Grant's 6th Birthday

Grant has a friend from his class at school named Carlos, and they are the best of buddies. There has been a few times when I have gone into his class to drop him off after an appointment or pick him up early for an appointment and Carlos is always very concerned about where he is going or why he wasn't on the bus that morning. One day he told me "Thanks for bringing my friend Grant back to school." That kid just melts my heart! Such a sweetie! So I decided quite a few months before Grant's birthday that I wanted to invite Carlos to his party. I thought it would be a little weird to just invite him to our family party that we always do, so I decided that it was about time that Grant had a friend party. We invited some kids from his school and church class. 14 kids total were invited. And all but 2 came!

It's always hard to think up a theme for Grant's parties since he can't really tell me what he likes. So I decided that since one of his favorite things is music, we were going to have a musical party. I made his invitation on a cd label and then burned one of his favorite cd's for each of the kids. I think the invitations turned out really cute! By far my favorite part about the party!

The table was set with a craft project for each kid to do. Each person got a paper plate tambourine, a water bottle trumpet, and a toilet paper kazoo. They got to decorate each item with foam stickers and curly ribbon.

Trey with his finished tambourine.

Carlos thought it was way more fun decorating Grant rather than his instruments. :)

Next we played pass the maraca. Kind of like a hot potato, but with a maraca that you had to shake before passing it to your neighbor.

Then came present time. Grant got lots of fun presents. Somehow Trey knew that Grant loved ice cream and got him some pies to go along with his ice cream.

Carlos decided that present time wasn't as much fun as clearing all the foam stickers off the table and pretending that it was snowing foam stickers.

But pizza and cupcakes came shortly after and that made him a happy boy!

I made ice cream cone cupcakes that were supposed to resemble a microphone.

Grant LOVES the Happy Birthday song! I have a ring tone of that song on my phone that we play for him when he's sad. Puts a smile back on his face pretty quickly. I think it makes him think of cake and ice cream...two of his favorite things.

Wyatt, Trey, and Grant. I invited Grant's girlfriend Savannah, but she wasn't able to come. That would have been 4 wheelchairs in the house though and would have really pushed the space issue. :) Aren't they 3 handsome little boys!

On Sunday we had the family over for cake and ice cream during halftime of the Super Bowl. I continued the music theme and made him a guitar cake. While I did cheat a little and used a guitar shaped cake pan, I still decorated it myself. I think it turned out pretty cute!

More presents! He was one spoiled little boy!

A big smile for the money from Grandma and Grandpa Gallier. $6 for 6 years old.

A cd case from Grandma and Grandpa Dorene to put all his cd's in.

And some cool converse shoes from mom and dad.

And of course more cake and ice cream for Granty!

Hallie loved it too!

I think he had a great birthday! As for me, I definitely learned a few things about having a friend party for Grant. The next time I do, there will be fewer kids and a shorter length of partying time. I'm glad we did it, but there won't be another one next year! :)