The Rocket Party Aftermath

Henry's rocket party was an absolute blast! The boys were so sad to see our huge robot go, though. I think they thought we could keep it forever!

As our friends were leaving and I was passing out party favors, Henry asked where his was. I pointed at the mound of gifts in the library, which he hadn't even noticed! Henry started tearing into the presents right away!

Henry got all kinds of goodies, like some cool new puzzles,a new game to play with Gramma and Grampa,

space stickers,

and even a remote-controlled dump truck!

Can you believe this is our first remote-controlled toy at our house? Will is obsessed.

Whew! We were beat after this party!

A tired mommy with her big boy.

The boys were pumped up and still going strong!

It was the perfect day for my birthday boy!

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Henry is three years old today! The date is 3/21 (like 3-2-1, blast off!), which is so perfect for my rocket-loving little boy! We spent the day in Galveston and had an insanely fun (though exhausting!) time. I have more party pics and Galveston photos to come, but first we need to sleep. Happy birthday to my favorite three year old (even if he insists that he'll be four tomorrow!).

The Rocket Party

Henry's rocket party was so much fun! For the first year, we didn't have to cancel the party or completely change it up at the last minute. No one was sick, the weather cooperated and it was just a beautiful day. The only hitch? Highway 59 was closed and everyone coming from the north side of town got stuck in traffic.

We set up tables on the driveway and let the kids decorate paper robots that I found at Michaels. Here are Chloe and Will,

sweet Bella,

adorable Addison,

and Eli in an awesome astronaut shirt!

A finished robot. Love the googly eyes on the legs (which several kids did!).We've never rented a bounce house before, but this moonwalk was a huge hit with the kiddos!

Adam loved the rocket toys inside.

Will and Chloe were stuck to each other like glue for the entire party. What cuties they are!
Finally, it was cupcake time! This is what Henry had been waiting for all day!

Yummy cupcakes
and a happy happy Henry!

All the kiddos ate their cupcakes on their rocket plates.

What a fun rocket party!

Getting Ready for the Rocket Party

We celebrated Henry's third birthday yesterday with a ROCKET party! I love birthday parties and always start planning them months in advance. I knew I wanted to do a rocket party for Henry, so I started looking around on etsy and when I found these rocket cupcake toppers, I knew they would be perfect. They inspired the colors and look for the whole party.

My talented friend Ally designed the birthday invitations and thank you notes to match the cupcake toppers. She always does a fantastic job!

We kept the decor really simple. My parents and I cut out all these stars and rockets and hung them from the chandeliers in the dining room and the breakfast nook. I think they ended up being really cute!

My parents also helped me make the party favor bags.

We filled them with a rocket CD, rocket stickers, Milky Way minis and a rocket plate.

I picked the songs for the CD but Gene designed the cover and made all the CDs. He does such a good job with it every year!

And you can't have a rocket party without a rocket t-shirt for the birthday boy. I found this rocket t-shirt on etsy. It's subtle, but perfect for my rocket-loving boy!
This year, we decided to make our own cupcakes. Henry insisted on helping.He is such a good little helper in the kitchen!
My dad frosted the cupcakes for me and we topped them with those cute cupcake toppers.
I didn't get a good picture of the food table, but we used Henry's rocket ship as a centerpiece and had Chick-Fil-A nuggets, fruit, bagged crackers, and star-shaped pb&j sandwiches.
For entertainment, we set up a table on the driveway for the kids to decorate paper robots and also rented this HUGE robot moonwalk.

The boys loved playing in their bounce house! It was delivered more than 24 hours before the party, so it was well-used and well-loved by my little guys!

This is the view of the moonwalk from my bedroom window (on the second floor!). It was really tall!
Henry's rocket party was our first official party at the new house and it was a great motivator to get the house together. We owe a huge thank you to my parents, who spent two full days touching up paint throughout the house (no easy task since the previous owners didn't label their paint cans!), hanging pictures, unpacking and displaying some of our decorative items, and helping clean and tidy up. Thank you so much, Mom and Dad. We could not have done this without all your help!

Wild and Crazy

If you have boys, you know that they can be wild and crazy! My boys are absolutely no exception. They literally run in circles in my house and have insane amounts of energy. They are hard to keep up with, they get hurt all the time, and they exhaust me and drive me crazy on a daily basis, but they are two of the sweetest boys ever and I wouldn't have it any other way!

My mother-in-law took these pictures of the boys before Christmas. They were wrestling in Nana and Pop's backyard, using up some of that endless energy (where do they get it??), and having a blast.

These next two pictures perfectly capture the boys' abundant energy. Here I am getting a sweet hug from my niece while Gene is trying to corral my crazy boys in the background. Typical!

But it's not wild and crazy all the time. We have our peaceful moments too, like when we're reading books, which we do a lot. I just took this picture yesterday. Will was eating some of his conversation hearts from Valentine's Day and asked me to take his picture. Sweet boy. Wild and crazy, sweet and loving. That's my life with these two beautiful, energetic, amazing little boys.

Ship's Rules

Every pirate ship needs a set of rules, so Will, Henry and Daddy set out to record our ship's rules in chalk on the driveway.
Gene was going to write them all but Will insisted on doing it, even though he had to use his left hand because his right thumb is still heavily bandaged!
Here are the rules, as written by Pirate Will.
In case you can't read them, they are:
1. Eat lemons.
2. Hoist sails.
3. Find treasure.
4. Pretend not to be pirates.
I love that "eat lemons" is the first rule and that both my boys know all about scurvy and how to prevent it!
Think you can follow our rules? Then come aboard our pirate ship! We have some pretty amazing pirate adventures around here!