Gilly's birthday party

Who is Gilly you ask? Gilly is the clay snake Liam made on Tuesday. Apparently, after of months of begging for a birthday party, Liam got a little stage fright when it actually came time for his birthday. So we celebrated Gilly's instead.

Meet Gilly. He's a snake, if you can't tell.

Since this is Liam's first birthday party that he can remember, I didn't want to overload him with kids. So I invited over my brother, his wife, and their two kids, Caitlin and Dylan.  First the kids decorated shields. 

If I had thought about it beforehand, I'd probably have glued some poster board over the cardboard to make it white and easier to colour on. 

Next they ran an obstacle course. First they can to crawl through the tunnel to sneak past the wicked witch, then ride horses through the woods, catapult bean bags at the castle so the drawbridge would come down, fight their way through the evil knights and ninjas, and kill the dragon at the end for the treasure.

The full gamut.

Sneaking past the witch.

Riding the horses through the woods.

Caitlin had a little hoop skirt in her dress. HOW CUTE IS THAT?

Dylan riding, and Caitlin and Liam preparing to throw bean bags at the fortress.

The moat and draw bridge

Storming the castle

You can see the corpses of the knights in the background. They were Mylar balloons with helmets and faces drawn on them.

Attacking the dragon. We bought Liam a nice foam injected sword, but he rejected it for a stick.

If it wasn't for Dylan, we'd still be working on the pinata.

Food: teriyaki chicken, lemon garlic shrimp, strawberries, grilled pineapples, marinated tomatoes and baguettes, smoked salmon carpaccio, missing: mandu (potstickers)

Wonderful time was had by one and all, but I'm so glad that it's over. I'm now going to go die on the couch.

Today I:

Took Alana to speech therapy

Drove to TWO different Dollar Trees for balloons since one was out of helium (seriously?!?)

Came home and cooked and cooked and cooked and cooked.