Dalton's 4th Birthday

I can't believe my baby boy is 4 years old!! He is growing up so fast. Dalton is such a sweet, funny, and loving little boy. He usually has the whole family laughing and smiling at his crazy antics. Dalton at 4 is very busy, active, always moving, and keeping us on our toes. He is very bright and can remember things he hears one time. He learns and picks up things when you read to him even while he is bouncing all over the place and you don't think he has heard a word you just said. He is very loving and affectionate. He gives hugs to Ryan and I often and expresses his love in words many times throughout the day. Dalton LOVES his Daddy. So much so that he is definitely a Daddy's boy now. Daddy puts Dalton to bed every night. Dalton has the cutest habit of standing at the door and waving good-bye to Daddy everyday before he heads off to work. Dalton is also the first one to greet Daddy when he comes home with screams of joy and literally jumps into his arms. Dalton is a ball of emotions. When he is happy he is SO happy and excited, and when he is mad or frustrated he is REALLY mad and frustrated. There is no in between. Dalton really wants to do what is right. When he makes mistakes he is quick to say he is sorry and start making good choices again. Dalton is a GREAT big brother. He adores Ashby and Brooks. Dalton is impulsive and is learning how to control his emotions still. He has an infectious laugh and smile. Dalton is so handsome. His big blue eyes and smile make my heart melt. Dalton loves to make people laugh. I can't wait to see how Dalton will be when he grows up. He is always surprising me! I love you sweet boy and I am so grateful to be your Mommy. Dalton has become obsessed with playing the new Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. Actually the whole family loves to play the game together. So I knew it would be the perfect birthday party theme for him.

Here is the invitations I designed for the party. When they came in the mail Dalton was so excited he kept asking to look and hold them several times throughout the day. It was so cute.
Ryan will tell you and I admit I REALLY got into planning this party!! It was such a fun party theme. I kept thinking of all these great ideas the more and more I thought about it.

Here are the party favors we did.

I made these great homemade Mario hats for all the kids to wear during the party and while playing all the party games. These were a hit with kids!! Even the adults were loving these hats and wearing them around at the party. I got the idea and template from this great blog: http://www.coolpartyblog.com/2009/02/mario-luigi-birthday-party-hats.html

I bought the red baseball caps from Michael's for $2. I also bought the adhesive felt from Michael's and cut out the letter M and white circle out of felt then just stuck it on the hat. I used a little bit of fabric glue as well to make sure the letter and white part were secure.

I bought these great Super Mario Brother's sports bottles from celebrateexpress.com. and attached some really cute Mario Brothers key chain figures for each child.

I also made these question mark boxes for the kids to keep their gold coins in(for each party game the kids participated in I gave them 2 gold coins to put in their boxes). I found a template online for the question mark and printed it out on my computer. Then I bought some white favor boxes from Michael's and taped the question mark's on the boxes.

Here is the party set-up at the house. Me and the kids had so much fun decorating!! Again, celebrateexpress.com had all the decorations for Mario Brothers!They even had these great balloons you could buy.Papa Alan, Dalton, and Preston enjoying the party. All the kids eating dinner (we had hot dogs, chips, strawberry salad, broccoli salad, and drinks)

This is how Brooks spent the evening (with my brother Jason and various other family members). Several people had him cracking up. He loves Jason!!

The party games were so much fun! The kids (and me) had a great time. :)

These were the boxes I gave each child to have. After each game they played I gave them 2 gold coins to put into their question mark boxes.

After the obstacle course I gave each child a gold medal star coin necklace for finishing the course. I found these at Walmart. I was so excited b/c they had stars on them and looked just like the star coins you can win in the Super Mario Brother's Wii game.

