago character balloon as a surprise, and all the kids have fought over it ever since. For dinner, Ethan requested cheese quesadillas, queso and chips.

Then he opened his present (a Ninjago shirt to wear to his party on Friday, keepin it real over here) and we sang and did cake and ice cream.

He's so easy to please that even though the day was super simple, he was the happiest little man. The real FUN was Friday!

* * *

Ethan REALLY wanted to have a birthday party this year, and I was willing except... for the budget constraints. His first list of friends was over 15! So I convinced him to only invite boys and for the theme to be Ninjago. The final list of invitees was 6, but one boy had to go out of town and couldn't make it. Five kids plus my own 4, yikes!

Due to the aforementioned budget constraints, despite the large number of kids, we decided to do games, pizza and cupcakes/ice cream here at our little house.

When they each arrived, we tied on their ninja bandanna I'd made.

They did a craft while waiting for all the kids to arrive. The craft was "design yourself as a ninja."

After the craft, they got to pick between two games - "pin the eyes on the ninja" and a throwing game with ninja stars (provided by origami master Collin due to a mess-up by Amazon) into a Chinese take-out box pyramid.

We played a game of seek-n-find for hidden ninjas next. Little ninjas were hidden all around the house, and they placed the six they found into their gift bag.

Then, by birthday boy request, we had to have a pinata.

This pinata was a beast though. After all the preschoolers had their try...

...and then all the big brothers, Daddy had to take a few good wacks.

 Finally, Ryan ripped the thing open and dumped all the candy on the patio.

After the pinata, we let Ethan open his presents. He got a few Lego sets, a dancing robot and a Nerf bow-and-arrow. He was so excited! 

Next, we had kid-approved pizza for dinner.

After dinner, each boy got a foam sword to try to keep a balloon in the air the longest. We took them outside for this one.

Then we sang and did cupcakes and ice cream.

Last, Ryan ran Ninjago Bingo while I got the house ready for parent pick-up.

Inside each gift bag the boys took home were two sheets of Ninjago stickers, a ninja bracelet, and all their stuff from the party (bandanna, ninja star, sword, pinata candy, ninja figures, ninja art and a balloon).

For as many kids as we had in the house, I was expecting it to be CRAZY loud and insane, but really all the boys were so calm and respectful. He really does have a cute little group of friends. No one got hurt and everyone had fun, so I call that a win.

I love planning this kind of stuff, but it is definitely a lot of work. Ethan couldn't have been happier and that really was my goal. He gets ignored a lot - middle child between two difficult siblings - and I want him to know that we haven't forgotten about him and we love him too. He is super easy-going and flexible and generally happy and easy to get along with, and when you have a kid like that in the midst of two others who are none of those things, it's hard to remember he needs time and attention too. This party was my effort to show him he matters to me too. Love you, Eefie!

Happy birthday, my little ninja!