Joseph's 3rd Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUPER JOSEPH

Oh, my goodness, this will be quite the post.  I'm usually pretty relaxed with birthdays, but for some reason this party idea just hit me and I couldn't imagine not doing it.  Little did I know how much I had taken on when I chose to do what we did.

It turned out super amazing, but it was a lot of hard work.  I was so glad we got so many pix and videos.  So be prepared for an onslaught of cuteness and fun!  Don't say I didn't warn you!

We began with some fun/easy homemade invitations.  Joseph's favorite thing for this time is superheroes!

these were easy and fun to do-I'm sure I could have gotten professional ones done

but I was more focused on the actual party part.

Next, we went with the special instructions at the bottom of each invitation: to dress as your favorite super hero.  That meant that our family needed their costumes.  I chose to do the whole "super" family theme.  So each family member was made a super shirt of some kind.  All except for Chris who chose to be Thor from the recent movie.

this was fun and easy, just time consuming!

I was so proud of myself.  Right up until the night before, I was finishing up these costumes.  Chris was made a Thor-like cape complete with gold bars and folds of "power".  He loved it.  Joseph, Eve, Liz, me and even little Ally all had "super" crests made and sewn on blue shirts.  Then I made simple capes from a youtube video I found.

I'd never done so much sewing in such a short time.  I was really surprised by my skills (not to brag, but homemade has not always been my specialty).  They turned out pretty good, what do you think?

So when the day finally arrived we were prepared with fun games (three to be specific), a great cake, some great theme music (thanks to Chris/Thor), and some wonderful friends.  Most of Joe's friends are family friends as well, so moms and dads, brothers and sisters were all invited to the party.

I worked hard to get this all set up and it turned out just fine.

everyone just played on the swing set when they got there!

Tina Kirby and Mindy Catron - my friends!!

Kendra Elliott and Anna Miller - a mom is a mom, right kids?!

We did some fun decorating to help add to the whole party and then we began the games.  Daddy was our evil villain for games and he did such a great job, we had to de-evil him somewhat.  His big voice and scary villain costume frightened most of the kids.  I say most because our Fosburg kids recognized daddy right away.  Even Ally wasn't scared!

Our first game was rescuing the princess since that's what every super hero must do.  There is always someone in need of resuce.  The villain came and stole a princess doll and took her away.  This was a simple obstacle course that they had to go through.  We took some pix and a video or two.

The next game was hot potatoe "kryptonite".  The villain showed up again and tried to defeat our superheroes by throwing kryptonite into their midst. We played the music made by daddy and stopped it and then the kid holding the kryptonite was affected and had to go stand in the sunshine to power up again.

each kid got a super hero sticker when they were done

"powering up"

The third and final game was a treasure hunt.  Our evil villain (man, he was busy today) came and stole our cake just as we were getting ready to sing happy birthday.  So using the batman clues (he's a super smart superhero) at special locations, we were able to recover the cake, beat the villain, and sing happy birthday.

The kids had a great time, the cake was almost gone, the presents were perfect, and everyone enjoyed the event.

it was quite a windy day and the candles kept going out!

then we all munched some SUPER cake!

can you tell if Liz liked it?

Then we opened some presents once we got everyone cleaned up and looking all super again.  Joseph got some really great boy toys!  It was nice not to see sparkles, pink, or a princess the whole day.  I love my girls, but it was fun to be boyish for a day!

Thor is helping hand out gifts for our little superman

the kids were all so excited to see what he got, we could barely get pix!

he actually was really excited about getting books!  One of the only kids I know.

he liked daddy's Thor hammer so much, daddy let him burst

through the paper for this one!

he kept giving hugs after each gift.  it was really sweet.

Joseph is such a sweet brother.  After everyone went home and we all took a rest, he pulled out all his new toys and books for EVERYONE to play.  He is a great kid and a very good sharer!  Gotta have atleast one in the family!

that's a giant pirate ship and crew.  so cute!

Lizzy is playing with his new Thor and Spiderman figures!

By the end I was so glad to be done!  It turned out pretty great and "super" if I do say so myself.  Thankfully, it's a whole year until his next birthday.  Yeah, for Joe!