Lovin' Life ~ Tyson family: OMG Bubba is 6!!!

The title says it all! JUST the way I am feeling! O-M-G (oh my goodness!!)

I remember the day he was born vividly! He came into this world so fast and hasn't stopped since! This year's birthday party theme mimicked that ~ dirt bikes/quads ~ Ride 'em HARD! Ride 'em DIRTY! But before I get into his party I will share a little of his actual 6th birthday...

It kind of began the night before... Grandma came into town... we had a baseball game and Grandma, Danielle, Nana AND Papa ALL came to the game! He was very excited for ALL of them to be there at the same time. Anyways after our game we had cupcakes for the whole team and the team sang Happy Birthday to Bubba! Again he LOVED it! Oh and I decorated for the party the night before his actual birthday (Thursday night) so when he woke up he would see everything!

Then after he was asleep we started his day-of activities with putting balloons in his room on the floor, tried to fill the floor but I thought we had more balloons than we did. Ry thought I was crazy but I had to explain to him that "its the little things" I want my kids to remember everything about every birthday... (well, as much as possible, I know that some memories will get lost over the years BUT I want them to know and remember that mommy (er, and daddy) made me feel special on my birthday and she went all out!)

We of course made a big deal in the morning with signing (a family tradition) and such... AND of course mommy has to document everything in pictures...

Nana "getting" Bubba

Mommy & Bubba

Big 6!!!

THEN... Ry and I surprised him at school for lunch with McDonald's (he was so completely surprised ~ he had no idea and already had his lunch and was beginning to eat it). It was fun to be there with him!

Daddy & Bubba at lunch

THEN... after we got off work we all went to his choice of restaurant = Olive Garden (ONLY if our friend Ryan could serve us. So being the good mommy I am (haha) I texted her to see if she was working... SHE WAS!! So I called to make a reservation. BOO! She wasn't in a section that seated 6. I didn't know it but I was talking to the GM and told him that she was his favorite server and it was his birthday and he wanted to come there only if she could serve us HOPING he would do something AND HE DID!!! They switched her section for our little man! OLIVE GARDEN YOU ROCK!!! Oh and they gave him free dessert! Again SCORE!!

With Ryan ~ We LOVE you!

So now fast forward to PARTY DAY!!!

I put in a lot of effort behind the scenes for this party... at first we were going to do Skylanders but then in true Bubba fashion he changed his mind last minute (ok not really last minute, about 2 months before, but in RAMBER Designs opinion that is LAST MINUTE ~ and may I remind you I was also planning Bunny's 1st birthday and dedication at the same time... THIS IS NOT TIME TO CHANGE YOUR THEME!!!). Plus while I do ride (sorta) I don't know the first thing to putting together a dirt bike/quad party. If you know me at all everything coordinates with the theme of the party, even the food... HOW do you do this with this theme? Off to the internet I went... NOT much help!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! So creative brain HAD to kick in (and remember I was running on 1/2 full due to planning another). So let me start with the things I created, this was about 2 months ago when the theme was changed (basically ALL I did 2 months ago was the invitation AND research. ACTUAL party planning in FULL SWING MODE didn't start until the Monday after Bunny's party (yes, you read that right... 2 weeks ago ~ YES I put most ALL of this together in 2 weeks time!):

Label on the envelope (these did have each invitee's name on them in red)

Invitation ~ this is ACTUALLY Bubba riding for his very first time when we got his quad

Front door- welcome sign

Custom water labels equipped with the number 6 and quad riders (in blue and red ~ his favorite colors)

Banner

Another banner (the same as the other)

Decor ~ this posed as 2 things... decor for the party AND part party favor (the kids got to pick which of the 30 something posters I printed off of the wall and take them home)

More posters ~ all riding themed

Party favor station er, PIT STOP

Found these at the Dollar Tree (and with the help of my AWESOME MIL was able to get enough (gotta love BIGGER cities). Did these in color combo to hint out our birthday boy's initial ~ L)

If you know me at all our party favors have to be something the kids can use or educational... these were so much fun! Again a Dollar Tree find!

