A Very Ninja Birthday

My son's 7th birthday was last week. I know- crazy! I did some writing earlier this week and had to change my bio to say "mom of a 7 yr. old boy". Time certainly does progress on. But to celebrate the occasion we had booked a party at the local Skyzone. Which is a fabulous trampoline park not far from where we live. They have party packages where you get the invites, jump time, pizza and pop. I really felt a bit lame sending the invites out- completely not creative. But time is short so I went with it.
But as the day approached I felt more and more bothered by the complete lack of creativity that I was expending this year. Last year, if you remember, we did an Explorer party at the local nature center. I made explorer notebooks for each kid, explorer packs, the invites were in an itinerary format, and they got to touch a snake. I mean how cool is that? So I panicked.

Printable cupcake toppers from zakka life

I decided a day and a half before his birthday to pull together a ninja theme. Yup. It actually turned out pretty cute. I googled ninja parties, got some cute ideas for making ninja masks out of t-shirts, made a ninja stamp from a drawing Jasper did of a ninja for me, and found some cute little ninja guys at the local party store. It was coming together.... when my son informed me that the chocolate dipped strawberries we had planned on bringing for a snack to school weren't cool enough. He wanted cake pops. Now, far from me to discourage the use of cake pops in any situation. BUT, I already had cupcakes to make for the party, treat bags to finish up, ninja masks to figure out, and decorations to plan.

He wanted these that I had made for the class Christmas party-

 abominable snowman cake pops

But I love a well done theme party....

So ninja's it was.

For a little extra ninja fun- his lunch was ambushed too. 

Yup- ninja sunbutter and jelly sandwiches. Love those candy eyes.

The idea was that the kids would show up to the party and I'd tell them that to earn their ninja masks, they had to do ninja training on the tramps. Cool idea, right? Yeah- they're  6 &7 year old boys. They played dodgeball the whole time and had a blast. 

So much for the theme, but it was still the "best birthday party ever!". So I guess I'm satisfied.