Christmas in Candyland

 Phin LOVES the game Candyland.  He could play it all day.  So I had the idea to do a Candyland themed birthday party.  But to my dismay, I discovered there is hardly ANY Candyland birthday party paraphernalia out there.  So I changed it to "Christmas in Candyland" to broaden my options for decorations, party favors, etc.

I teamed up with my good pal Pinterest and went forth with the planning.  I had to DIY-it on most things, and there's no better place than Pinterest for that, right?

I made all the invitations, which was no easy task.  They looked something like this:

I however made it very hard on myself by cutting out each little square with brightly colored paper and gluing them to the border.  (it was fun on the first 2, then ridiculously tedious and down right annoying.)  Next time I will make one and do color copies.  Lesson learned.  But they turned out REALLY cute and that's what counts, right?  JoAnn's had some cute Christmas/candy themed stickers that went perfectly with the project.  I even found some fun candy cane font that I was able to download for free.

I got most of the decorations and party favors from Oriental Trading Company.  They have really cute stuff for super cheap, so I highly recommend.

 ^ ^ Yep, that totally happened.  More on it in a minute.

For our kids' birthday parties, we do our very best to have them in the morning.  There are a million reasons why this is the best idea ever, but here are just a few...

-You can serve donuts, fruit and coffee.  Inexpensive and easy in comparison to feeding everyone dinner.

-The donut can double as a "birthday cake", if you will.  So no baking a cake.  Awesome!

-Minimal time spent listening to your kids repeatedly say "is it time for the party yet?"  You can gladly answer, "just about!"

-The party is over and done with by lunch so you have the rest of the day to recoup.

-All your other parent-friends will sing your praises about what a genius idea this was as they're sipping their coffee and watching their kids work off their donut sugar buzzes just in time for naps.

Phin and I headed to Tim Horton's to pick up our 4 dozen donuts.  Everyone there knows us so they were giving Phin birthday high fives and even gave him a Timbits Christmas ornament.

We told Phin to pick out his special birthday donut to put the candles on.  Here's what it looked like by the time it got to me to light it up...

Admiring the yumminess while everyone sings Happy Birthday...

Make a wish!...

"So, so nyummy."  Yes, he says yummy as nyummy.  What, you didn't know there was an "n" at the beginning?...

Desmond thinks donuts are nyummy too...

We even let Phin's fiercest Candyland competitor come to the party...

I love this next picture of the kids lined up on the couch watching Phin open presents...

(left to right:  Alaina, Hayden, Dylan, Ethan, Mylo, Brady, Bishop)

Aaaaand, it's time for the fun part :: The Candy Punch Game...

Yep, I totally made that bad boy thanks to the help of Pinterest.  Yes it was painstakingly time consuming, but SO worth it because it was a lot of fun.  Behind each circle is a brown paper bag containing a little prize.

Showing off his loot...

Sugar buzz?

A fun time was had by all.  Another successful birthday party!