Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Noah's 10th Birthday Party



I can't believe Noah is 10! Leading up to this has been an adventure. Not because of the amount of work I put in to his party, but because he is going to be Chase's age. That's not supposed to happen. Chase's 10th birthday changed our lives forever. It was two days after his party that he was diagnosed with cancer and our lives were never the same.
 
Now little brother, is going to be the same forever age as his BIG brother. So many emotions. I can't say I knew what to do with all of them. So I put them into his birthday party to stay busy and not focus on the "Time Machine" this realization put me in.
 
One of my favorite sayings is "Let's make some Memories." Think about it. EVERY minute of EVERY day has the potential to be a memory. Good, bad, sad. It is all a memory.   So when the mother walks through my house and says, "Don't you think you did too much for his birthday? What if that tape messes up your walls? Surely a 10 year old won't appreciate all the work you must have put in to all this!", I just shake my head. 
 
I would rather walk by that paint chipped wall every day and smile because of the joy it created when it happened, than get upset.  What is going to matter when I am old older and gray??  Am I really going to care that a piece of tape,  peeled paint off the wall??  Or am I going to smile because everyone remembers this crazy birthday where they killed "spiders"?  It doesn't matter how extravagant or simple - just make them feel special - that is ALWAYS worth it. That's how I think anyway.
 
Now ~ on to the party! 
 
Noah wanted Minecraft as his theme this year.   A game I do not understand at all.  But I do love to hear the boys in there playing it! In case you don't know what Minecraft is, it is a square world where you dig and mine blocks to get items to build tools to help you build your own little world. Or at least that is what the birthday boy tells me. I say, even our Atari's had better graphics than that! Pong even!! I can't tell what ANYTHING is on that game ~~ but who am I to not see a beautiful tall city with diamond floors???
 
I started my search on Pinterest, of course! I took a little from everywhere because there isn't that much out there! The sights and links that I visted are at the end of my looooong blog. (sorry)
 
INVITATIONS

Easy! This was my first thought - Hummmm, maybe I like this square world after all! It's kind of easy to take a green square and paint a "Creeper" face on it. (The Creeper is a character in the game.)
I typed off a verse on the computer and glued it to the other side.
 
It's Noah's birthday time!
You are invited to my party in a Mine.
We will battle Spiders, Zombies, & Creepers
So Sneaky,
While we make lots of stuff
At the Minecraft Wiki!
 
I then gave the address, time and date. Listed a few of the food choices: Poisonous Pizza (NO, I didn't make it!!) Zombie Boogies, Slime Balls, Mystic Mushrooms, and Creeper Juice.  I also asked for all the guest to wear Blue, Green, Tan or Black; which are the main colors in the game. I had the thought that I would make the faces that go on the various characters. Then we would pin those on the guest, according to what color they were wearing,  when they came in the door because it would be cute for group pictures. BUT this did not happen because of time restraints. Yeah, that's what I will call it!


 
FOOD

We ordered Pizza  - they couldn't make it into squares as I wanted - OCD person's nightmare! :)  How can you have a square party with a round pizza?!   Sigh, I made do.   hehe  I EVEN made the faces for the pizza boxes so that you could tell from the outside what was inside...exp. Sausage Steve; Pig Pepporoni....  but again...time did not allow me the time to put them on. Yep, still going with it!
(But it's an idea if you are planning a party.)

I also made:
 
1. Torches - orange melt coated Pretzel rods



2. Mystic Mushrooms - large marshmellows, dipped in red chocolate melts, and dotted with white icing to look like the mushrooms in the game. Think Mario Brothers! Which Noah looked at me puzzled and said "What's that?!"  Geez! I am not that old...I am not that old....
 
3. Slime Balls - Green Jello (that looked blue. I DID make those - figures!)



 
4. Red Rock - Red Chocolate melts, with Pop Rocks Candy mixed in


 
5. Zombie Boogies - Popcorn coated with a Koolaid mixture. I made that too. Let's move on quickly...(hint - SOUR...I don't think they were supposed to taste like that!!)


 
6. Creeper Crispies - Rice Crispie treats with green food coloring and the Creeper face in melted chocolate


 
7. T-N-T - Red and black licorice

 
8. Butter cubes - Pineapple licorice

 
9. Dirt Blocks - Chocolate Pudding, Crushed Oreo's, Green tinted & Regular Whip Cream


 
10. Creeper Juice - Hawaiin Punch - just made new labels


 
 
The CAKE

A friend wanted to make the cake for me because she is starting her own KAKE company - Kelly's Kakes - here in Murfreesboro. Look her up - you will NOT be disappointed! It was beautiful, delicious and GREAT price!! She is fantastic! How COOL is his cake?!

