Our families 4th kid birthday party and perhaps our most successful. Elijah turning 6 was fun and dramatic.
It took us awhile to figure out what to do with him. With Jayme he wanted a swimming party for his 7th birthday party, but Elijah turns blue and gets too cold at the aqua center. Bowling is too “big kid” and the thought of kindergarteners on roller skates scared us a bit. Luckily, we knew Elijah liked to jump. At his former foster home they had a trampoline and here in Portland he loves going to the trampoline center in Tigard. So JJ Jump (a large room filled with inflatable jump rooms and slides.) seemed like a good fit for him… So we booked it.
Anthony once again made custom invites and Joshua once again took them to the print shop in his tower and paid for them. Our party package covered 15 kids so we sent a lot of invites out hoping to get a big party. In the weeks running up to his party Elijah made hand made invites (scribbles on white paper) as he wanted to hand out the invites. So once we had the real invites made he was over the moon.
This year Elijah’s birthday landed on a Saturday but we still wanted to surprise him in his classroom with cupcakes. So in the last school day before his birthday Anthony arrived in his classroom with Cupcakes, juice boxes and party hats. Elijah was grinning from ear to ear. His whole class sang to him. His class loved the cupcakes but the juice boxes and hats were the big hit. It was quite a sight to see 24 kids all lined up ALL with party hats on as they headed home.
On the big day we all headed over to JJ Jump. We took 2 cars as we were joined by our good friend Scott. It took several trips to bring in the cupcakes, juice boxes, goodie bags and presents. But once inside we were quickly joined by all of our guests; six kids from his school joined us, plus Jayden and Ava, Elijah’s caseworker and her daughter, our friend Scott and Suzanne. We had toddlers through 7th graders, all had a great time.
The party started with the kids getting a little over an hour in the jump room. It was a lot of fun for the kids and pretty entertaining for the adults. Biggest problem was getting photos as the kids ran from inflated thing to inflated thing. Our group was playing soccer, sliding, jumping, playing tag. Everyone did something different all of them were sweaty, red faced, tired and smiling at the end.
Our group gathered up and headed to our party space. Anthony had decorated the room and placed party hats and blow ticklers on the table. Ok this was the only mistake, never never never give a room filled with mostly kindergarteners blow ticklers, it was deafening.
Elijah blew out the candles on a little mini cake we got him and then the group all had cupcakes with ice cream cups. We then headed right into the present pile, which was HUGE. Elijah got paper for his projects he likes to make, toys, play dough sets and several cards filled with cash.
During presents we noticed that Elijah wasn’t all there. He had been doing some pretty big processing over the past few days. The night before at bedtime he had a meltdown because he thought when you turn 6 no one takes care of you anymore. Pretty sure a lot of past family memories and feelings have been haunting him for the past few days. During presents this was really present, it was almost too much for him. First a Dad helped him unwrap but then his friends and even Jayme helped.
With the presents open and food all eaten, Elijah handed out the goodie bags to all his friends. With hugs and thank you’s the party ended. We loaded the car and then waited down in the lobby for the last parent to pick up their child.
We all drove home and Scott came with us. Anthony and Scott had a meeting on the big dinner they are doing and Elijah and Jayme played together with all of the new toys.
That evening all of us headed to Sweet Tomato’s for a special family dinner. Its a healthily salad place and Elijah loves that he can make his own food. Dinner ended with Elijah making his own chocolate Sunday with chocolate sauce, sprinkles and Oreo crumbs.