Tuesday, January 31, 2017

A Birthday in the Shire


Today is Samuel's 9th Birthday! We celebrated on Saturday with a Hobbit/Lord of the Rings gathering! And his best pals came and celebrated with him.

This post was an invaluable source of ideas and inspiration!


The invitations were made out of brown kraft paper with burned edges and rolled into scrolls tied with twine! This was probably the most labor intensive part of the event - getting all those edges singed!


Brown kraft paper also hung over our front door and said {in elvish}, "Speak friend and enter." They had to duck to step into the hobbit hole!


We served "second breakfast" of cinnamon rolls, strawberries, muffin sized quiche and apple juice. Table decor was almost all things we had on hand - I bought gold plates and striped napkins plus the gold dot confetti and punched a number of them out to look like rings.

The ivy needed a good trim anyway in our front yard and you can't tell we even cut any! Wood slices are a hurricane remnant! They are still wet in the middles and are starting to crack - but worked great for this.


David already had this ring that a friend had given him and my Mom made the great cloak for Samuel to wear! Rachel and Emily invaded the dress up bins and came up with costumes also! Emily was helping me set up the scavenger hunt and by the time I realized I hadn't gotten her photo, she had already changed clothes.




The girls helped by being posted at different places on our scavenger hunt! Rachel was at Rivendell with the Council of the Elves {Keebler elf cookies!} and she gave the next clue to Emily who was in Lothlorien with swords for each hobbit.



David made the swords for free using wooden garden stakes we found in the shed, spray paint and electrical tape! He bought a gold Sharpie paint pen and I wrote each boys name in the language of the elves. And they're off!



When they returned David's brother had brought this catapult he made for them to launch water balloons:


They also had to defeat the Nazgul {David!} and his costume was made of things we had and a few dollars of thrifted black fabric.




They were victorious!


David really was the star of this party as he helped me so much! This felt very out of my comfort zone in even understanding all the characters and knowing what to do! He made a cool pinata that was the lidless eye of Soron {spelled right?!} and the boys collected candy from inside.


They threw paper rings {couldn't find any plastic ones!} in the fire to destroy the ring {as in the story} and then had fun sword fighting and throwing water balloons!



Samuel requested chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting! I found these LOTR sugar toppers on Amazon. They are edible! {affiliate link used}





Party Budget:

I know many of you look forward to seeing how much I spent on a party. Years ago I came up with the number $50 and have tried to keep my parties below that amount. This year was very thrifty!

Invites: free
Swords: $3 Sharpie marker; each guest took a sword home
Paper goods for table and confetti: $7
Cupcake toppers: $5
Food: $10 or less
Candy for pinata: $9
Thrifted black fabric: $3
Total: $37

Happy Birthday Samuel! We love you buddy!

11 comments:

domenica.60 said...

Happy Birthday little boy ! A fantastic "Star Party" !!
Greetings,
Franca

Unknown said...

Awesome!!! Like how you didn't have to spend alot for such a great time and what a great team!:)

Grammie and Pepaw said...

Yay for a great party, and yay for our birthday boy. Happy birthday, Samuel - we love you very much!

Connie said...

monica..........how blessed your children are to have memories of the best birthday parties ever!! really, they are ALL so incredible.
i'm in the process of reading through your book and really enjoying it. we are all lucky to be recipients of your time! :)
connie

Wendi said...

Hard to believe he is nine! It seem like yesterday I was sending you a pick me up package while you were waiting for your little man on bed rest. Time certainly goes by quickly! I always enjoy seeing your thrifty parties. Happy Birthday, Samuel!

kay said...

That is so impressive!! I honestly couldn't have pulled that party off if I spent triple that - you're so creative!

Mrs. Chrissy T said...

Super!!!

*carrie* said...

Wow, you did an amazing job! Love how you all worked together to make it special. So many fun touches. Swords are really cool. Happy birthday, Samuel! Sorry we didn't call at a great time--assuming you were still at Moe's based on noise! =)

Shelby said...

YOU AMAZE me friend. That looks like a fantastic party and I LOVE how you make it work with what you have. Cool idea with making the swords:) Man every party you do is just fantastic. I wish I could think like that. You are seriously gifted and I love that about you:)))

Anonymous said...

Happy Happy Birthday to our Samuel...a very sweet boy! Your party looks awesome! I know you had a good time. Lots of love, Nana

Lauren said...

Happy Birthday Samuel!! I'm hoping to be a mom of a boy soon so I need to brush up ��