 
Noah found it online and just had to have it. It was a wedding cake. No, you did not read that wrong.  Someone had a MINECRAFT wedding!! Cool chic that I am,  laughs and says -you know those  two people had to be named Sheldon and Amy!   But I can't say that because I'm really a nerd & I LOVE me some Sheldon!! (Big Bang Theory??  Come on People!) BaaaaZinga!
 
The GAMES

I had hidden green foam around the house. I got them from the Dollar Tree. Called Stickets. We hid them in the open - nothing where they had to move anything to get to it. I told them they were watermelon seeds. So they ran around the house finding the "seeds". Once everyone found one they came back to the living room and we planted them. I had shredded paper in the floor for dirt and they stuck them in that.
 
We started out in a circle and we talked about building a Pick Axe like in the game - so we needed sticks. I had built a tree out of cardboard boxes that they could punch through and get out popsicle sticks to bring back to the Wiki and build their Axe. (I did already have these glued together.)


 
Next, They needed to kill a Spider to get web to build a fishing pole. I had put dental floss in black balloons and taped them in a circle in my hallway. I used crepe paper for legs so that it looked like a spider. I also had left over spider web from Halloween that I hung in the hallway. They were hilarious trying to burst the balloons with their pick axe!

 (No spiders were harmed in the making of this game...and neither were walls)
 
After we tied their string to their fishing poles, they once again had to go on a hunt to find Squid because they needed ink. I had put a magnet in felt and cut little legs and again hid them around the house for them to go find.

  (Squid, Coal, and Diamonds)
 
When they returned to the living room, their watermelons had grown! I lucked out here! I found these CUTE bags - again at the Dollar Tree. Watermelons happen to be what they grow in the game for food. Aren't they adorable. OOPs, I was told I couldn't call them that for a boys birthday.  Aren't they Awesome!!??   They came rolled up in a ball, then you unroll them to make the bag. So we used their Squid Ink to write their names.

 
(Here they are - rolled up on the left and open on the right. So adorable  Awesome.)
 
For fun - I said the squid was too big and broke their fishing poles and they still needed food! So I told them they had to go fishing - with their mouth. This was my favorite because the girls in attendance looked at me like I had lost my mind! ( What? I didn't argue!)

I got clear plates ( pattern alert - at the Dollar Tree!!) and put Swedish Fish, topped them with a Sour Patch Kid (to be the Creeper) and Blue Jello for the water. They couldn't get the "Creeper" - just the fish. It was nearly impossible. What made this so funny was I made these the day before to save time. (there is THAT word again!) The fish became cemented on the plate. The adults were howling with laughter. (Yes, I can even mess up water and powder that comes in a box)

   
 
We then mined in the living room. We attemped the Saran Wrap Game. Take candy and wrap it in a HUGE ball of Saran Wrap. Each kid takes turns at unwrapping it, and keeps the candy he gets out, while the other kids are rolling dice trying to get a pair so that the unrolling stops.  Tip for you that try this - Don't roll dice on carpet.   :)  Sorry - no picture evidence of this disaster. (Maker error)
 
Next, I had hidden black rock all over the house to represent coal. Off on the treasure hunt they went again.  Coal makes fire in the game. When they brought back the coal - I took empty toilet paper rolls and fit candles I painted orange - can you guess from where?? - and a little black tape to make a torch. I could not make these before hand so this took a little time. You wanna know how I knew I couldn't make them before the party??  I DID, then realized we couldn't turn the candles on! Un-do! SMH.

 
 
With a torch and their pick axe they had to go into a mine cave. I also loved this part because I made it dark and scary. ( I gave them a torch!!!) It took me two days to get my cave built. I used rolls of brown paper and brown sheets. Not so smart either, I might add,  as it took up my whole computer/craft room. If you haven't noticed, I kind of needed my crafty things. SO everytime I needed something in the weeks leading up to the party, I had to crawl through the opening, scale the "wall" , and go through the mud pit - just to get to my crafting area. Then do it all over again to leave the room.

 
Inside the Mine
 
Iron Wall
 
Mud Blocks - these were everywhere!
 
 
Did I mention it was dark?!
 
So a few at a time had to go in. They were scared. hehehe They crawled through the entrance, climbed the wall (my coffee table turned over) mined for Iron (aluminum foil I had hanging on the table) then grab a block of mud. (the mud was brown paper bags I had filled with colored cubes for them to use at the Wiki) 

(Again - worth it - because after the party - they all just wanted to hang out in there. )


 
Once they got back again, we turned the silver into their Iron Picks - because per the game - only iron picks can mine diamonds.  This I simply wrapped the foil around the top of their pick axe.

