Ninja Training for Cade's 6th Birthday Party

We hosted Cade's 6th birthday party at the studio where he takes karate, and it was AWESOME! The husband and wife that run the studio do an amazing job with parties... they offer a high-energy warm up, a mini-karate lesson, a ninja training obstacle course, and board breaking practice at the end. We were so happy that friends from many parts of Cade's life were able to attend - preschool, kindergarten, karate, church, and neighbors. And it was so fun to socialize with the parents and grandparents that were there to watch too. This was the first birthday party where other people really handled all the details once we got there. Amazing! I really enjoyed chatting with everyone, so I wasn't as good about taking pictures as I should have been. But I really enjoyed getting to watch!

A few words about our preparation:

In keeping with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme, all snacks were appropriately colored to match the Ninja Turtle headband colors: Purple grapes for Donatello, orange cheese puffs for Michaelangelo, pretzels in a red bowl for Rafael, and blue capri suns for Leonardo. We also had a cookie cake decorated like a pizza since it was too early for the real thing. After an epic fail attempt at making homemade slime for the favors, we decided to give the kids orange, red, blue, and purple Gatorade on their way out. It was a hit!

Here are all the little ninjas


Since this blog is really my only method of record keeping, I'll list the kids names here. As much as I feel like I will always remember them, I'm afraid that if I continue to get so little sleep that these precious memories will fade. Front row, l-r: Carter, Lorelai, and Kayla; back row, l-r: Jackson, Carlos, Will, Luke, Jake, Davis, Cole, Gavin, Cade, Garrett, Calvin, Weston, Conner, Jace, and Jaden.

Singing Happy Birthday



Developing their ninja skills by listening to the instructors, doing crunches, punching, kicking, jumping, and balancing.




And our littlest guest had fun too... she even had a Ninja Turtles shirt!



Cade grinned from ear to ear during the entire party, so it is safe to say that it was a success. We absolutely love seeing our boy have so much fun. Happy 6th birthday, buddy. May this year bring you your heart's desire of fun, adventures, learning, and love.