Party time

In addition to the fun and games we had with family on his actual birthday, we decided that we'd also host a party so Eli could celebrate with his friends. I'd agreed to this task on the proviso that Eli would help out in getting everything ready and to his credit he was very helpful, especially when it came to tidying the place up (ie tidying up his toys!) and loading up the party bags. This year we went for colourful noodle boxes, with a couple of glow sticks sticking out the top (I thought that they looked great like chop sticks - aren't I clever? - although I'm not sure that anyone else made the connection).

Regardless, we were ready to party! We had about a dozen of Eli's friends over, mostly from school, and Eli loved it. We played a few games - first was dancing statues which was a closely run thing with Eli just being edged out from top spot (thankfully he didn't cry or even complain about not winning, which is surely a sign that he is getting older!).







...statues...

 ...not statues

After dancing statues we had a mintie hunt outside - I'd hid two packets of them throughout the garden. This time Eli came in third (second if you count the fact that he found some extras the following day), with one of his friends filling his pockets with 26 minties!

The final party game was a new creation of mine, sort of a slightly more grown up take on 'pin the tail on the donkey'. Here the kids used a nerf gun to shoot three darts at a target, with the closest to the target taking home the sharp shooters trophy. Eli had suggested that this game would be best if they still wore a blindfold, but in the interests of safety I decided that it would be best if they could see where they were shooting. All of the kids enjoyed this game and Eli came in second again - which, as he pointed out, meant that in the overall scheme of things he would have won the party games gold medal (yes, he is still just a little bit competitive).

After the games it was time for Cake #2 from Grandma and boy did she deliver the goods with this effort!

And here's Eli ready to blow out the candles (thankfully not the re-igniting type this time)!

The highlight of the party (for me at least) was when Eli gave his speech after cutting the cake. I'd asked him the day before to practice what he wanted to say, to make sure that could remember it all on the day. And here's pretty much what he said "Thank you everyone for coming and thank you for your presents. Thank you to Grandma and Grandad for making the cake and thank you to Grandma and Grandad for helping out. And thank you Dad for ...doing good things (insert chuckle from all of the parents here). And I hope you all have a great rest of your day." Given that six year olds never give speeches at birthday parties I was pretty impressed and very proud of Eli's effort. What a great big six year old I have!