Nathan's 6th Birthday

Nathan's actual birthday was the day after the field trip to the candy factory.

He has said for a while that he wanted to get a breakfast in bed like I do on Mother's day and my birthday... so this year he got his favorite breakfast... in bed.

Colossal berry crunch cereal with mild and a sprinkle donut (with 6 candles in it!)

Since Levi was still asleep in their room, Nathan actually got to have breakfast in mom and dad's bed!

Such a luck boy! He felt so special.

The rest of his day was pretty simple, but made him feel special. He got to skip school work and chores for the day and jump right to a game of Starcraft! Then, while I was making his favorite lunch, PBJ's, Jeremy ready him the story of the 3 musketeers. He was riveted with all the sword fighting and what not :) In the afternoon, he played another game of StarCraft, with dad this time!

He had his favorite dinner, Ravioli's with chocolate milk, and got a visit from his primary teachers- who brought him a CTR ring, some CTR gum, and a lovely hand-written card.

Then, to top it all off, he got to stay up late and watch a movie with mom and dad and eat popcorn and his favorite candy (mini Reces peanut butter cups) in the family room with us.

Such a big boy now!

Then, on Saturday was his much anticipated ninja party. We had been preparing for it and he was READY!

We gave out these dagger invites to his primary class and his friends from school.

Next, we made a pinata in the shape of a kicking/pinching bag.

The kids though the paper-mache part was pretty messy and sticky, but it grows on you after a few layers!

(finished, painted project will appear later).

We decorated the house with the ninja decorations we found:

Here are the foam nnja swords and the final kick bag pinata, filled and all.

Plus we have our bouce-back punching ninja. I didn't have any sand so we filled the bottom up with water... which worked out pretty well until the kids popped him!

We made some ninja cupcakes :)

and some candy sushi (with Swedish fish, rice crispy treats and fruit roll ups).

These were a big hit and disappeared rather quickly!

We also set out some ninja to-go boxes filled with popcorn, some string cheese and some grapes speared with tiny ninja swords.

These little sword toothpicks were also a big hit :)

 Next big item: the laser maze.

This was dad's job. We had cleared out a big space in the play room and dad and grandma worked together to set up a laser maze challenge with red yarn.

It turned out great!

...until grandma was stuck at the back! She got to be the first person to try and get through it!

When Nathan's friends arrived they each took the first step in their ninja training by painting a scroll with their ninja name on it. (yes, those are yoplait yogurt cups with a paper wrap, but they are surprisingly sturdy with the wide base on them!)

I printed out a bunch of characters along with their meaning, and they all picked what they wanted to be... for example, Nathan wanted to be strong, brave, fierce and happy.

When they were done, Jeremy and Jason came and melted a red wax seal they could carve their initials into, which made it look pretty awesome, and more authentic.

They then colored pre-folded, paper ninja stars (I got pretty good at it after about a dozen of them!)

They made theirs just exactly how they wanted it... and then we had to use them!

Their objective was to knock over as many of the ping pong balls (precariously perched on varying heights of paper product rolls painted black) as they could in 3 throws.

They did pretty well!

Sara deemed herself the official "re-setter" after each persons turn.

She was pretty quick for having a cast, too!

Jason and Rasy were a huge help, and took care of Levi during the 3 hours of craziness!

And craziness it was! I was soooooo grateful for the good weather so they could all play rough and tough outside.

Poor punching ninja!

When his water compartment finally popped, Drew got the brunt of it, but seemed somehow empowered by the moisture!

The kids ate cake and snacks after some rowdy outside ninja fighting.

Somehow, by this point they were all calling me Sensei. ?Dunno? But I'll take it! At the very least it helped maintain some sense of order... if Sensei says, it must be done :)

Here's Nathan with his "best friend that is a girl" and closest friend here in Colorado, Sara Jane.

She is the sweetest little thing, and did pretty well holding her own as the only girl brave enough to come to a ninja party! (several were invited, but only she came).

Six candles for my little guy! My how the time flies!

Before long it was time for the kick pinata.

This was a huge hit, and we had some hard hitters!

Once it broke they ran for the goodies like fleas to a dog!

Some of the things (besides candy, of course) they found in the rubble were ninja disc launchers and rubber throwing stars.

They soon realized the stars were for throwing at the large target set up behind them!

Levi watched with the peanut gallery, which now included our enemy ninja spy.

After some throwing, they were ready for more ninja fighting... so they were back outside running off the sugar high :) ... and somehow the enemy ninja spy got invited too! I guess without his water base, he was considered more friendly?

The next phase of ninja training was to prepare them for the ultimate challenge: the laser maze!

We had to wind them down or I knew there would be red yarn and push pins flying around in that maze. So, we did a concentration training exercise. They each got a sword and a balloon, and had to keep the balloon off the floor as long as possible using nothing but the foam sword.

To my delight, by cunning plan worked! 

It was pretty quiet for a bit because they were concentrating so hard!

I told them that whoever kept theirs up the longest would be the first after the birthday boy to get to try the laser maze.

This turned out to be a huge hit!

We sent them through one at a time and they had to crawl, sneak and squeeze by in order to pass all the way to the other side.

Hannah even gave this one a go!

The last little while at the party was kind of free time to re-visit whatever ninja activity suited your fancy.

Evan had a genius idea to try and pop balloons with the throwing stars, so we used a bunch of the tiny swords from the grapes to pin up a bunch of balloons on the foam target board and he threw the stars to pop them,

Most the other kids had fun ganging up on Jeremy and playing "attack" with their new foam swords in the back yard.

Finally, to wind them down before their parents came, we spent the last few minutes opening presents.

What a great lot of lute he got!

I only took a few pictures of the actual present opening because after the first couple there was a mob of children all helping and looking over what he was doing.

But I did manage to get a picture of him with the friend and their present after the commotion slowed a bit!

Once the present opening had finished and the kids all rushed outside for their last 5 minutes before parents started showing up, I realized it was awfully quiet and thought, "Where is Levi?"

I didn't have to look too far before I found this naughty little panda had snuck onto the food table, grabbed some popcrom and cupcakes and hidden under the table to partake of his sneaky little feast.

He was so cute I had to take a few pictures :)

I got these 2 before he noticed he'd been found out 

And the look he gave me when he saw me... priceless.

"Oh, mom...hi.. I was just.. um having a little snack!"

I spent the last few minutes sword fighting outside, taking time intermittently to make sure Nathan was taking the necessary breaks to thank his friends and bid them farewell as the time came for them to leave.

After everyone had gone Jeremy and I both laid down on the couch and breathed a sigh of relief....ninja party accomplished.

Looking back, it was a few hours of pure craziness with 9 ninjas training all at once in our house... but pure heaven for a six year old little boy who dreams of being a ninja spy. 

Here is a short compilation of some of the video footage of the action...

Enjoy!

When all is said and done, it was worth all the work to show our little ninja spy that we are so grateful to have him in our family. He is becoming such a responsible and admirable young man and we are so proud of him. Happy birthday Nathan, we love you SO much!