Drew’s Birthday Party

Drew turned 6 on Sunday!  When I asked him what he’d like to do to celebrate his birthday, he told me he wanted to invite his friends to a big bonfire on the beach in Zanglais.  A few weeks later I learned that the runoff presidential election was scheduled for his birthday.  That means no driving the night before or the day of.  I thought he’d be disappointed, but when I mentioned we could do a campfire at our house and invite his friends, he was excited and didn’t seem to mind the change of location.

Since it’s the fire he likes (yes, he is definitely a Thompson pyro) I started searching the web for cake ideas along the campfire theme.  I quickly found this site www.thebirthdayblog.net.  It had a great idea for a camping-themed party and detailed instructions how to make the cake.  Even better, it was simple and easy to make, and I could get the ingredients here in Haiti.  I remember blogging in July that I was bummed I couldn’t get the kids birthday cakes at Publix anymore and was disappointed how bad I though Braden’s cake came out.  I found an easy idea for Tessa for her birthday and grew a little in confidence making her butterfly cake.  I was pretty excited to find this cake idea for Drew.  I also made cupcakes to make it a little easier to serve the kids.

 

There were so many great ideas on this website that I will definitely use it again for cake and party ideas.  Two game ideas were rattlesnake tag and a backpack relay.  Here are some photos of the games in action:

Since I planned the party to start right around dinner time before dark (because of the fire and sparklers) I felt we needed to serve dinner.  I kept it simple and inexpensive with hot dogs, watermelon and popcorn.  We set up the tent just to play in, but we also had Drew open presents in the tent.  Also a suggestion from thebirthdayblog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After gifts, we ate cake.  Drew had a pretty funny face while everyone was singing to him.

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least was the fire Drew had been working on “building” all week!  We roasted marshmallows and afterward lit sparklers that a team brought in a few months ago and left the remainder with us.  Of course the camera battery died right before we lit the sparklers.

 

 

I do think we tried to do too much.  The games were fun, but we could have easily done without them and had more time around the fire.  Overall, it was a fun and easy party to plan.  And the cake was a huge hit!

~Becky