11 Years Old...How did that happen?

There is no way I am old enough to have an 11 year old!  I just had him.  No matter how many times I tell my boys to stop growing up so fast, they just don't listen.  So here we are.  We have an 11 year old.

We started Greyson's birthday weekend off with a pool party with his friends.  He had a blast.  There were lots of laughs, silliness, and good times.  

We were having trouble getting the candles lit.  It was so windy.  Every time we would get one lit another would go out.  

Present time.

How many kids can you fit on a raft?  

Birthday morning with birthday waffles.  So many candles!

 Next, we headed to the mall to go ice skating. They have all improved quite a bit!

Lunch at his favorite place, Carl's Jr. 

Back home for presents.

He was very excited over the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.

He wanted a "disco" light for his bedroom.

He asked for a Dairy Queen cake. 

Happy 11th Birthday!

 Grey and I ended the night with a birthday massage.  He loves this tradition.  

Here is our 11 year old.  Hoping this is his best year yet. We have lots of fun in store for his 11th year!

Staycation Bangkok

A few weeks back, my husband had a class he was attending in the city for the whole weekend.  We live a good hour outside of the city and that is not including all the crazy traffic jams we usually get stuck in.  So, the boys and I decided to head into the city and make a fun weekend out of it.  The boys were thrilled to have a weekend in the city and they were able to spend sometime with their dad.

Our trip started out a little rocky with a taxi driver that was falling asleep.  I was starting to get very nervous for two reasons.  One...I thought he was going to crash and two, if I asked him to pull over, was he going to freak out?  There have been some pretty crazy taxi stories and I didn't want to fall victim to either option.  I worked up enough nerve to ask him to pull over.  I explained that I was getting worried about him failing asleep. He pulled over and apologized a few times. So, I was dropped off along the highway with the three boys and our luggage! He pulled off with another customer and we found a much better taxi driver.

I booked the Galleria 10 Sukhumvit by Compass Hospitality, which was right on Sukhumvit ( a main street in the city).  When we checked in, they gave all the boys an ice cream cone!  Pretty great service.  The hotel is really modern and fun.  They had a great rooftop pool for the boys to play in.  I really enjoyed my stay there and all the staff were very friendly and helpful.  If you need a place to stay in the city, check out this hotel!

After Ben came home from his class, we headed to Siam Ocean World (recently changed to SEA LIFE Bangkok Ocean World.)  We have been to this aquarium once before and the boys really enjoyed it.  They added a fun glass floor to walk on over the shark tank.  Greyson walked across it with no problem, but Britton, Lincoln, and I were glued to the solid floor.  No way I was going to walk over that glass floor.  Lincoln finally conquered his fear and quickly ran across it. The sharks really are the main attraction there.  We could have sat and watched them all night.

The next morning I took the boys to the Neilson Hays Library.  This is the English library in Bangkok and owned by the British club.  On Saturdays they have story hour.  They read books by the author/illustrator, Quentin Blake.   He is one of our favorites.  The boys were able to do a fun craft after the stories. Then we decided to try out the cafe at the library.  It doesn't look like much, but we were all very happy with our meal.  I had some of the best samosas I have had while living here.  I wish we lived closer to this library.

We spent the day swimming and relaxing and then headed off to our FAVORITE Lebanese restaurant, Beirut.  Can you believe I never had had Lebanese food until we moved here?  Really great food.  All three of my boys love the food and that almost never happens.

We left the next morning after breakfast.  We had a great weekend in the city and need to do it more.

Power lines in the city.  

How to Throw a Ninja Party

For the past three years I have put off having a ninja party.  I have had no desire to throw one. But, when my middle son came asking again this year for a ninja party, I finally gave in. Especially since last year he had an art party due to some very strong suggestions from me.  It's his party, right?  So, this past May ( I know, I am WAY behind) we planned his party.  His actual birthday is in June, but it fell the weekend that all of our expat friend would be traveling back to their home countries once school was over, so we celebrated a couple weeks early.

Invitations

I love how these invitations turned out.  I found  few ideas on Pinterest for inspiration
and I combined them into my own invite.  I just used black construction paper, folded, tan paper for the face and red crepe paper for the headband.  I just typed up the party details and glued them inside.

Decorations

Again, Pinterest was full of ideas on how to decorate. I kept finding so may fun ideas.   I just kept it simple with a red & black theme.  For the main background, I just covered our windows with red paper, made paper lanterns, and hung his birthday banner up using a Ninja font.

I loved the way the food table turned out.  I made ninja head balloons and hung them from the ceiling. 

 I also added chop sticks for the kids to try out. This was also a great time to display our dragon fan that we picked up at the Umbrella Factory in Chiang Mai, Thailand and a carved dragon that was given to the boys as a gift. It's so much fun when pieces you have can be brought out and tied all together!

Games

After searching Pinterest for some unique games, I kept coming across the same few ideas.  All of which I liked, but I was hoping for something a little different.  I don't think the boys minded at all though.  The boys first had to get dressed in their ninja gear.  I found ninja masks at a dollar store and made them all headbands with their names on them.

The first game was to find out what your ninja name was.  I printed up ninja name papers for everyone and then they wrote out their name and decorated their ninja name banners.

 After they found out their ninja names, the boys had to search for the ninja mini-figs in the rice.  They could only use the chop sticks to pick up the mini-figs.

We played a few rounds on "Sensei Says".  This was super fun and the boys were laughing through the whole thing.

The had to knock the balloons down by throwing ninja stars at them.  (I also found those at the dollar store.)

We ended the games outside with the ninja ropes course.  The boys were pretending the rope was a laser.  So fun.  

Cake

After the games, we went inside for cake.  I loved these super easy cupcakes.  I saw a few different versions online.  These had to be some of the easiest cupcakes I have ever made.  Just cut the frosting off an Oreo to look like a ninja mask, add sprinkles, and you are done!  Lincoln loved them!

Party Favors

All of the boys went home with their headbands and their ninja masks.  I also found ninja weapon packs at the dollar store.  I also made them a little container of "sushi".  They thought that was funny! I made the sushi from swiss cakes rolls and rice crispie treats.

The party ended up being a really fun time and Lincoln was very happy about it.  After all was said and done, I guess I changed my attitude towards the ninja party!

Actual Birthday

Lincoln's birthday fell on the last day of school.  So instead of doing our school work, we spent the whole day celebrating him!  He started his day with birthday pancakes. 

The off to the mall to go bowling.  They had a lot of fun!

Then lunch at Lincoln's favorite restaurant, Carl's Jr. 

You may think all we do is eat, but after lunch we headed to Coldstone for a birthday treat.

Then, back home for cupcakes and presents.  I love celebrating birthdays and look forward to them every year!  Now, a few months off before I have to start all over again!  

Here is my Ninja Pinterest Board, where I found all of my ninja inspirations.

Here is the Toy Story Party I threw for my 4 year old.

Here is the Minecraft Party I threw for the 9 year old.