Jonas' Super Rad Aquabats Water Balloon 4th Birthday Extravaganza

As of today, my Jonas is four years old. We had been planning on having an all-out party for him since last year he didn't get one due to our big move (we bought a house and moved in four days before his third birthday). We had thought he would have a Batman theme and were looking for someone to show up dressed as Batman, tights and all...

But right before I started gathering party supplies he told me he wanted an Aquabats party. I said OK and that I wasn't sure if there were Aquabats party supplies, but we'd figure something out. Turns out there are Aquabats party supplies but only online at one web site. Before ordering I made sure he actually wanted an Aquabats party, and he told me he wanted "an Aquabats WATER BALLOON birthday!" So that's what we did...

Invitation front

Invitation back

So the Aquabats would be an actual rock band who also happen to be super heroes. I was a fan in the 90's but sadly never got to see a live show where they dress in their super hero costumes and battle evil monsters while playing music all live on stage. They now have a TV show for kids on The Hub and there's a season on Netfilx. Rock band + super heroes = awesome in Jonas' book.

For Jonas' cake, I made it chocolate with buttercream icing and drew the Aquabat logo guy on it. I also made a bunch of funfetti cupcakes with cookie burgers on them (thanks Pintrest!) in honor of one of Jonas' favorite segments on an episode of the show: Burger Rain. (You can watch a video of Burger Rain at the end of this post.)

I altered some decorations I had from Charzie's Yo Gabba Gabba party (I'll have to post on that later) to make them Aquabats-appropriate. And we had fruit, veggies, chicken nuggets, cheese & crackers to snack on.

Decorations & snacks

I had ordered some official goodie boxes & fillers for our kid guests, and then Jonas helped me choose some extra stuff to stick in there, too.

Guest loot

We started out just hanging out and snacking. I had a water table set up for the two-and-under crowd. Then we really kicked things off with a water balloon toss.

Water balloon toss

Next, the kids got to take turns chucking water balloons at Snakey. Snakey is actually a monster from the show. I painted him on cardboard and covered it with contact paper. After they all had a couple turns, we had them line up and attack together. They thought it was awesome.

The boys chucking water balloons at Snakey

But even more awesome than that was when they got to use a water balloon slingshot to battle the Floating Eye of Death (another actual monster from the show, which I also painted & contact-papered). I rigged this bad guy up on the kids' fort. I tell you what, boys ages 3-6 were all about that slingshot.

This guy had some fantastic aim.

After defeating Snakey and the Floating Eye of Death, we had a water balloon and water gun free-for-all. Then it was cake time.

Cake time

Jonas blew the candle out at the wrong time and freaked out. I re-lit it, he blew it out at the end of Happy Birthday and all was well.

We had cake and ice cream (vanilla or "monster" which had M&Ms and cookie dough in it) and then opened presents. Jonas got quite the birthday loot! The big surprise was our big gift at the end...

Jonas discovering his drums

Yes, we're crazy and bought our four-year-old drums, real drums, for his birthday. Kid's got rhythm.

And of course, Jonas being Jonas, had to go and do this:

This picture sums up Jonas

Now watch yourself some Burger Rain!

An IHOP Adventure

So I was standing in the women’s bathroom at IHOP making sure my two-year-old wasn’t licking the floor or anything, when my almost-four-year-old opens his stall door announcing (in the sing-songy voice he usually uses when he makes this announcement), “I poooooooped!” We were not the only ones in the bathroom, and he was wearing only his shirt and socks...

Backtrack. I took all three kids (ages two, almost four and five) to IHOP by myself tonight. No, I am not brave, but yes, I am crazy.

I took the kids to IHOP because their daddy has been out of town since Saturday night. Before that he had been home only a few days after returning from another work trip. The kids need to be thoroughly distracted when Daddy is gone because if they’re not (and sometimes even if they are) they go nuts. I was already going crazy at home so why not go crazy somewhere else where other people would bring us our food and then clean up after us? Right?

At IHOP with Middle One 

My middle child, the mostly naked one in the IHOP bathroom, has the most difficult time. When he gets particularly upset he goes into what we call “Hulk Mode.” Once in Hulk Mode, it’s nearly impossible to talk him down and we just need to let it run its course. But sometimes, sometimes we can talk him down by giving him something to look forward to later. Something like IHOP. I can tell him, “If you’re going to throw fits like this, I can’t take you to IHOP,” and he just might calm down.

Pancakes would be the favorite food of all three kids. IHOP is a pretty safe bet for me to take the kids by myself. The servers have always been super nice and it is a sit-down restaurant where you sort of expect to hear loud children at the beginning of their sugar rush. You just don’t expect naked children loudly singing about their poop.

**NOTE: IHOP did not sponsor this post, though I wish they did. I'd love some free pancakes!**

Jonas Songs

Here some songs that 3-year-old Jonas has made up; a couple a while a go and a few more recently, but he sings them all (and the main lyrics are the titles):

Beetles & Bees

God is King

Punch My Bread

Punch My Pets

Clap Your Pizza

And that's Jonas for ya.  I felt the need to post something amusing after cleaning up 4-year-old Simon's middle-of-the-night-top-bunk puke and waking up this morning to Jonas freaking out because he had some "ballerina" in the potty and a drip got on the stool.  It's been a sort of groggy, sort of slap-happy morning complete with an all-out toddler tantrum from Charlotte (who was angry that I put away the iPod touch she had quit playing with).  But thankfully, thankfully there has been no more puke and no more poop... yet.

That Jonas...

Last night Jonas missed bathtime because he was helping Chase order our pretty new appliances.  So he got the nice big tub all to himself this morning while Baby Charz napped and Simon played iPad games.  As I was drying Jonas off, combing his hair, putting his lotion on and helping him get dressed, we heard a bird outside the window and had this sweet conversation...

Jonas:  What that bird doing?
Me:  I don't know.  Maybe he's building a nest.
Jonas:  That a she bird.
Me:  A she bird?  Well, maybe she's building a nest.
Jonas:  I fink she looking for her babies.
Me:  She's looking for her babies?  Maybe she is.
Jonas:  Her babies are in a volcano.
Me:  In a volcano?!?
Jonas:  Yes.  They in a volcano.  And her eggs in a volcano.  She's looking for her babies and eggs.  They in a volcano.

Well, the conversation started out sweet, anyway...