Landon's 9th Birthday (Friend) Party

This year we decided to approach birthday celebrations a little differently than in the past. I told both boys that they could have a low-key party with friends near their birthday. We would obviously do something special on their actual birthday. Then we would have one joint party for both with family (their birthdays are about 5 weeks apart - May 28 and July 12 - so we'd land somewhere in the middle). Our families are in VA so I thought it would make it easier on family to come down once for both boys. And I'm not a big fan of family and friends at the same party, because I feel like family gets ignored.

Landon decided to have an outdoor movie party and sleepover. I went with a movie theme for his party: popcorn, theater candy, tickets, clapboard, etc.

I asked for the boys to be dropped off at 7pm (all 8 of them accepted the party invite!). We started with some outdoor play followed by cupcakes and gifts. The boys played a little more in the backyard waiting on it to get dark enough to begin the movie.

We set up a projector and screen in the backyard (thanks, cousin Matt for your IT assistance). Landon decided to watched Wall-E (hence the Wall-E cupcake toppers). I had sheets out for the boys to grab and sit on. They ate popcorn and candy while they watched the movie. We also pulled out some glow sticks.

After the movie (around 10ish), the boys came inside and piled up side-by-side in the living room floor in sleeping bags. They finally fell asleep around 11 and woke around 6ish!

I sent them outside pretty early to play, then they enjoyed a breakfast of bagels, fruit, and juice (those boys almost ate me out of house and home!). They were picked up by 10am and took home a cute favor that was an awesome idea, but super poor execution. :) We planted small cucumber plants in cups with a "plant sample" tag to mimic the plant in Wall-E. But we waited until the morning of the party to transplant them and they were in shock. I'm pretty sure they all died before the boys could plant them at home. LOL

The boys seemed to have a great time, and we're definitely going to have more backyard movie nights!