The first game we did was Bean Bag Bowser Smash. The kids stood away from the poster board I made; and tried to throw bean bags at Bowser(Bowser is the enemy who steals Princess Peach from Mario and Luigi) and smash him for a certain amount of points.The kids LOVED this one. Such a simple idea but lots of fun. Dalton actually hit the 100 point Bowser on his first try. He was so excited.I made the kids take pictures after each game in their Mario Hats. I couldn't resist. Look how cute they are!! Love it.Next game on the list was Yoshi egg hunt. In the Super Mario Brothers game their is a dinosaur character Yoshi who lays spotted eggs that turn into an item you can use in the game.

So I made my own Yoshi eggs by putting different colored circle stickers I bought at the store on some leftover easter eggs I had. Then I hid them in our backyard for the kids to find. They each were supposed to find 3 eggs. 2 small ones and 1 big one. The big Yoshi egg had a gold coin in it to put in their question mark boxes.Dalton finding some Yoshi eggs to put in his bag.All the kids loved this game. Last game we played was a Mario obstacle course I set up in our backyard. I had a balance beam of wood held up by cinder blocks, tunnels to crawl through, trampoline to jump on and below I printed out pictures of some of Mario's enemies for the kids to jump over during the course.At the end of the course I hung up a question mark box for the kids to jump up and hit with their fist like Mario does. The kids were so cute doing the obstacle course. They all had a great time.Here is Dalton at the end of the course getting ready to jump up and hit the question mark box.Ashby giving the obstacle course a try and the other kids waiting for their turns.

After everyone got a turn at the obstacle course I gave each child a gold medal star coin necklace. They LOVED that! I told the kids to pose like mario on the shot! This is the cake. I had such high hopes of making the cake myself this year. While Ryan took the kids camping I tried to make a cake similar to this one. It was kind of a disaster. So I decided to leave it to the experts at SaveMart. I have to say they did a fabulous job.

I did put the little Mario figures on the cake myself(the talent I have I know!! lol!! :)
Dalton LOVED his cake and couldn't wait to take the Mario characters off the cake to play with. Notice he still has on his beloved gold medal around his neck. So cute. Singing Happy Birthday to Dalton! I love his face in this picture and the two below this one. You can tell he is so happy and excited.

Blowing out the candles!

Present Time!!

A giant foam Axe! Gee thanks Grandpa!! wink wink:) Can that present stay at your house?!
Just Dance game for the Wii. Dalton was so excited about this one. Aunt Kim let us play this game and we were totally hooked. It is a game where they have a dancer with various popular up-beat songs that you have to follow with the wii controller in your hand and do all the right moves. It is so fun and great exercise for the kids. It is a great game to buy if you have the Wii (great for kids and adults too . . . Ryan and I love playing it with the kids)

Dalton was hilarious opening presents. It was like a whirlwind! He would open one present get really excited for a couple of seconds then dive into another present. He had everything opened within minutes it seemed like. It was like he thought if he didn't hurry and open everything super fast all the presents would all go away or something.

Leapster 2 for Dalton. He is always playing Ashby's so finally he has his own. Yay! Dalton reading his "sound" birthday card from Mom and Dad. It was Optimus Prime from the Transformers telling him to have a happy birthday.

My brother Jason gave Dalton this huge airplane to fly. Dalton LOVED it. Here is Jason showing him how it works.

Last but not least . . . the pinata of course! We almost forgot to do it, thank goodness we had Ashby remind us just as the party was almost over she said, "Mom aren't we going to do the pianta?"

I love the pull the string pianta's they have now. The kids each take turns pulling a string from the bottom. Only 1 string opens the bottom to have the candy fall out.

Ashby was the one who pulled the winning string.

Look at all that candy!! It wouldn't be a party without a pianta!! The kids love those.

Dalton had such a fun 4th birthday! He loved seeing the whole party we had been planning together come to life that day. He LOVED all the Super Mario Brothers games and decorations. He was in heaven playing with all his cousins and having all the family around him. It was his day and he loved every minute of all the excitement. It was so great to see all the kids having such a great time. It was so worth the time and energy I put into it. Happy Birthday Dalton!!