::where the wild things are birthday party- Max is 4::

The big 4 year old party was fun for one and all. 

Grammy made Max the greatest costume I have ever seen.  

I threw it  on him and thought for sure he would take it right off. 

He wore it the whole time.
(He actually made me put it back on him later that night.)

I got the chance to book the gym at a church that is near my house.  It’s wonderful to have such a great resource available.  It’s free and it has all the tables and chairs and space and parking and bathrooms and everything I could ever want, but don't have at my cute little house.  

I made him a boat out of cardboard and spray paint.

The sail is a yellow sheet and a quickly made wood frame that Josh put together. 

I cheated and had the cake made.

And it was even more wonderful than I dreamed of.

I am happy to share the contact info for the cake lady - she is reasonable and wonderful. 

 My assistant photographer was extremely helpful as always.

 Max was on the look out for his friends...

 so he could hide from them...

 and then jump out and roar at them. 

 

 The welcome craft was making crowns to be king of the wild things.  

They sat like perfect little statues and listened to me read them the book.  I wanted to make sure every one knew the story.

I then let them loose.  They could choose to just play, run, and nash their terrible claws.  Or they could make crafts.  For crafts I had everything precut and easy to assemble.  

The could make paper bag puppets.

Paint with water colors. 

Or make a boat. 

I had tons of boxes left over from my boat project so we made them into over sized blocks.  

 The girls built a throne for the birthday boy.  

They had a blast building towers, knocking them down, and playing bumper boxes.  

The boxes ended up being a perfectly free wildly good time. 

Max had to take a little buffalo dip break.  

Overall I think the party went well.  Total cost including the cake was under $200.  That's more than I should have spent but this was his first big party and I wanted to do something nice.  My sister in law, Jamie, was such a huge help to me.  She showed up early and stayed late.  I felt very lucky to have her help.  The kids all seemed to have so much fun.  Now I can just chill till this baby shows up.  (THREE WEEKS!!! or less?) 

And I still have tons of cake leftover for breakfast. 

PS - I totally stole some of these ideas.  Go to my pintrest board for inspiration images and links.