Jacob’s 6th Birthday

The weekend before last we celebrated Jacob’s 6th birthday.  On Saturday we had a birthday party for him at Shankz Blacklight mini golf. 
Past experience has taught me that out of a class of 20+ kids not everyone will be able to make it, so we also invited a few friends from daycare and from church. We wound up with 15 kids at the party – it was a big group but everyone had fun.
Here are the kids sitting on the bench waiting to get their clubs and balls.  The kids were also excited because they all got glow necklaces.
 

I was really impressed with the place where we had the party, the host really interacted with the kids and kept them moving through the course and kept it safe and fun.  I also really liked that you got your party room right away, so there was a place to put all your stuff and even a cabinet for purses.
The party rooms all have different themes, we were in the Dino room, which had huge scenes of dinosaurs painted all over.  If you haven’t been to a blacklight place, the pictures don’t do it justice, it is really pretty neat but of course the 3D and blacklight doesn’t show up in the pictures.

   
Frankly I was sort of amazed that the kids did such a good job taking turns and putting. There was some pushing and fussing, but more or less things went very smoothly.  We did have one injury where a kid swung his club and clocked another kid, but an ice pack and some cake and it was all better.  Naturally some of the younger ones just kind of ran around and climbed on stuff which is also fun. I really enjoyed chatting with the other parents.
  
neat dinosuar arch

Grandma gives Bella a little help

Lisa and Anna

After the golf we had pizza and capri suns. At one point there were kids that wanted cheese pizza and all that was left was pepperoni so the party host tells the kids - “OK kids, we are going to make our own cheese pizza, everyone take off the pepperoni and put it on this plate”  And they did it and were happy. I think that is why I liked the host, he was funny and thought like a Mom!
Love this shot of Seth!

Next came the cake – I really worked hard to make it exactly as Jacob asked me to make it. The design was a little different than what I maybe would have done but Jacob was VERY specific about what he wanted and I love how it turned out.
 
The above picture shows how it looked finished off with the two candles but the below picture shows the colors better – the trim icing was the purple and green colors from Buzz Lightyear’s uniform.  I tried to replicate the Toy Story 3 logo, I was really pleased how it all came together.  I have NEVER worked with fondant before so it was a whole new thing for me. I like my cakes to be iced with icing, but I love the crisp clean lines of fondant, so this cake uses fondant for the logo but the rest is all icing. 
The “JACOB” letters I cut out with my alphabet cookie cutters , the 6 I did freehand. 
The “birthday” letters I printed out on my computers using a free Disney-like font called Mickey. It doesn’t exactly match the real Toy Story one but that real one is a font that costs like $30, so whatever. Those letters were hardest because I sort of outlined them through the paper onto the fondant and then had to figure out how to cut them out.  It really made me wish my tiny carving tools for Halloween pumpkins weren’t in the attic. But at the time I was doing it, it was like 11 PM so I just cut them all out with the tip of a knife.  This year, I will buy another pumpkin carving set and keep it specifically for fondant work with my cake stuff.

Anyway I got that “Oh wow” moment from the kids when I put the cake down and we all know as Moms we live for that moment! Ha!
 

After the party we went home and my in laws came over and we ate spaghetti and watched the UT game. The kids went nuts with all the presents and we charged up Jacob’s big big present from his grandparents – a Nintendo DS.
The next day was Sunday and Jacob’s actual real birthday.  In the service we sang “Come Now is the Time to Worship” which made me tear up because it was a song we listened to when I was in labor the day he was born.  After church I tried to get some nice photos since the church has such pretty places to take pictures.
Jacob decided he wanted to wink in these pictures. He does this big ol' super exaggerated wink.
 

This one ended up being my favorite of the bunch.

After church we let Jacob pick a restaurant, he chose Sharkey’s.
  
I do have to say I think Bella was uber cute this day with her pony tails and her new kicks from Old Navy.

I told him to stand straight and not to wink, this is what I got…

They do this whole thing where they all come sing and put a shark mask/hat thing on you and serve you a big bowl of ice cream and snap your picture. It happened so fast I didn’t get a picture of it and Jacob wasn’t altogether pleased with the sparkler that they had lit in the ice cream and so we were kind of in a rush to blow it out. But anyway they took a picture so if you live around here look for it up on the birthday wall at Sharkey’s.
So that was Jacob’s big birthday weekend. We love him so much and he is such a fun kid.  He loves to build with blocks (his big present from us was an extension set for his wooden blocks) and sing and dance around.  I see him stretched out on the couch with his DS (he likes pac man!) and I simply can’t believe he is SO tall and grown up. He is doing great in Kindergarten, he comes home everyday bursting with new things to tell us (he tells us about wedgies, and mushy kisses, and which part of the tongue we use to taste sweet things, and the proper way to do jumping jacks and a million other things.)  I love it that he is so independent but yet still very sweet and cuddly, he is quick to give out kisses and hugs and shows concern for others. Jacob still thrives on structure and knowing what to expect but he has begun to really open up to new experiences as well. A Mom at his party that has known him for a while from Kids R Kids, could NOT believe how much he has changed in just a year.  She still remembers him being so reserved and shy and when she looked over and saw him dancing and laughing in a circle of friends she couldn’t believe the transformation. Me either! God is so good and it is a blessing to see his goodness in our children!
Coming up – Bella starts ballet and both kids attend their first Astros game.