By Holly Sosa
Over the weekend, we had a big Ninja Turtle birthday celebration for my stepson, Aiden. I’ll be honest, with the end of the school year here, our family vacation on the horizon, and another family trip before that, planning a party was sounding a lot like work and less like fun. But I am so glad I’m as passionate as I am about parties and celebrations because Aiden just beams with love and pride when he is paid attention to a little extra. Since we do have several events coming up, I kept things a little simpler than I usually do with my birthday celebrations.
Instead of hand making ninja masks, I bought them from the party store along with some silly string, which I just called Shredder Shooter before sending the kids outside with Nanny and Garnddad to get crazy with it. I’m so blessed to have kids who genuinely just love and appreciate everything, even if it’s store bought. I think Aiden knew my labor of love was genuine, even if I didn’t spend extra hours making ninja masks.
We had a popcorn machine that my mom had bought for Collin’s first birthday and I bought some special popcorn seasonings for it and let the boys each have a turn with it. Can we pause for a moment to dream about how fun summer movie night will be with this machine?! I cannot even wait.
For games, we pulled out some of our board games from our collection. A fishing game and bean bag toss tic tac toe. But the game the kids enjoyed the most wasn’t even a game at all, it was balloons. Shooting them at one another, tossing them in the air, and beach balling them all over the place. My ceiling fans took a beating.
I didn’t make the cake this year and instead bought a super rad tie dye cake from the store. I added some ninja flair to it and it was actually way cooler than any cake I could have made. Just look at that bright smile.
There were presents and the ceremonious opening of the gifts, but I didn’t take any photos. It seems that Jacob and I take party duties with even needing to communicate. He is the cake helper, lighting candles and removing them. I am the present helper, picking up scraps of paper after each gift is torn into. I was too wrapped up in present duties to remember to take photos, but here is a picture of Evelyn enjoying one of his gifts: a cherry red bean bag chair perfect for his reading nook in his bedroom.
More birthday celebration happenings.
The now five year old birthday boy in his Ninja Turtle glory. Thanks for putting up with these pictures each year, kiddo. This stepmama of yours is hell bent on getting the yearly birthday photo and you didn’t complain….too much.
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