Jon David turns SEVEN!

Grandma and Grandaddy arrived just in time for the celebration.

On the party day, we let Jon David open a few of his presents early. Here he is opening a star wars clone wars digital watch that we found super cheap on Amazon.
And we got one for Luke, too. ;)

They both LOVED it. Luke was especially hillarious. He was constantly telling us what time it was--at times, every minute!!
And here was a highlight: new bike from Grandma and Grandaddy!!!

Thank goodness for Grandma and Grandaddy taking charge of Caleb on this day: feeding him, holding him during the party, and driving him home and putting him to sleep for us....What would we do without them??

And... when I needed "something" to occupy the boys while we finished the last minute party preparations, Don and I decided to let Jon David open one more gift early:

The Monsters vs. Aliens wii game (another gift from which Luke also benefited:) -- which we found at the gamestop web site, also cheap! Thanks for the tip, Aunt Laura!


We had the party at a local park here on Saturday afternoon. Jon David had wanted to invite practically his entire class at school! We narrowed it down a bit, and enjoyed meeting several of his class mates. Jon David had a great time. We started off handing out the pool-noodle light sabers and letting them play on the playground. They loved whacking each other and running around. (And yes, the decor was completely copied from Luke's party. It was really nice.) Don helped me brain storm about what activities to do. It was fun thinking of things together! Our first organized activity was a relay game. I called it "light saber clone trooper relay"--or something like that. I ad-lib'ed (sp??!) quite a bit. ;) The boys had to walk to a cone holding their light sabers out with a clone trooper figure on the end of them, without dropping them, of course. If they dropped them, they had to go back to the finish line. The winning team got a prize, and the losing team got a consolation prize. :)

Next was an obstacle course. Don ad lib'ed this part. By the way, Don gets the prize for making the party fun. He totally got into it. The kids LOVED it!! Don came up with this: they had to start off by whacking the trash can,

then they had to run to a volley-ball net,

throw their light-sabers over the net and catch it,

(Don, demonstrating).
They, then, had to run to the other pole and whack it (of course--much whacking, there was).
The finishing touch was a duel with Don. So fun!
(Jedi Jon David)

(Jedi Luke)

(Jedi Luke and JD's friend)


(more friends)
But the highlight by far was the final mission. Don and another parent went to their station in the woods while the boys had a snack and I played a little star wars trivia with them.

Here they are, "chomping at the bit", but willing to let me get one quick shot before the main event.

Once they found the "enemy" in the woods, they were to use their lightsabers to fight, and something else that they might find to assist them.
They were very excited to find... WATER BALLOONS!



After the fight, then there was more play time, and finally cake time!


Complements of my friend, Brandie. I would TOTALLY recommend her!! The cake was decorated beautifully, and tested GREAT! Thanks so much, Brandie--and husband, the "artist."

OK, funny story with the cake. It was so windy that day, that we literally could not light the candles. We even tried putting things around the cake to block the wind--to no avail. So we finally decided to sing to Jon David anyway, and told him to fake blowing the candles out. Hee hee.
He didn't seem to mind. ;)

This is what Jedi look like when they eat cake.
Let's just say that much testosterone, there was...
In the background, you can see the evidence of Grandaddy taking baby duty during the party. Thanks again!!
And last, but certainly not least... gifts from Jon David's sweet friends:

(above: one more from Mommy and Daddy. ;) )
And this is my famous friend, to whom (grammar? ...) I owe all of the decoration ideas for BOTH of my boys' parties -- and much of the supplies. Thanks a million!

Happy birthday, Jon David!
The day before he officially turned seven, I had said something about his real birthday coming up, to which he said "I'm so tired of being six." Ha! He cracks me up. I love you, big seven year old! Don't grow up too fast!!