a glow-in-the-dark sports party

my son kj requests birthday parties that are true to his interests. when he was two he asked for a choo-choo party, he turned three surrounded by family and his passion for baseball had began, his fourth birthday party was one of my best-planned-parties ever and this is the only picture i have to share! (he loved the movie “cars”, husband built a homemade race track, the guests all made race cars out of potatoes, with pit passes etc. we raced all afternoon – it was so cute – maybe i’ll scan photos in one day since it was pre-blogging), he loved transformers when he was five, in a galaxy far far away KJ turned six years old, when he was seven his obsession with the military began, at eight years old we indulged in his love for video games, last year we celebrated with a neon influence…

and this year, for his tenth birthday, he said he wanted a glow-in-the-dark sports party. he follows in his dad’s sports-loving-ways.  i used a simple invite that was emailed out via evite.  we celebrated with all of the fourth grade boys from his school and because the party was going to be held at an event/kids academy, there wasn’t much else i had to plan {bonus!}. so, i focused on making a couple of details extra special and enjoyed the simpleness of not having to be in charge of anything else!

for the party – the kids were each given a white glow sports tee, glow necklaces, and painted their faces with glow paint. for seventy-five minutes they played glow-in-the-dark dodgeball, football, had a fort-building competition, then had a battle from those forts in the dark, obstacle courses, and much more! to say they had fun would be an understatement.  i couldn’t stop smiling, and i was just observing.

this boy of mine is such an original gem. he is so sweet, incredibly thoughtful, 100% boy, and becoming a young man/gentleman that i am so proud of. definitely a glowing light.

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party details:

glow-in-the-dark-hat: i used the party hat template linked to here, and colored it with a glow-in-the-dark marker. it was so bright!
for the “10” sign: used the same marker on felt fabric.
to download & print the “happy birthday” water bottle labels, click here. print on full page labels, and cut.
to download & print the “glowing thank you” labels, click here. print on full page labels, and cut. i used brown wax paper sandwich bags which can be found at whole foods market.
for the cake toppers, i used water balloons, filled them with tiny glow in the dark sticks and when the lights were off – each child had a glow-in-the-dark balloon on their chocolate texas cake!

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this weekend we will have our traditional family breakfast party, and i’ll sulk in the fact that my kids are growing up.

{all photos and party plans by me, Jane Rhodes. labels designed by lovely lindsay for seejaneblog}