Lets Party!

Today was Camden's birthday party. Several weeks ago, each of his current classmates as well as a few of his classmates from years passed, received their invitation in a wax sealed envelope.

 

We had his party at a place called the Great Play which is a place that offers a party with different games geared towards the kids' age and interests. Camden was fortunate to have a lot of his friends attend (21 kids in total). They had a great time playing the different games with the coaches and then enjoying cake and juice afterwards.

But before I tell you about all the fun he had, let me give you a little history behind Bucky, his awesome cake. When he told me he wanted a Jake and the Neverland Pirates themed birthday, the first thing I did was look at cakes so I could send a picture to my mom, since she is my personal baker. : )  I ran across a cake that looked like Bucky, Jake's pirate ship. I found it on a blog where the woman gave step by step instructions on how she created her cake and immediately sent it to mom to see if she felt she could recreate the cake. Of course mom agreed! The cake required two 9 X 13 cakes, which I made prior to mom's arrival on Friday. We got up yesterday morning, had some breakfast and then started tackling the cake. Mom generally ices her cake in decorators icing which she makes, but following the instructions I found, she decided to ice the cake with canned icing. Looking back, perhaps that was not the best choice. We got the ship together, however the back part of the ship just did not seem to stand up nicely, instead it kept falling back. So mom stuck extra dowels and toothpicks in it. She then went to put this top piece on the back and when she did, part of the back just crumbled. She fortunately got it to stick back together and was getting her icing mixed up so that she could add the different colors to the cake. As she was doing that I was watching the cake and all of the sudden it just started falling and I yelled to her that it was falling and she made it back to the cake in time to catch the back falling off. UGH!!! So, we decided we were going to scratch all but the bottom layer of the cake and start over. So off to the grocery store she went to buy more cake mix and more icing.

After the back end fell off

This time mom used her decorators icing and this time it all seemed to go together a bit more smoothly! And as no surprise, she did an awesome job! How lucky I am to have a mom that can always seem to produce the cake that I have envisioned in my head?

 

Due to the amount of people we were going to have at the party, one cake was not going to be enough, so she made another cake to look like a treasure map. I know I am picky (which mom can vouch for), however I was not picky on the second cake since Bucky was our main cake. Since we had been in the kitchen literally all day and she was only half finished icing the second cake by 5:00pm, I gave her an idea of what I wanted and left it to her.

And now, for the party details. Like I said earlier, we had it at the Great Play. When we got there, this is how the play area was set up. (Notice the picture of Camden on the back wall.) Camden was so excited and was so ready for his friends to show up so they could have some fun.

Once his friends arrived, the were each introduced to music (as if they were on an NBA basketball team), then ran through different obstacles courses and played all different types of games that kept them entertained and active.

I love how Camden has his arm around Casen

Camden having fun swinging

Casen had a fun time too.

Fun hitting balloons

Casen and Malachi playing with balls.

At the end each participant received a gold medal.

Camden blowing out his candles

Pirates Camden and Carson. Argh!

It was fun not only watching the kids have a great time, but also watching the parents enjoying watching their kids.

 

Due to time constraints, we brought his gifts home where he excitedly opened them. Surprisingly, he did not receive one duplicate gift!