Ben's Birthday Bash

Nate and I hosted our first ever friend birthday party yesterday. Our original plan was to let our kids have a friend party for their 4th, 8th and 12th birthdays. Their four year old birthdays came and went with no parties. They didn’t seem to mind. We were still celebrating birthdays with both of our families and a third party just seemed like overkill. When I realized a week ago that we hadn’t started planning Ben’s party yet, I briefly thought about skipping it again. Luckily, Nate was more enthusiastic about party planning. We kicked around a few ideas and settled on an Indiana Jones theme. Once Nate caught the vision, he took off. It was fun to watch him in action. He created a whole multimedia event. He took clips from the movies and came up with a clue and an activity for each one. Then he put it all together on an interactive DVD that moved the kids from one activity to the next. It was AWESOME!

Ben invited the three boys from his Primary class, two of his cousins, and his friend that lives down the street. We had seven boys ages 5-12 here for the party and I think they all had a great time. At church today, my friend told me that her little boy wore his hat all last night and this morning he came out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel and his Indiana Jones hat. Too funny.

The most exciting part for Ben was that he got to see some scenes from the movies. We are apparently the most over-protective/sheltering parents on the block, because all of the other boys had already seen all of the movies. For Ben, it was all new and he loved it. I think Star Wars might finally have some real competition for his affection.

I documented the whole event for posterity (and just in case any of our quality friends want to throw an Indiana Jones party for their own Indy fan). I think that after my brain recovers from this busy week, I will do a more detailed post that shows everything that we did. At this rate, this might be Ben’s one and only non-family party. I wouldn’t want him to forget it.