a little boys "Skylanders" birthday party

earlier this month, I had the boys combined birthday party. their birthdays are less than a month apart. and i do it because I can still get away with it and they don't really mind. it's really more of a convenience and a $-saver if you ask me. 

I love going all out on their birthdays but this time around, 1. didn't have time, energy (we barely finished unpacking and moping floors from the big move) or the cash and 2. just a few guests and family were able to make it.

but first, babies. because duh. 

elena and leo together again after weeks of being apart! she is not even 6 months here and already was sitting up and going backwards in her walker like a champ. and leo is {  this  } close to walking! 

ok, back to birthday stuff. i made a pinterest board for inspiration and had a few ideas to gather from it. i was surprised that there's not a lot of pinned Skylander stuff on there! it didn't matter, I needed to keep it simple-ish.
i made cut out clouds that were attached to a sheer blue ribbon and hung them from our freshly painted smooth ceilings guys, i pretty much had a mini-heart attack sticking them on and taking them down.
the boys had all these Skylander decals which i thought were perfect and told them to go to town with them on the wall! 

i would have loved to make a "portal" cake which the figures use in the game to switch from character to character but ehhhh.....sometimes easy and pretty is better, isn't it? they absolutely loved those sprinkles.

i made sugar cookies with the elements from the characters--there's 8 designs total--and i pretty much stayed up the night before icing these puppies. the boys thought they were the coolest.

rock candy for the earth element:

i ordered this tissue paper grass from ebay eons ago for my sister's baby shower. it fit pretty well with the Skylands theme and was for the life element. i was pretty lucky i found it during our house-move too! andrew had a little trouble accepting the 'fake' grass was touching the base of his cake...he hates itchy grass fyi.

and happy trigger (my favorite) provided all the goodies. games would have been fun at this point, i found some really fun ones here--she goes all out--but yeah...remember, simple?

the food table had power-up pizza, blast-zone watermelon, pop-o-sheep (popcorn), and some level-up kool-aid. i slaved over those tassels y'all....

we were pretty lucky that it was overcast and the rain never came, so we put on our suits and went outside to the water slide! 

below is my most favorite, coveted picture of all time--the moms. and if you notice in the background, their children, now married for almost 7 years. i heart this picture. 

real life, people.

then it was time to dry off and get to the cake. 

a three-layer cake with chocolate, yellow cake, chocolate layers. blue vanilla filling and vanilla cream cheese frosting and sprinkles on top--too much sugar? not. at. all.

every. single. cake this boy has, he wants to dip his face into. it is an old mexican tradition that he's grown to love because, why not? it's pretty funny and disgusting, you should try it.

all my little people into one single photo...i'm not sure why andrew looks so sour. it might possibly be because he was told to wait to open presents {hehehe}.

now we're talking....

and since there was no piñata for the event (i really wanted to make Eruptor since he would have been so easy to do), tia Dawna came through with miniature ones filled with coins, glitter and confetti. 

the boys were happy that day. happy. because their family was here (man, they sure do love their cousins) and because they got all the sweet treats and characters for their video games. we are lucky for all the love they give us and soooo thankful for this life. we do not take that for granted one bit. 

being boys, of course, and making silly faces. i love how they progress on their expressions and experiment with them through the years--it makes for funny photos. 

"now boys, how old are you?"

"ummm..."

"6!"

"4!"

"but Andrew, you're holding up 7!"

there we go, that's better! 

and after being done with cake, water time and gifts it was onto the next thing. a perk of the new house? a playground just right across the street. perfect. 

gary thought the boys would like to play some football, but after they saw how skillful he was, they decided the merry-go-round was the better choice.

things settled down a bit and little girl was worn out (me too but i couldn't really nap, now could I?) 

it was a great birthday party no matter how small it was. 

do you go out on your kids birthday parties? how do you decide what theme you're doing? if you do a Skylanders party let me know--i would love to check it out!

have a great weekend!