Angry Birds Birthday Party

***My blog has moved over to WordPress.com!  Follow the link http://www.sewsweetcottage.com/2012/02/angry-birds-birthday-party/and move on over with me!!***
Justin turned nine years old this year and he has never had a birthday party with his friends. It just seemed like an impossible situation where I would be throwing a party for a child who didn’t like noisy, unpredictable situations and he would be miserable!!  Instead, we’ve always had a fun, themed party with just our own family.  When I was thinking of a good party theme for Justin this year,  I finally came up with an Angry Birds party theme!  He loves playing angry birds on his iPad! 

I searched on Pinterest and found some of the most amazing Angry Birds parties ideas!  And then I came across this party from Simply Styled Home and how they did a life-sized version of Angry Birds.  I showed it to my husband and we decided that this would be a perfect party for Justin, and then it hit us that we really could have a friends party this year because the life-sized game would be perfect—it's outside, active, appropriate for spontaneous squeals of joy, and not based on verbal skills:)  HOORAY!!

So we invited Justin's Cub Scout group.  I have to give a small shout out to this amazing group... Justin has been in Cub Scouts for a year now and I cannot begin to tell you what a blessing that has been to our family.  My son doesn’t attend school, and has a really difficult time attending church meetings—so we were shocked to find out that Justin LOVES scouts.  It makes me tear up just thinking about it!   It is his only typical peer interaction that has ever been successful.  It is because of an inspired Cub Scoutmaster who invited my husband and me to introduce Justin to the troop and talk about Autism. And also due to the unconditional love of these wonderful boys who don't get upset when Justin is having a bad day.
That combination has made miracles happen.  Now I have to get a tissue, so I’m going to move on to the party planning story…

I read about the life-size game from Simply Styled Home, and this is how our version turned out…

And here’s my husband’s original design of the catapult

and my favorite shots of the party…

We also had a piñata fashioned after one I saw at All Things Thrifty

And here’s the rest of the party shenanigans…

 Sometimes we consider a family outing a success on whether Justin just endured the event without having a meltdown, but not only did he endure it---he ENJOYED it!!!!  Justin did change his own party plans and pulled up his own chair to the candy table to sit for his cupcake.  But everyone just went with it and surrounded him and sang Happy Birthday, and it couldn’t have worked out better.  So appropriate for him to be at the candy table which is one of his true loves!

My husband and I had a blast planning this party, and I love getting into the details—I admit it!!  But the whole reason I do it is because it’s an outlet for me and an expression of love to my family….and to my pleasant surprise, we were able to catch such a sweet moment on film memory card!

***Update 5/5/13 Here's the link to my new post with dimensions for the catapult http://www.sewsweetcottage.blogspot.com/2013/05/diy-angry-birds-catapultlife-size.html ***
 
I am linking to the following parties!