Joey's 7th Birthday

 A couple months ago Joey told me he wanted to invite all the boys in his class to his birthday party. I was brain storming different ideas and wanted to go with some sort of animal theme. Maybe give a praying mantis as a party favor for his friends to take home. Well, for obvious reasons that didn't happen this year. Joey was really good about it and we tried our best to make his birthday special. The night before we grabbed McDonald's. He said he also wanted sushi so we went to HEB to grab some of that as well.

On the day of we had balloons and decorations up for our little man. He requested watermelon for breakfast and Sam cut it into the shape of a hammerhead just for him.

Birthday boy in the morning! Look at that hair!

Watermelon, yum.

Joey was so excited for his presents as well. Here is his stash (and the new bike he got in the garage).

Looking at the drawing book he got from Grandma and Grandpa.

A stuffed mantis. It's super cute!

Mom and Dad's present to him.

A gigantic book about frogs!

We went to the duck pond to take pictures. All the pictures are posted in his birthday letter. For linner we made homemade pizzas, requested by the birthday boy.

Final product.

A lovely cheese pizza just for Eli.

I didn't want that animal-themed birthday go to waste so this was my labor of love. I melted white chocolate candy and used piping bags to trace animals on wax paper. I picked 7 animals Joey loves for his 7th birthday. We have a strawberry poison dart frog, emperor penguin, king cobra, orchid mantis, immortal jelly, hammerhead shark, and a Dalmatian in the middle. I was very proud how they turned out!

Sam took pictures of the action.

Final product!

Happy Birthday dude!

Sam dug out a fire pit for this occasion and the kids roasted marshmallows.

Then we set up the tents to go camping in the backyard.

The kids enjoyed the tents too much. We ended up going back to our beds because the kids were too wild. I had a feeling that was going to happen. 

Then the next day Joey remembered he wanted Italian Sodas so we whipped some cream, added gummy butterflies and put a cherry on top. He requested raspberry and coconut flavor which we dubbed tiger shark's blood. 

I think he had a good birthday. His favorite presents are probably the books. We got the bike because he was getting too big for his old bike and Eli was growing into that one. We'll see if he ever rides it! We love you Joey!