Happy Birthday to Chad!

Six years old?!?

This year we told Chad we could either buy him presents like normal OR he could have a birthday party with his friends at Defy Gravity. He wisely chose Defy Gravity. Experiences trump material goods! (OH MY GOSH!!!  Hahahahaha, I swear that was not intended to be a political commentary, but OMG, how accidentally perfect was it????? I'm going to be laughing about that all afternoon.)

OK.... moving on....

Defy Gravity is a "trampoline park" near the Durham/Morrisville border and we just love it. They are especially good during the week, because from 9-10 it is open for kids 6 and under only, AND a parent jumps free with each child. So it is one of my go-to spots for days when schools are closed. We invited all the kids from Chad's class, plus a few non-school friends. Parties are two hours, and I had tried to get the 9:00 AM party, in hopes that there would be fewer big kids there so early, but that was already booked (ironically, by a group of much bigger kids!) and instead our party started at 11, with one hour of jumping and then 45 minutes in the party room.

Before we get to party pictures, please everyone appreciate these cupcakes, which were a labor of love. I asked for the complete Wilton tip set for Christmas last year, specifically so I could get better at birthday cake decorating, but this was my first time using the big fancy swirly tip for cupcakes. Unfortunately, my Wilton bag is pretty old and sprung two leaks while I was frosting these, and then pretty much everything around me turned Batman blue, but it was worth it. There are also Batman cupcake liners, but you can't see them.
In addition to the cupcakes, we also had a banana raisin bread that I woke up to make at 5-freakin'-thirty on the day of the party, because I woke up panicking that someone would be allergic to chocolate, or not allowed to eat bight blue food coloring, or have a deathly fear of cupcakes or something and I really wanted a back-up dessert, so I hit up Pinterest and found an easy recipe. Which none of the kids (or their parents) touched.
During my search I found a recipe for a rum raisin banana bread where you soak the raisins in rum beforehand. This will definitely get made sometime soon, but maybe not the best for a kids' party. Although Defy Gravity didn't tell me I couldn't bring alcohol...

The kids all had fun during the jump period. Who doesn't love extreme jumping?? 

One of my favorites- Chad's expression looks like he's just going for a walk down the street but he is airbrorne.

Of course, this little herd of kindergarteners had teeny tiny bit of trouble following all the rules once they got out there together. I decided that as the birthday mom who was shelling out her hard-earned $$ to the facility, I would not bother to stress out about reminding them of the rules, so instead I took a laissez-faire attitude to the situation, letting the Defy Gravity people police them and instead focus no taking photographs of their infractions.

Here they are running across the jump floor- they say you're only supposed to jump two feet at a time. I actually find it really hard to move without jumping on two feet. I think I fall every time I try walking instead of jumping.

This is the Ninja Course. "One at a time, guys! Move in one direction only." Kids were swinging in every direction.

And this is the launchpad area where you jump off (one at a time) into the foam blocks, but I guess it is more fun to do it all at once.

While I was taking pictures, Andy was trying to maintain order on the floor, but also making sure Theo and Natalie jumped without getting trampled on. 

She yoinked one of the balls from the dodgeball pit to bop around with.

Theo took a wipe-out here, and that is Natalie going down the slide. They are so cute scurrying to the top of that like little spiders and then dropping back down.

He made sure they behaved in the Ninja pit, although they couldn't quite figure most of it out.

After we were worn out from jumping, we went to the party room for pizza, juice, cupcakes, and presents, but no banana bread. (Hmph. I've been eating it myself here, and it is quite good, so our guests missed out.) I realized going into this that virtue of giving Chad an "experience gift" of a party, he was going to come home with even more toys from his friends, and I wouldn't have any control over the noise-level associated with these toys. C'est la vie. Big shout-outs to the families who gave Chad jammies and Legos - you're totes invited next year as well!

I love this picture with everyone licking the blue frosting off. I heard one little girl say, "Oh, this frosting is really good!" and that made my newly blue kitchen all worthwhile.

And the little ones managed to not make too much mess. :)

Happy Birthday, Chad!!