Wolfie’s Bouncey House Olympic Sized Birthday!

Last week was Wolfie’s birthday and this weekend we had a party. Now I have a confession to make. Last year he turned 6 on April 6th. And I was SO excited! “Hurray! It’s your Golden Birthday!! You are turning SIX on the SIXTH!!!” Wolfie was really into the Winter Olympics last year and we had a plan to do a fantastic Olympics Themed Party with an obstacle course in the back yard and everything. Cute, right?? Only…..it rained. And rained. And did I mention the rain? The party was postponed and postponed yet again and then ultimately…..he never had a party at all. Ugh. What’s that old saying, “The Cobblers Children Always Go Barefoot”?? I felt SO badly. Here I’m blogging about all these fab parties and my own little guy gets screwed. Nice job, mama.

Needless to say this year I was gonna do it right. I had grand plans to bust out the crafting supplies and design a 4 star birthday! Only….Wolfie had other plans. “Can we please have my party at Pump It Up?” “Um, really? You don’t want to have a fun party at our house? In the back yard?” “No.”

Argh. For those of you haven’t experienced the magic of Pump It Up, it’s a colossal party space that houses several GIGANTIC bouncy house and inflatable structures. On the up side, the party is totally contained and organized by the staff. The kid’s arrive, they get a little spiel on the rules and then they get to go into the room where they bounce like maniacs. The staff sets up and cleans up. Easy peasy! The down side? It’s pretty commercial. The place doesn’t really let you personalize your party. You can’t decorate. You have to use their food. And while it’s loads of fun for the kiddos, it sure ain’t perty. At least, my kinda perty. But as your child gets older you realize they have opinions and their own tastes and it’s less about creating a Martha-style party and more about wanting them to have something fun and “them”. And after last years fiasco, I wanted Wolfie to run the show. So what to do?

Wolfie wanted a Pokemon theme at the Bounce House Extravaganza. I wanted to unload some of the Olympics stuff I had bought last year. Which left us with this:


Ah yes, the Poke-Olympics! I had no clue if this was going to work, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to try. Of course I neglected to realized this place is really popular and the only times they had open were 9am and 7pm….so we had it at the crack o’ dawn.

I made these little “passports” for the kids and before they watched the “rules” video I passed out Pokemon terry cloth wristbands and made a little speech explaining how this was all going to work.

There were six spots on their passport and I told each kiddo they’d get a stamp every time they went on one of the bouncy things. I didn’t want anyone to feel like that had to go on something if they were nervous (the bouncy slide, for example, is a little steep) so I said that they could earn bonus points for striking a special dismount “victory pose” whenever they exited a bouncer.  Greg demonstrated some awesome poses (which got some laughs from the kids). Get all your stamps and you get a prize! The kids sat there kind of stunned…and definitely intrigued!

Here they are listening in rapt attention to my AMAZING speech. hah! Just kiddin’….they were watching the little safety video.

Wolfie got a special crown and scepter as the Birthday King. Please note the crazy casino carpeting. Oof!

So shut mah mouth because the kids had a blast! They kept racing back and forth between the bouncys and me—trying to get stamps in their booklets.

The “victory poses” were the funniest. They’d shoot down the slide and strike a pose!

At the end of their session they all lined up to go into the “party room”. We hummed the Olympics theme and it was time for the medal ceremony. Wolfie got a slightly bigger medal (hey, you only turn 7 once….never mind that the back of the medal said “Happy 6 on the 6th!” Ahem.)

The kids looooooooooved the medals. They had USA on them and the Olympics logo so all the kids thought they were REAL. OLYMPICS. MEDALS. Huzzah! It was awesome.

From there my little Olympiates went to the party room where they ate pizza and fruit and admired each others medals. SO CUTE. Wolfie got to sit on a giant inflatable throne which he was shyly pleased by.

(I can’t lie….the colors….the COLORS! It’s too much. And I love color….but not like this. Yee gads, who decorated this place??)

Please note Sir Wolfgang is wearing his “comfy loungers” and Pokemon tee. Sure I love dressing him up but there is a place and time for everything…and bouncing isn’t a fashion show, it’s about BOUNCIN’ IN COMFORT!

I made pretty simple goodie bags—I forgot to take a picture, but I just used a plain brown paper lunch bag with a little red ribbon and pokemon label (kinda like this). Most parents I know have a love-hate relationship with the goodie bag. They can get a little outta control. And part of me wants to rebel against doing them, but then when it comes down to it, it makes the kids happy and what the heck…yer only little once. The bags had lots of silly little trinkets like lollipop ring pops, red white and blue whistles and these cool spinning tops that lit up (Go Party Supply Store!). I also wrapped big ol’ chocolate chip cookies in aluminum foil and added a ribbon to make them look like medals. These were a big hit!

I bucked the system and we opened presents at the party. I’m not sure how it is where you guys live, but out here there is a growing trend to NOT open presents in front of the kids and wait til you get home (or if you are at home, wait til everyone leaves). I’m not sure if it’s to avoid the chaos/mess of paper or if people think it’s too long for the kids to sit patiently through or they are worried presents will get ruined…BUT, I’m not a fan of this trend. Call me old fashioned, but I think half the fun as a guest is watching the birthday kiddo open up your present! [some of my best friends are in the non-present opening camp so, you know, no offense if you are too….but I’m still gonna make you open your present from me while I’m there! heh]

I will admit, it was a little chaotic, with paper bits flying….but the kids were so cute ooohing and ahhing and giggling over everything!

Wolfie was grinning from ear to ear the whole time. The staff was totally great AND they did all the clean up. So despite my initial reservations….it was pretty awesome! Goes to show you what do I know??

