Up to God and Back: Nicholas' Minecraft Birthday Party

Nicholas wanted a Minecraft theme for his 6th birthday party and thanks to Pinterest, there were no shortage of ideas for decorations, games, food, and prizes. We all had a blast!!! Might have been my favorite birthday party for my boys ever!! It sure beat his 5th birthday party when the karate coach forgot to show up and he spent half the party crying on the stairs!!! But that was last year ... this year was crazy Minecraft fun!!!

Nicholas chose the design for his invitation. The front was simple, but the 3D creeper that pops out when you open the card took some careful measurements, cutting, and folding! I thought they turned out cute!

We moved back all the furniture and filled the open space with lots of green and black balloons. Kids played with the balloons while waiting for everyone to arrive.

I covered the picture in our living room with green paper to make a creeper face for the party

Ken put masking tape all over the windows to look like the windows in the game

It's funny how kids always want what they don't have. I always make their birthday cakes, but all Nicholas has ever wanted was a "store bought cake with toys on top." This was our compromise. I made the cake and made the "toys" to put on top. Nicholas was happy and that's all that matters!

Snacks were minecraft inspired as well ... all things from the game: Apples, carrots, "red stones" (strawberries), "sticks" (pretzels), "potatoes" (chips), "fish" (goldfish crackers), "gold" (Hershey kisses wrapped in gold foil), and cookies.

Game time ... we planned for a game of "creeper tag" and a crafting game.

Prize table for the crafting game. We sprinkled bits of paper all around the house and the kids had to find the right "recipe" to earn the prizes. They could win diamonds, gold, obsidian, emeralds, iron, bookmark, bouncy ball, notebook, glow stick, and a variety of stickers...all Minecraft themed.

Take home bags ready for the kids to fill with their prizes.

All set up and ready for their friends to arrive.

First game - creeper tag. Ken explains the rules. Whoever has the creeper plate is "it."

Everyone wants to be it!

The creepers are released!

Our back yard opens up to the skinny strip of green ... perfect place for our game of tag

Everyone loved the game, but it got hot after a while and we came in for a water break before starting the crafting game

Lucas & Arthur bring their papers to the crafting table to earn their prize.

Colin is excited to get some gold!

Jaden helped hand out the prizes ... it got a bit crazy and he was a HUGE help!!

Lining up for prizes. These kids would have played forever! But after ~30 minutes we closed down the prize table and served pizza.

After the pizza, we went back outside for a TNT explosion. Kids were ready to watch Ken set it off.

Ken add Mentos candy to a 2 liter bottle of diet coke ... look out!

Best I could do for a picture! You can see the soda shooting out. Ken did it twice and the second time, the bottle fell over and soda flew out toward the kids. Hilarious!!! It was a blast!!