Week 3: Where we are and what we're doing this week! Part 1: Eli's 4th Birthday!

On Monday, my first baby turned 4! We had an amazing day together. We started the day in Riverfront Park in Spokane with cousins. We rode the carousel:

 

And the Gondolas:

And went to the IMAX movie about wild monkeys (which Eli found completely hilarious).

We also played at the splash pad, rode on the big slide, fed garbage to the garbage eating goat (don't worry people, it's a metal trash dispenser shaped like a goat), and had a picnic lunch. Fun fun morning!

We hurried back home to get ready for the party that evening. I asked Eli several months ago what kind of party he would like, and he said a "hero" party, like the one in Winnie the Pooh. So that is what we did! Here is what I came up with:


We had an outdoor party to simulate the party they had on the movie.

 
 

We had flags and party whistles at each place setting. During dinner, we took turns talking about why Eli is a hero, and then would wave our flags/blow whistles to cheer for him. :)

 

 

 

I put together a dinner/dessert family style, based on some fun Winnie the Pooh themes I found on pinterest/adapted for this party:

 

 

I also made several "honeybees" out of yellow and black pom poms, white cardstock and some hot glue. They were mostly to use on the piñata, but I used them as table/food décor as well:

 

Finally, I asked Eli if he wanted a Winnie the Pooh cake, or a cake like the one they have in the movie (pink cake with chocolate frosting) and he said that's what he wanted. (Not going to lie, I was a little relieved. It was the MUCH easier of the two options!) Here's the "hero cake"

 

 

Credit to the amazing frosting job actually goes to my mom. Here's a shot of the whole spread:

It was a little crowded with so many of us at the table AND all the food, but I wanted it that way because it was most like the movie. All in all, I was pretty excited about how it all turned out!

Next, we had "Pooh" themed party hats, that Eli got to hand out based on who he wanted to be which characters. I saw this idea on pinterest for pooh and piglet, then adapted the rest based on pictures of the characters I found online. I used regular party hats and wrapped colored cardstock around them, then drew the faces on with black sharpie markers. If you look too closely you'll see all of my glue smears and marker mess-ups, but all in all, I was pretty pleased with the finished product here too. And most importantly, Eli loved handing them out and playing with them. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In attendance we had Otto, Eli, Alayna and I, my parents, my youngest brother Sam, my Grandparents (Eli's great grandparents), my Aunt Carmen, her daughter (my cousin) Amy, her husband Adam, and their three kids Ruby, Vivi, and Porter. We had such a great time!

 

 

You have to love the tigger hat and cowboy hat combo. :)

 

 

Cute little grubby face

 

Adam, Ruby and Amy

 

My parents

Cute little Porter

 

Sam, making faces.

 

Carmen, Vivi, and Ruby.

 

And of course, this cute little birthday pooh bear:

 

 

Eli and Vivi are only a few months apart and they have had so much fun playing together!

 

 

After dinner, we broke the piñata. I made this just by using a regular balloon as the base (with the typical newspaper strips+flour/water combo) and then covering with yellow tissue paper and the honeybees.

 

 

The kids had a lot of fun with it:

 

 

Then we had a "hero" parade (copied from the movie) complete with throwing Eli in the blanket at the end. He enjoyed this very much. :)

 

 

 

As if we hadn't had enough sugar already, we blew out candles and cut into the hero cake:

 

 

Then we finished up with presents:

 

 

All in all, it was a tiring:

 

 

but happy day!

Happy FOUR years to my happy grown up little man!