A Surprise Party For Grant

Grant had never had a friend birthday party before. We have only done immediate family ones and occasionally the neighbor's two kids would come over and join us but with six siblings you don't need a lot of other people around to help you celebrate.  About two months ago Grant let it be known that this year he wanted a "friend" party for his birthday so we started making plans.  The most important part of the plan was that we would hold his party before the school year was out even though his birthday isn't until July.  Having a summer birthday I know how hard it is to catch people in town to actually come to your party. Next I got a list out of him of who he would want to come to this party.  Then I just kept stalling.  Actually I pretty much forgot about it until a few weeks later he reminded me. Then I decided I wanted to do a surprise party.  So that is what I did.

It was easy coming up with excuses as to why we hadn't planned his party yet. Every weekend seemed to have something on it so it was hard to schedule a party. I finally let him pick June 25th even though unbeknown to him he had already hand delivered his invitations to his teacher so she could sneak them into the invitee's backpacks.  I'm a sneaky one. 

Being a digital scrapbooker I have access to some of the cutest scrap designs out there and I used one of those to make these darling invitations. Grant had boys and girls on his list so I wanted a bug theme that wouldn't totally gross out a little girl.  I thought these turned out perfect.

I used the same glass jar design to make the Happy Birthday banner. Isn't it just too cute?  We actually hung balloons up with it before the party so it was even more festive.

I saw these adorable strawberry ladybugs on a blog somewhere and knew they would be perfect for our "not a gross bug" party. The kids loved them.

I found these cute little bug catchers at the dollar store and knew they would make perfect "gift bags" for the kids to take all their goodies home in. I put in a wind up ladybug, make-a-bug fruit snacks, a bug puzzle and a small magnifying glass to hunt for bugs with.

Grant takes piano lessons on Saturday mornings so it was the perfect time to sneak 6 little kids into the house undetected. Because it was 9:30 in the morning I served homemade cinnamon rolls instead of cake.

 When Grant got to the top of the stairs all the kids jumped up and yelled surprise! At first Grant had a look of bewilderment on his face. Kind of like, "What are you all doing here?"

 But then he realized what was happening and the excitement took over. I wish I had a better picture of this but the kids were so excited they literally attacked him.

 I don't think that smile left his face the whole party. Is that a happy kid or what?

After breakfast I gave the kids each a toilet paper roll and a whole bunch of craft stuff and let them go crazy building their own bug.  Well, some built bugs. Grant built a train, another kids made a baby bottle and one little girl wanted to make a gun. Ummmm, no.  They had a lot of fun being creative.  Then it was time to open presents. I'm not posting those pictures because they have other people's children in them and I don't have permission to do that. Let's just say he LOVED every thing he got. Everyone picked out the perfect toys. I was very pleased that all of them were mother approved.
When that fun was all done we went outside where the kids shot rubber frog finger sling shots to see who's would go the farthest. Yes, I know frogs aren't bugs but they eat bugs so that was close enough for me.  Then they just hung out on the swing set until their parents showed up.

It was a great party!!!  They all had so much fun. I love the fact that my kids don't need to go to a bouncy house or a pool or a "fun" center to have fun at their parties. Sometimes home is the very best place to be and with a little creativity it is easy to entertain and please a house full of second graders.

The best part of the whole thing, okay there were two great parts. The first one was the many, many thanks I got from my seven year old son. He was so happy and thanked me numerous times for having a party for him.  The second was what he said to me later that night..."mom, next year for my surprise party..."   I love it!