Royal Knight 5th Birthday Party

I can't believe it myself but my little guy turned 5 in November!! I am excited to blog about his Royal Knight Birthday Party because it was his first 'friends' birthday party at our house and I thought it was great success!!

I found a similar design on Etsy so I hand made the template for the top of the 'castle pennant' and also hand drew the shield. This was my first banner using the cricut but those dragons I hand cut out, which was a pain so I only did two! And I love it!

These party hats are made by one of my favorite party sites called Meri Meri If you haven't checked it out, you might just want to plan a party around one of their ideas. It's that cute!

The royal cups were bought inexpensive at Oriental Trading

Cupcakes of course were from....you guessed it! Sweet Tree's Cottage Bakery

The Castle cupcake display is also from Oriental Trading

Foam swords (perfect in case boys actually do hit each other with them, cause they are very soft) from Aliexpress

Invites made by Nealon Design

She made two invites for me cause she is that great! One for his family birthday party and one for the friends. They were both so adorable that I couldn't decide and she was gracious enough to let me have both designs!!

Cookies also from Sweet Tree's Cottage Bakery

Candy from Party City to match the theme colors

Shields were cut out of foam board for the kids to decorate themselves. I bought stickers, fuzzy balls, glue sticks, and markers for the activity.

That's my birthday boy telling some funny story I am sure.

The boys were so excited for Austin to open their gifts that I could barely see what he even got.

hmmm wonder what that gift was......

Time for some group shots!

En garde!

Birthday Boy (below) and the others are his friends from school and the neighborhood.

A fun time was had by all!!

Why I love Great Wolf at Halloween

This is our 2nd year going to Great Wolf near Halloween. Hopefully this becomes a yearly trip for our family. Although this is the well slept Mommy talking. Typically I wake up the morning after and think....ugh, why do I do this again? I say that because not even ear plugs could help me sleep between Austin grinding his teeth and coughing, keeping me awake the entire night. But lack of sleep doesn't compare to the huge smiles and tons of laughter and fun we have.

The trick or treating is always fun at night. Gets us out of the water park and kids get a chance to wear their costumes and trick or treat since every year, the crummy weather keeps us from truly trick or treating at home.

I am pretty convinced Austin only picked out this Spartan costume because it came with a shield and a sword. And its pretty obvious why Ava continues to be Elsa for every possible dress up opportunity.

Last year we were there early enough to watch the balloon Frankenstein be put together. It was really interesting watching the guy work. This year, the dragon greeted us from the door. It's absolutely HUGE!

Everyone dresses up, even the parents. Doesn't Buddy the Elf look really excited!?

I didn't take very many pictures this year. I don't really want to bring my camera into the water park and the lighting of course in this place is horrible. I took more cell phone pics than anything really. But I kinda needed some photos to at least blog about the great time we had.

I also love the drive up north around Halloween because the colors of the trees are beautiful.

The kids enjoyed the water park even more, being one year older. Austin was big enough to go on some of the inner tube rides with adults. They both really enjoyed the big slides this year. I would say their favorite thing was swimming in the bigger hot tub. They didn't need to wear their swimmies because they could both touch and Austin loved to show off his awesome swimming skills in a smaller space.

Looking forward to heading back next year!