With their iron pick axe, they had to mine for diamonds. I had frozen water in clear cups, put a blue gem in it,  then froze blue koolaid on top of that so that it looked like the diamond blocks in the game. I gave them all spoons and they had to try to break the ice to get the diamond. Another fun game. Also Another game I should have thought a little more about. Ice chunks were flying everywhere.

Remember that mom that was worried about my wall??  America's Funniest Video's could have been won at her face at the sticky that was happening to my wood floors!! Looking back - yes, I would have put a plastic tablecloth down before they played... But laughing back - I could care less everyone stuck to the floor the rest of the day...memories!!


 
Diamonds make Diamond Swords. Another thing I made ahead of time. I am going to throw you for a loop though. These came compliments of Walmart Paint Department - NOT the Dollar Tree! LOL    They are paint stirrers - (shhhh dude can get fired if anyone knew I didn't buy paint and took 15 paint stirrers!! It's our secret, ok?). We painted them with blue paint I had left over at the house, then glued popsicle sticks and added black tape.


 
Diamond Swords are the only thing that can kill Skeletons. In the game you kill skeletons to get bones to trade in for a dog.  I had seen this punch board and thought that would be cute to do the skeleton as. Again, I adapted this idea to what worked for me. So I made the board and used Dum Dum suckers taped together wrapped in crepe paper to make bones. The kids LOVED sticking their sword through the skeleton to reach in and get their bones! They kept the bones as a party favor but we found these cute hand puppet tattoos that I gave them for their dog. Again just got lucky! (Dollar Tree...holla!)

  

(this bone was already opened - so excuse my pic - it was much cuter before unassembly - but you get the gest.)


 The hand tattoos. Get it - you could make them talk! I may or may not have had a lot of fun with these. My children are saying they are tired of "Who let the dogs out" song - but its not ME - its the dog.... on my hand.
 
At last - they got to open their mud blocks and see what puzzle they could make at the Wiki to get prizes.  Some mud blocks were fakes so they had to go back mining at the cave. LOL  Yes, I made them go back to the scary place!! Inside the bags were foam counting blocks I ordered from Oriental Trading. I thought they were larger but they worked.  (Who knew a centimeter was so tiny?? What? Eveyone? Don't judge me - I was too busy playing Super Mario on my Atari!)

 

We had Silly String, Parachute Men, Slime,  Punch Balloons, Chiclets, Grow Zombies, Silly Straws, balls that were shaped like cubes, Ring Pops, and Pop Rocks as the prizes. ( I bought enough of each thing for every kid - so even if their puzzle didn't win the prize,  they all got one of everything at the end of the day - just to keep it fair)

TIP: We bought a few BIG bottles of slime, then bought a pack of Salad Dressing Containers - I will let you guess where - and seperated the slime. They loved their mini bottles - and I loved saving that $$)
 
We made a CD of all the Minecraft Parody songs to play during the party. I was laughing at them all dancing to "Minecraft Style" (Gangham Style) to take a pic. And Just when I thought I FINALLY had Taylor Swift's "We are never, ever, ever, getting back together" out of my head - I now can not stop singing "We are never, ever, ever going to leave the Nether". 

Also, for decorations I painted boxes with the characters faces for the kids to wear for pics. They were a hit also. Noah wants to keep them for his room.

     
 
To go with the usual crazy of my life, we did have to play one more game. HIDE FROM THE CREEPER.....which was actually a TORNADO warning, where the weathermen were screaming if you live on -insert my street - You MUST take cover now. So I gathered the kids and told them it was a game, stuck them in a hallway, and threw pillows on their heads.  All was safe and all was sound. Crazy enough - everyone stayed calm. Some left right when the weather was getting bad, and we hadn't cut the cake or sang happy birthday, so there was alot of cake left. (My hips thank you Weather Men. No, really. Thank you)   
 
 

So all in all the Minecraft 10th birthday was a success! Fairly Cheap - MUCH cheaper than going say...somewhere there might be a dancing mouse.   

My phone rang the rest of the night with everyone calling about the party they had just left to say how wonderful and fun it was! Even Negative Nelly. Score!

Sticky floors, tape on the walls, enough cake left to feed an army, tornado's flying, kids screaming, sleepless nights crafting; at the end of the day, the twinkle in the birthday boys eye, and the sleepy smile that said, 'You are the best mom ever! I love you so much!',   made every moment worth it.

Ok - so he said, You are such a dork - but I'm glad you're my dork.

But I totally heard the other. :)

Translation - Memories that he will carry forever.  Worth It!

_______________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to :
 
IDEAS FROM:

Sunny By Design

Catch My Party

My Epic Minecraft Party

Paper & Parcel

Celebrate the Big & Small

Tasty Kitchen

The Momma Byrd





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