The big 7

Last week Kirk turned seven.  I've been reading Kirk the Hobbit from my kindle and he's been enjoying it so much that I decided to buy him his own illustrated copy.  He was pretty excited.  I like to coordinate the kid's cakes around their party theme.  I thought a cute Hobbit cake to go along with his book would be fitting.  This cake took me most of the day to whip out.  I have to admit that it turned out better than I was expecting it to.  It's probably one of my favorites, recreating the shire was actually really fun.  

Kirk got the Lord Of The Rings book series, the Hobbit, Helm's deep lego set, a beach towel, some baseball gear, and some clothes.  Then the next day he had his friend's party.  I don't know why every year I talk myself into doing another friends party.  Last year I swore that I'd go to the every other year thing.  I told myself I'd just do parties on the even birthdays.  But alas I came up with the cutest party theme, and went for it.  This year Kirk had a camping party.  It was one of the more fun parties I've ever thrown.  I borrowed a canvas from my friend and rigged it up like a tent in our living room.  Then I had my husband set up a tent outside also.  For the table decorations I just went to our local park and picked up pine cones, and pine needles that had dropped on the grass.  I figured I was doing the city a service to help clean up the some of the dropped needles.  Then I went to the fabric store and bought three yards of burlap fabric, cut it in half, and overlapped it on my table and used it as the table cloth.  For plates I used old pie tins,  When the kids arrived they played in the back yard until we were ready for the hike.  We have a fun mountain trail behind our home.  We took the boys on a walk up to the stream. 

There is snow in the background, but it was an unusually warm day so the boys didn't even need jackets.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect! Then the boys headed back down, and they helped Dan start the fire in our fire pit while I got dinner ready.  The boys then ate.  We had pigs in a blanket(or kids in a sleeping bag), baked beans, sour worms, fruit, and chips.  Then we sang happy birthday and ate some mini cupcakes.  I did mini one's this year to try something different.  I found that there was less wasted half eaten cupcakes.  Then it was back outside for more outdoor fun.  I had some campfire games and songs, and stories planned, but found out that they just wanted play the whole time.  We roasted marshmallow's and ate smore's, and then it started to get cold and  I pulled out the coats.  I found these really great camouflage coats at Walmart on clearance.  I was looking for a cheap T-shirt at first, and couldn't find any.  Then I spotted the clearance coats.  I'm not kidding, just $3.00 and no change each!  They had the perfect sizes, and just enough for all the boys.  It was the best find!  They played until 8:00 when their parents came to pick them up. Then the boys left with a little camping stick with a handkerchief tied with a few goodies inside.  It was a tremendous success.  Boys love hiking, the outdoors, food, and fire, this party covered all of the above.  I'm tired now, and I'll be doing more party planning in the next couple of weeks when Benjamin celebrates his Birthday.  We love you Kirk, hope your seventh birthday was one to remember!