Afterwards we had to race off to Little League…and then we ended the night watching a movie, eating leftover pizza and talking about how awesome his birthday weekend was. An action packed day to be sure.


BUT THAT’S NOT ALL FOLKS

In the middle of the night, Wolfie woke up doubled over in pain moaning and sobbing. We ended up spending over 4 hours in the emergency room and it was pretty awful. Wolfie is a really stoic little guy and to see him crying for two hours straight was heart breaking. He couldn’t even walk so we had to take him in a wheel chair to get his x-rays…by 3:00am we had determined it wasn’t his appendix or any obstructions. It was extreme gas and poopage (sorry….gettin’ all TMI on you guys here). A tad embarrassing but we were just relieved it wasn’t anything worse. We went to bed at 4:30am, emotionally and physically exhausted! What a crazy end to our fantastic day!!

So to end on a positive note, we finally woke up  the next day at 1:30 in the afternoon!!!!!!!! (unheard of). Wolfie was feeling 100% better and we had a great brunch and wandered around in the sunshine.

When we got home, Wolfie and Greg recorded “I’m in a Wheelchair,” a goofy fun song they made up about his ordeal the night before.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY one last time, my little monkey. Thank you for being so sweet and fun….and for letting mama put you in pants that “sorta look like clown pants” and thinking they were cool. I love you!

27 thoughts on “Wolfie’s Bouncey House Olympic Sized Birthday!

  1. wow this birthday had it all, action, drama, joy, tears …..definitely memorable! that birthday throne is so utterly ridiculas its kinda cool. i think you made up for last year’s bungle….and good for you for following what wolfie wanted and also i totally love that the presents were opened at the party…this is good old fashioned respect and the kids love it, and i think it shows appreciation that otherwise might go unnoticed!

  2. Now *that* is the ultimate awesome birthday party when the kiddo gets to decide what he wants for his party! It looks like he had an amazing time with his best buds. I love the idea of the cookie medals! I’d love to try that. Glad to hear the dude is feeling better… prob ate too much. lol. Poor sweetie. And don’t cut yourself up too badly about these birthday parties. They’re supposed to be fun!

    1. The cookie medals were really cute and easy! I was originally going to wrap them in gold wrapping paper, but i put them in aluminum first and thought, “Hey the look kinda fab silver!” You should try it for sure!

  3. THAT was an awesome birthday, even if it ended at the ER. My daughter was super excited about Halloween, made pumpkin pie, started to get ready for tricks and treats and ended up at the ER. (no, you can’t eat the pie filling before you cook it…raw eggs are NOT good for you.) Your son is super cute, too….I LOVE the pants. It looks like you had the best birthday yet! Many more to come, Wolfie!

  4. I just love this story and your party! Thanks for sharing the reality of your life with us readers—I really appreciate that in a blog. I agree with you that us mamas who love to dress up our little ones should always remember to dress our kids comfy for an occasion. I would love to see my guy in dark blue skinny jeans all the time, but sometimes it just makes more sense to put him in the stretchy sweatpants when he’s climbing and playing. 🙂
    I’m sorry Wolfie had such a bad middle of the night experience–but I think it is so cute how he made a song up about it the next day. That is such a great way to laugh off what could have been kinda traumatic for a kid! I’m so going to remember to do that if something like that ever happens to us. 🙂

    1. thank you thank you….I’m so glad you like our snippets of real life. We try to make this a positive happy place over here on Modern Kiddo, but I def believe in sharing our challenges and the reality of life with kiddos! We’re all in this together mamas! xoxo

  5. it’s not a party unless someone winds up in the ER! (same thing happened to my nephew when he was that age… painful gas).

    i’ve been to several pump it up parties. UGH… THE FLUORESCENT LIGHTS AND BAD DECOR! i admit when i signed up for oliver’s little gym party this summer, i was pleased that the lighting and colors were a little less offensive. but you’re right. the kids have a wild good time. i’m glad you opened presents there. i wasn’t sure what the deal is with that trend. i thought it was because the scheduled party time slots were too short, but i’m realizing i don’t remember kids opening presents at parties at the park either.

    you did a great job of personalizing everything!

  6. People don’t open presents at the party? What the heck, that’s half the reason you HAVE a party!

    I think the Olympics idea was fab. And don’t sweat the 6-on-6 lateness. My mom didn’t get my First Holy Communion pics taken until I was 9, which is to say, two years late and I barely fit into the dress.

  7. I want those action slacks! It was great to be there and those light ’em up tops are still spinning in our house. As for all the birthday Nazi’s–eff ’em. I decided to put “no gifts” on the invitation this year and it caused confusion, some people brought gifts, some didn’t, my mother (who loves to point out that our “kids have everything”) told me I was being a mean mother by not allowing gifts. In the end, he got gifts from special peeps and, oh, look, there’s Wolfie’s Thank You card written a month ago right here in my purse.

  8. That party looks like six times AWESOME! And most importantly Wolfie had a blast.

    So true. I want those action slacks too. And the Time Out t-shirt–the Peach has outgrown hers by quite a bit! FIE!

    And the Olympics thing is genius as well as the “stamps” for going down all of the Bouncy slides.

    You totally turned it up to ELEVEN with this bouncy house party, Alix! Well done, lady!

  9. Wolfie is so adorable! Just showed Finn the pics and he is obsessed with Wolfie’s striped pants. Can’t wait to see you all next month!

  10. i don’t even know where to begin on this one!!!!! amazing party! you are such a good mama! i’m so sorry that you guys ended up in le ER that night!!!! i love those bouncy houses and i totally fantasize about having one soon! little league wolfie is killing me with the cute!

    HAPPY 7th, my sweet little curly haired buddy. XOXOXOXOXOXO!

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