MY FIRST KID BIRTHDAY PARTY!
Jared's party just ended, and I AM BEAT! I hauled boxes to the garage, baked the cake, made decorations and hung them up. I'm not sure the kids noticed too much of any of that! My back did, though, so I am sitting at the computer for a break.

We got everything ready for the party, then Zach got in trouble and was sent to his room. When I went to check on him, he'd tucked himself into bed and was fast asleep, before his nap time! I think I'm sending him to his room more often!
When the guests arrived, we pinned their official astronaut name tags on them.
Our first activity was to make toilet-paper tube rockets! They had so much fun! And they turned out cute, if rather mushroom-like.
Then we played "Pin the Earth into the Solar System." Everyone knew Earth, but most didn't know the other planets. They were entirely too good at the game. I think they were peeking!
Then they gravitated toward the toys. Actually, I had to call them away from the toys every time we started an activity!

Everyone had advised me to keep things simple, and not to plan too many things to do. So we were done except for cake and presents, and it had only been 45 minutes! Ooops!
The cake was Jupiter. It looked like Jupiter, but Jupiter isn't exactly an appetizing sort of color. We sang "Happy bir...." and Jared blew out the candles. Ooops! He didn't remember to wait until the end of the song! So we relit the candles and tried again. The kids thought it was funny to be eating a planet, and pretended to eat up all the planets in the solar system. Ryan egged them on and things got rather silly.

Then Jared announced it was time to open presents. When you're 4 & 5, gift opening is a group activity. They all crowded around and the gift-givers sometimes spilled the beans just moments before the paper came off! Wow, he got such cool boy things! Hot Wheels, a remote control robot, a Lightening McQueen tool box, a transformer, and several other things we haven't figured out yet. The tissue and wrapping paper was extremely fun when they started throwing it in the air and yelling "It's snowing!!!!"
Hmmm....we still had 45 minutes left until parents were coming back! We busted out the dinosaurs and they all played. Things were getting rather rowdy until we got desperate and turned on a LeapFrog movie. I thought Zach would be very sad if he missed the whole thing, so I woke him up. He jumped right into the fray just fine.
There were sad faces when the first moms started showing up. Then there was mahem of finding shoes and coats and rockets and goodie bags. And then.....it was quiet! Ah, sweet silence.
It was lots of fun. I think it was most of the kids' first birthday party experience, at least without their parents. They were quite well-behaved and not too crazy, and it was so fun for Jared!
Here's a link to the rest of the photos.