When we talked to Easton about a birthday party a few months ago, he said he wanted to share his party with Landon, and Landon agreed. At first I tried to talk them out of a joint party, even though they have some of the same friends. Landon finally said, "Mom, we are BEST FRIENDS." (In a duh, don't you know we love each other kind of tone). I could not say no to that, so we decided to do a joint birthday party in between March and May when both their birthdays are. We waited till May, for good weather.
After they decided on a joint birthday party, I asked them what kind of a party they wanted. They discussed it and decided on a Christmas party. Again, I tried to explain that we probably wouldn't have the party till close to May, but they still liked the Christmas idea, and I realized It would be easy to get out a few of our Christmas decorations, and the wrapping paper, hats, etc I needed were 75% off in January when I got them. The whole party was done in under 25 dollars and it was fun and easy to do. The boys were super excited about it!
Here are the invitations:
The outside of the house:
If they don't already think it, I am sure the neighbors think we are crazy, and wondering why we have a snowman on our porch in May. I don't even think we put lights out on our porch at Christmas time. :)
Coming into the party room:
Birthday banner:
The boys helped me hang lights, wreaths, and streamers from one side of the room, to the other. They like to help get things ready.
We made a Christmas ginger bread house. The boys each got to use their markers and decorate one of the cardboard trees with me:
There were no windows because we poked lights through the top, so they could see inside.
We had everyone bring a unisex gift for under 5 dollars instead of a birthday gift for the boys. We wanted to do a Christmas white elephant gift exchange so everyone could go home with a gift. Landon had the idea to start putting the gifts under the tree:
I was going to do a snowman cake, but since it was a "Christmas in May" theme, I thought it would be fun to have a snowman cake doing what snowman do in summer. :) I didn't want to do fondant for just the nose, so I warmed up some orange star burst so I could mold it into a nose like play dough.
Santa even gave Franklin permission to come join the festivities. The boys were so excited when they woke up this morning and saw him dressed like a cupcake. Franklin wrote a note that said:
Santa gave me permission to join your special day,
So, I will be at your party too! Hooray!
When this day is over to the North Pole I must run.
I just can't wait!
When the kids came in some of them waited for the others to arrive by decorating our tree with cookie cutters.
We started off with a present game where one child left the room, and we picked someone to hide under the present box. Then the 1st child would come back into the room and try to guess who was missing, from the group and hiding under the box.
Then we explained to the kids that they would be building toilet paper snowmen. They did a good job, and I think they turned out pretty cute!
After that, was cake:
Brothers!
The boys each picked a flavor for their cake. The went with red velvet, and vanilla, which worked out great for our Christmas theme. The icing was VERY black, messy, and left evidence around some of the kid's mouths, but yummy! :)
Then we did the white elephant gift exchange. These ladies (who are not all completely in the picture) were awesome to help with this activity, and the cake because it got a little crazy. :)
It was a beautiful day so, after the organized fun, we sent the kids out to play.
The aftermath! :) The boys had fun and were great at picking up after.
Landon and Easton both told me before bed that they wanted to do joint parties again next year. I am okay with that. It was a fun, kid filled day!
Oh my goodness! You've outdone yourself again! This is such a fun idea and I love how all the kids are so involved and look so happy. I especially love that the boys wanted to have a joint party because, after all, they're "best friends." You're the best!
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