Jaden’s 6th birthday party

We threw Jaden a birthday party at the bowling alley on Friday.  We invited his entire class plus about 5 kids from the compound.  We had a pretty decent turnout with nearly 20 kids.  I was most impressed that they all bowled as well as they did!  For a group of 5-6 year olds, they did amazing!!  They understood the game, knew when it was their turn, encouraged each other, and managed all on their own!  Only the younger siblings needed a bit of help. 

Jaden wanted an outer space theme, which in Houston would have been easy to pull off.  With NASA in Houston, rocket ships and space related items are a bit easier to find.  We had to get a bit creative to do the same in Doha.  We made our own invitations with a rocket ship on them.  Then I made the cake to match.  For goodie bags, I made copies of a space shuttle printable I had from Houston, plus I found glow sticks, glow in the dark bouncy balls, and some candy (Mars and Galaxy bars of course). 

I think everyone had a great time.  Jaden had so much fun opening presents at the bowling alley, that we completely forgot to give him our presents when we got home.  Hmmm…. do we even bother at this point??  He doesn’t seem to realize we didn’t give him anything.  I’m sure it’s only a matter of time!

The bowling alley in the Villagio Mall was perfect for the outer space theme … it was kind of dark with a lot of black lights to make things glow in the dark.  Plus every lane had bumpers for the kids! 

  

Of course Jaden and Nicholas had to wear their astronaut costumes!

 

Gathering around the cake all I heard was “I want part of the fire!” “I want a star!”  “I want planet earth!”  “I want the moon!”  So glad no two kids wanted the same thing!!  It all worked out!!

       

I started a new birthday party tradition this year and put out baby pictures of Jaden for his party.  We are celebrating the day of his birth, so we should include pictures from that day (and the early years) right?  I look forward to including some embarrassing pictures in the years ahead!!  :-) 

   

Here’s a close up of the cake … I’m getting much faster over the years … I had the cake baked and in the freezer and the icing made in advance, but the decorating only took about an hour!!