Closer view of the label for the water bottles (again themed to match the invitation)

Originally this was the only party favor I was going to do... these were started because we had invited Bubba's whole class and I don't know half of those kids and I needed a fun way to "learn" their names THIS WAS IT!!! Again this matched his welcome sign customized to our family party (i.e., Tyson Raceway)

Cannot leave the girls out! Again, if you know me, the whole family HAS to be involved (while I can still get participation) so typically we dress for the event... I saw this saying somewhere in my internet ventures and again I CAN MAKE IT CHEAPER and how I want! So I altered this one to be girly by making it purple and a girl rider! Bunny looks so damn cute!!!

Again my creation... again I saw something similar (I do not recreate the wheel here people) BUT this shirt is perfect for this diva/princess! It even was on glitter iron transfer!

This year, unlike years past I decided I would make the kid's cakes (at least for these 2) this was my 2nd attempt at decoration and I LOVE how it turned out! So did everyone else! I even did his favorite flavor = strawberry but dyed it blue so his friends wouldn't make fun of the fact it was a pink cake. Um, boys care about that sort of thing)

Now on to other decor ~ I must note here that I am so proud... Ry really got into this (I don't know what he was thinking but I had it in my mind all along to use our own toys as decor but the day of the party it was like a light bulb went off and he really got into it. It was so cute! Love you babe!

In the front

Had these balloons throughout the house

Games ~ these were HARD for me... I wanted something that would keep the kids entertained but not be too old or too young for them. And in this area the internet was NO HELP! On a side note... we invited Bubba's entire class of 25 plus our friends that are like family... all in all we had 42 (yes mark that 42) kids invited. AND to top that off not very many RSVP's (another side note... WHAT THE HECK is with people??? Isn't it courtesy anymore to RSVP? I guess not!) So back to the games. With having that many invited and knowing about 20 would be there I had planned to do a motocross logo game (where I printed various logos from different riding venues (i.e., Fox riding, Metal Mulisha, Volcom, Honda, Kawasaki, Rockstar Energy, Monster Energy, Yamaha) and the kids had to guess the logo, the one with the most right won). Well all the kids won (but I was pretty surprised that a few actually knew some of the harder ones). Then the other game we were going to play was Red Light, Green Light (yes the traditional game). This game was a no-go, the kids would rather play on the trail behind our house on the bikes we had instead... gotta love kids with minds of their own. Here are some pictures of that:

THEN the last game I had planned turned out to be the HIT of the party! Wait for it... ready... RELAY RACE ~ who can dress in riding gear the fastest! Our good friends Stina and Rusty saved us by bringing tons of riding gear (when I only asked for 1 set, Stina is AWESOME). Anyways we had 5 kids going at a time! The fastest would win... 2 kids did it in 42 seconds (we are talking jersey, pants, boots, helmet, goggles EVERYTHING). So then those 2 had to race again after everyone was done. Ben came out on top with a whopping 39 seconds! Whoa! Here are some pictures of the actual race:

THEN... when they were all done (per Ry's suggestion) we took individual pictures of the kids all dressed in the gear on Bubba's quad. (When I went to do this all I heard was oohs and awes from the parents that did stay at the party... SCORE one for me!) I'd say the kids LOVED this ~ I am somehow going to get all the kids copies of these pictures:

Peanut even participated in the relay race... but because of her age she only had to get on the jersey

I was kinda bummed with as much fun as this game was that not everyone wanted to participate... oh well!

Presents ~ Bubba started opening as soon as he got the go-ahead which was before I really could get in to take pictures. However, a HUGH THANK YOU to everyone!!!

Cake!

That's all folks!!!

And that is that! LOL I am very happy with how the party turned out. I pulled it off! After Bubba got over his "attitude" he just kept saying thank you mommy and daddy! To me that is what it is about! I am also hearing that some of our party-goers are still talking about it, 2 days later! Again, that is what it is about, leaving a lasting FUN impression in a child's mind!

Here are some other random pictures from the party: