Ninja Party!!!

Russell's been getting the short end of the birthday party stick his whole life.  His birthday is only a couple weeks after mine, right during the height of tax season, and a week and a half before Jules.'  Plus when he was 2 and 3, I was having some bigtime medical issues around his birthday time.  This year, I decided to get right on it...and have his super Ninja Birthday Blowout Training Dojo just a couple months late.  We had his birthday party in May. 

But I really did it to it.  Usually my kids' birthday parties have a "Birthday" theme.  I was just coming off of Jules' "Flower" themed birthday party and it was the first time I ever wished I had MORE time with the kids at a party.  So I got ambitious.  Here are some of the things we did to Ninja-tize this party:

Daggers! Ninjas have to have weapons to fight evil.  This is from a pattern I got here. She made hers for invitations.  We had the boys practice writing chinese symbols.  When they were pretty good, we had them mark their daggers. 

Nunchuks!  We had a special outdoor practice session at our Dojo, specifically to learn to swing the nunchuks without smacking yourself in the face.  The handles didn't hurt if you messed up, but the plastic chain could leave a little mark.  I made these with a length of pipe insulation, black string, and some chain-by-the-foot from Lowes.  Each warrior marked his tool with colored duct tape strips.

 Throwing Stars! Used only to fight the Forces of Evil!!!  Not to be thrown at fellow Ninjas!  I enlisted my nephew Sam to make me a bunch of these after he mowed my lawn.  Thanks for coming, Sam!

The Hall of Flames!!  My friend Sharon helped me create the flames from tissue paper-type plastic gift wrap stuff, gold and red.  She hung them from the ceiling with thread and pushpins.  The Hall of Flames was much more imposing before most of the flames got knocked down.  We had the warriors outside learning stealth walk, crouch, and roll.  When they had all mastered the skills, we came in to test them in the Hall of Flames!

Ninja Sushi!!  It's a crappy picture, but a delicious treat.  My sisters helped me make rice krispy treats.  You make a log of the hot goo, by rolling up the pan's worth with some gummy worms inside (Swedish fish to be more Sush-y), which you then lay on a layer of fruit rollups.  Cut them in slices maybe 3/4 inch wide.  These went like hotcakes.  Every Ninja trainee needs a little refreshment after a hard training workout.

In all, it was a successful party.  The boys wore black.  We had "Kung Fu Fighting" playing in a non-stop loop in the background.  We gave the boys certificates at the end of their training.  They could have used a little more unstructured Ninja Play time, but whatever.  Russell was pleased to have ANY party at all!