The 4th Birthday UN-Party

Well, I got a little sick the last few weeks. And by a little sick I mean I made a trip into emerg in the middle of the night last Saturday and got screened for sepsis (not something you want to have). I've been cleared of any and all infections, and after 5 days my fever finally broke... and then I got such a bad sinus cold I'm surprised my face isn't puffy from all the junk inside. I'm so congested, I can't even open my jaw fully. Awesome.
Anyway, I got home from the hospital at 4:40 Sunday morning last week and thought, "I'm supposed to throw a birthday party for my kid in 6 days????" What's more, we had invited about a dozen kids, between the ages of 2 and 5. Scary. So I did the wise thing, and I cancelled the party. I felt bad for my little boy, but planned on still doing something that would make it feel like his birthday.
So what does a planning Momma do when she hasn't got the energy to even sit upright? She enlists help. And my Mother and my sister more than rose to the occasion by offering up houses, running errands, giving opinions and even doing labour for me. We had Gabe's 2 cousins come for his UN-party, which was held at my parents' house on Saturday. There were a couple things I had arranged before I cancelled the original party: I had made tunics for my two younger boys to wear, and matching flags for decoration. I had also planned a bunch of games. We decorated the inside of the house with bunting made from two plastic dollar store tablecloths, which we cut into long strands of triangles. There were enough from the two tablecloths to decorate both inside and outside. I reused the quidditch hoop I'd made for my sister's Harry Potter party to be a jousting target. I'd also collected boxes for a month to make a life-sized Angry 'Dragons' game, where the kids threw foam balls that my sister had drawn snarling dragons on. My dad printed out a giant dragon which we stuck to cardboard and used for Pin the Flames on the Dragon, and then had the kids throw water balloons at it to 'put the fire out'. My dad also took the initiative to cut out cardboard shields and wrap them in duct tape so the kids could decorate and then play with them.
We even turned on a short movie: The Reluctant Dragon (an oldie, but a goodie)
For snack the kids had cotton candy served in sugar cones, and then a cake which I had ordered from the grocery store that we stuck a knight figurine on.

If my boy were turning 7, would he have thought that the party was lame? Maybe. But fortunately, he was turning 4, so he thought it was the most fantastic party ever. And I didn't even have to have a whole load of cleverly-thematic food, or goodie bags, or anything like that. We dressed up, we had sword fights with pool noodles, and we had cake.
Not bad for an UN-Party.

Mrs. VanderLeek ;)