First we had a yummy Cold Stone cake with just the family at home. We did a joint celebration for Eli and A since A was heading off to Taiwan for 2 weeks a few days later.
Eli opened his family gifts and he was in heaven. He kept saying (with a fist pump), "Yes! That's what I wanted!" Look at this face!
Eli opened his family gifts and he was in heaven. He kept saying (with a fist pump), "Yes! That's what I wanted!" Look at this face!
On his actual birthday, he started the morning with his birthday pancakes (pancakes in the shape of the birthday number and the kid's name...all in their favorite color). Luckily, Eli's fave color right now is gold, so I didn't have to add any color to the pancakes!
Eli had school so we brought in chocolate marbled cupcakes (courtesy of the Cake Mix Doctor) to share with the class. Eli got to wear the class birthday hat. Boy, did he look awesome!
Here was his real birthday... I love what he wishes for...
The weekend following his birthday, Eli had his birthday party. He had his THIRD dinosaur-themed birthday party in a row! That guy loves dinosaurs! For the past 2 years we've had his parties at home with a handful of children. But since we have a new baby, I knew I wouldn't be able to handle another party at home. Also I'm not sure I can come up with anymore original dinosaur party ideas! So we gave into his request to celebrate his birthday at a dinosaur museum called Dinosaur-Quest. Essentially, it's a dinosaur museum filled with dino bones...it just happens to be located in a mall? I think this place is just ok, but Eli absolutely loves it. I think he just loves the fact that there are tons of big-screen TVs everywhere showing cool dino stuff. I find the TVs kinda distracting and loud, but Eli loves it.
For this party, I chose the package where they would put up the decorations and even provide the favor bags. It was insane that all we had to do was order food, bring a cake, and show up! This has never happened for us before. And, in all honesty, we could get used to this! Our usual party planning crew (B, J, and V) all said that it was kind of nice to just show up. Originally I was going to get the "Bare Bones" package and decorate myself and bring favors, but I'm glad I didn't go this route. In my mind, Eulee was already magically sleeping through the night at this point and I would have all this time to plan and decorate. Nope, didn't happen! So I'm glad I didn't go with the Bare Bones. Sadly enough, just making the cake was enough stress for me this time around.
We started the party with lunch. We ordered WAY too much food for this party. We had lots of last-minute cancellations because of sick kids. In the end, we were just giving away pies of pizza. And then we still had to eat pizza for lunch and dinner for the next few days. I think I'm done with pizza for now.
After the food, the kids went on a tour of the museum. First the "dino expert" showed the kids dinosaur fossils.
Then we had cake. For the cake, I asked Eli if it was ok to just make the same cake I made for his 3rd birthday. For those of you who don't remember (why would you?), it was a sheet cake decorated with a dinosaur scene with a volcano and plastic dinos on top. This cake is super cute and super easy to decorate. (Just in case you ever want to make one.)
We ended the party with a scavenger hunt around the museum. The kids thought this was so much fun, especially because they won prizes at the end!
Eli got lots of great gifts this year. But I think the one he had really been dying for was the ninja costume (thank you, T and B). I mean, check out his expression when he opened it up!
That's what birthdays are all about, right? Eli sure is a lucky boy!
Happy birthday, Eli-saurus!
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