Our boy's 5th birthday party

This past weekend we celebrated Blue Rock's 5th birthday! He wanted to have the same party as last year, at our house, mainly in our backyard with our water slide and all his friends. He also wanted the same cake as last year. We ordered one from Costco. I'm glad he liked his party so much last year he wanted the same one again. This year we added a few new things. We added a climbing dome, which was his big present from us this year, a sandbox, a balance beam, and a slip-n-slide. There was also a little baby pool that we set up a water balloon station in.  This was kind of a last minute thing and I think every kid made their own water balloons and liked that station. Blue Rock said making water balloons was one of his favorite things to do at the party. We had a few things planned for the kids to do during the party. However, the kids were having so much fun doing different things that we ended up just letting the kids play and not doing any structured activities. The kids had a great time. We had quite a crowd, 46 people came, 23 adults, and 23 kids, this was after 16 people were unable to come the morning of. We served lunch, cake, and ice cream. I love having home birthday parties. They are so much fun!

This is how we set up our son's 5th birthday backyard party.

My husband and then later my dad grilled the hot dogs. I think they cooked around 60. We were planning for 75 people so we have quite a lot left over! We kept the food inside for people to make their plates, less flies and bugs. There were hot dogs, chips, cantaloupe, honey dew, watermelon, grapes, carrots, broccoli, and tomatoes. I had a drink station outside with two pitchers of tea and a large ice chest with lots of bottle water and boxed juices. Also there were bags of ice for the tea. We had 4 tables set up outside and lots of chairs around the tables and around the backyard.

When people arrived, we had them fix their plates inside and then head outside (or stay inside) to eat. We had the kitchen table and dining room table available if anyone wanted to eat inside. Some ate in the kitchen but most people ate outside.

Then the kids played and played. We were planning on having a relay and a water balloon toss. I had also hoped to make a water balloon pinata but ended up running out of time. The kids had so much fun making water balloons and some would throw them at each other off and on throughout the party that we didn't do an official water balloon toss.

We had a big water slide. Our backyard isn't big enough to rent one of those huge ones. Thankfully we love our slide, it is 10 ft tall and perfect for kids from about 3 and up and fits well in our backyard.  This was our son's birthday present last year. We have a big trampoline, a sandbox, balance beam, slip-n-slide, and a climbing dome. 

Around 1pm we brought out the cake, sang "Happy Birthday" and served the cake with little cups of Blue Bell Ice Cream.

We decided to let him open his gifts after everyone left. Although he did get to open a few while some of the kids were there because they wanted to watch him open their gift. It was sweet. He loved everything he got. We kept the party favors outside this year so I wouldn't forget to hand them out. Each bag had two plane gliders, a big balloon on a rubber band, a birthday party blow thing, and a stamp.

His birthday is in a few days so I'll write a 5-year update then. Here are lots of pictures from his party and you can see how things were set up. I LOVE this boy and all his sweet friends and their parents!!