Little Chef Party~ Roman's 3rd birthday

Roman loves to help me in the kitchen.

When he gets "big" he wants to be a cooker at Chick-a-lay. (Chick-fil-a)

This boy is ALL about cooking!

A little chef party was the perfect way to celebrate our birthday boy!

I love this theme and had so much fun dreaming up the details.

We were blessed with great friends and perfect weather for an outdoor party.

Roman was so excited and rushed out to welcome every single guest to his "cooker" party.

The smile on his face was amazing.

His smile is what makes all of the hard work worth it.  

I love that boy...

Chef Roman and his "cooker party" 

Roman waiting at the door for his guests to arrive.

Momma cake- 4 tier Bavarian cream filled goodness.

I love the details.

Cake pops by Cristina.

The kitchen staff

First thing on the menu:

decorate chef hats

Next up:

kids made personal pepperoni pizzas

Next up:

fruit kabobs

(this activity kept them very quiet. I will do this with my boys again)

Little sweeties

My favorite boys in the whole entire world!

Beautiful Baby Bear

Next up:

Cupcake making lesson by Momma.

Sugar topped with sugar!

Tio!

 Now for the main event.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear Roman....

Happy birthday to you!

 Make a wish and dream BIG my baby...

This smile.

This smile right here is why I do it all.

This smile is worth every penny and every second of my time.

I adore these smiles...

Roman and Big Poppa. 

Griff is sweet on this girl.

 Once our guests left and we straightened up we opened gifts.

Singing cards are awesome.

They work well together. They allow each other to help with opening their gifts.
This happened for both Roman and Griffin's birthday.
This makes me happy.

Roman and his new BBQ pit from MiMi and Pop.

Roman's party was a success.

I judge success by the smiles on my kids faces.

Thanks to Satch, MiMi, and Pop for all of the 

love, time, and support that is involved in putting a party together.

They say it takes a village...

"They" may be right.

North Pole Party

In our community of friends we have a LOT of little boys.   About this time last year a friend asked what fun Christmas activities are there for little boys to do?  Now I'm pretty certain that the Dads would have a problem with us fancying up the boys for a "tea."  Honestly no part of  dragging my boys along to a quiet place with fine china sounds fun to me either.  This is when the idea was born.  How about I create a magical evening for our boys to enjoy.  I ran across this party and started dreaming up the details.  

I made an ornament for each boy with his initial to take home.

Elf hats, letter from Santa, flashlights and The Cajun night before Christmas ready to go.

I had so much fun with the details.

Reindeer food bar

Milk and cookies were on the menu.

The dessert table.

Milk cups with chocolate and sprinkles on the rim.

Boys can be fancy too!

My boys waiting on their guests.

Griff and his best buddy from school.

Once all of our guests arrived we started off the evening with a welcome and MiMi Kat read The Cajun Night before Christmas to the boys.

MiMi reading to a packed house.

Cheese!
We had 25 boys total. (23 pictured)
Told you we had lots-o-boys.
Interesting to note.  Out of 10 families and 25 boys there are only 3 girls.
(2 of the girls are part of a boy/girl twin set)
There are also 4 sets of twins.
2 boy/boy and 2 boy/girl

After the group picture was taken there was a knock at the door.  The boys ran over to see who was knocking.  They opened the door to find a wrapped package waiting for them on the ground.  They then ran out of the door to track down who dropped off the package.  It took a minute to round them all back up and inside the house again.

The package was a large wrapped box.  It was addressed to my boys and friends postmarked with a return address from the North Pole.  Next was all a blur.  It was wild.  The boys attacked the package.  Paper went flying and control was lost again for another second.

Inside the package was Lefty the elf with a special note for the boys. 

(Lefty, you owe me for saving your life.)

I then opened a letter also addressed to the boys from Santa Claus.  This was a note to the boys with the instructions for a scavenger hunt.  I read the letter to the boys and set up the teams for the scavenger hunt.

Here is my team waiting at the door and ready to hit the street.

We were all outside for a second when the boys heard a noise and the jingle of a bell.  Out of the corner of our eyes we spotted an elf.  The elf literally ran for his life as he was being chased down by a pack of rambunctious boys.  They were hot on his trail.  It was WILD and it happened so quickly.  I laughed and had tears running down my face.  It was a moment that we will all remember.   Just as spontaneously as the elf appeared he vanished. Never to be seen again. After the fact it was fun to hear each boys recollection of what actually happened and what they thought the elf looked like.    

Griff is the first to spot the elf and the others were not far behind!

Run for your life...

Once order was restored we got back into teams and resumed the hunt!

The smile on Roman's face tells the story.
They were having an amazing time.

Once we got back home the boys sat down to decorate their Christmas trees and for a feast of sugar milk and cookies.

Christmas tree decorating...

and Christmas tree eating.

Milk and cookies were served.

 Following a feast of sugar the boys ran off the sugar high in the yard.  They ran and they played HARD just like little boys are supposed to.  Lots of noise.  Lot of laughter.  Lots of movement.
One of my favorite quotes of the night was, "Ms. Andrea I played so hard I lost my bell on my hat."

After they burned off some of the sugar they lined up to make some reindeer food.

Griff and his goodies ready for Christmas Eve.

Brothers and buddies.

Mommas came ready to party in their  onesies. :)

The Dad's came to play too.
Kenton in his special Christmas sweatshirt.

The smiles in this picture sums up the night.  The magical night at the North Pole was a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season.  It was such a fun night that we were able to share with friends.  Eventually I went to bed with a smile on my face reminiscing the magical moments of the evening.