gus' knight and princess party

Gus turned 5 this year.  Of course, I want him to stay little forever so I am never happy about these things, but he certainly was.  Last year I did a really simple playgroup style party for him so I thought I would do it again.  I did it the day before his birthday so that it would be just mom's and little kids.  I provided cupcakes and told people to bring their own lunch if they wanted to.  Cheap?  Perhaps, but it was the only way a party was happening.  I like the idea of rotating every other year that I actually let them have a party, but since these were both really low-effort and low-budget, I don't think they really count.  I needed to savor my last year when I don't have him in school and I can actually have a weekday party.

Gus and Nora had their Prince Philip and Briar Rose costumes ready to go (along with lots of other knight and princess costumes as seen above), so I thought we could get some use out of them and wear them to the party.   We chose a knight and princess theme based around this idea.  We told friends to come in costumes if they had them.

If they didn't, we had a few extra to provide...

Mostly the kids just played, but I did do a storytime with a book called There Was An Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight.

Gus helped me make these Sword in the Stone cupcakes...

After being sung to, he promptly pulled the sword out which I told him meant he was now the king.

Gus loved having his buddies there to sword fight.  Some light sabers mights have snuck in there, too...

On Gus' real birthday Nana was in town to make pancakes for him (He says she makes them better than I do).  He requested blue milk and green and pink for Jimmy and Nora.

He opened his presents and was very excited about his Naboo Starfighter.

They promptly got to work on it...

Thanks to some culture passes to the Botanical Garden we were able to go to the Great Pumpkin Festival for free.  It was a nice way to spend Gus' birthday.

Nana treated all the kids to a pony ride.

The kids all picked out a pumpkin to decorate and take home...

That night we had family over for pizza and cake.  Gus requested a Sleeping Beauty cake so the Burch's helped provide the cake toppers.  

If you look closely you can see that Aurora is laying down in the cake.  Gus and Dot insisted on that.

We love you Gussy-Bub!!