the hockey party

Colby's excitement about his hockey party was pretty adorable.  According to him, it was EPIC!  He originally wanted a party at the trampoline park, but I would much rather spend the money on goals, pennies, and hockey sticks that he can use again and again, and thankfully he loved the idea.  

A few of the dads in our ward had started initiating hockey games in the school parking lot, and Colby loved it every time, so he knew how much fun it would be.  It was the best decision because the party was a blast!

Brooke wrote this on our driveway, even though the party was at our school parking lot :)

A few more pictures before the guests arrived...

We mostly invited kids from the ward, and of course our family. 

Going over the rules and dividing the kids into teams :)  We ordered neon yellow pennies for one team to wear so that it was clear whose team each kid was on.  We also had extra sticks for those that didn't have one.  We bought some pretty old looking ones from a FB Marketplace ad, but also bought a few from Five Below.  (That was so stressful because I went to several stores and they didn't have them!  I called several other stores and they didn't have them either.  I finally found one store that had four, so Grandma picked them up on her way back to Flower Mound a few days before the party.  She saved the day!!)

I loved watching Colby with all his buddies, some younger, some older than him.  But he's able to hold his own out there!  In just a few short days, he was able to learn how to rollerblade and wore his blades the entire party.  Even when opening gifts, haha. 

We never actually came up with team names, but the neon team was ready to play...

The non-neon team was also ready...

Kevin and Grant Hibbert were the adult representatives for each team, and kept everything running smoothly. 

These sweet girls stuck together throughout the party.  Kevin was hoping that Brooke would play hockey, but I knew that she would want to be with her cousins and I was right in my assumption that they didn't want to play. 

But they did watch from the sidelines for a bit...

They played for probably an hour before we took a break for pizza. Jerry was super helpful and picked up all the pizzas from Little Caesars so neither Kevin or I needed to leave the party!  Before we said the prayer, I wanted one big group shot!  

Kinley and Aubrey, Whitaker, Taten, Harvey, Edmond, Colby, Kevin, Brooke and Emery, Eli, Caleb, Ridge, Beckett, Jones, Griffin, and Brock

Pizza time!  We also provided clementines (which the kids peeled while I was at my RS Super Saturday that morning), salad (that Bev made), carrots & dip, and Capri Suns.  

Sweet Emery :)

Then it was time for cupcakes, which I ordered from Market Street to keep things simple.  I was still recovering from my surgery and was already overdoing it a bit with a Super Saturday and a birthday party on the same day, but I wanted his party to be perfect. He was thrilled with the cute cupcake toppers I found on Amazon. 

His favorite topper was the goalie one :)

As we sang to this sweet boy, I tried motioning for Kevin to adjust that crooked helmet, but I actually kind of love it. He was skating his little heart out and loving his life. 

My friend Kiley offered to take a picture, so we got one more picture with the birthday boy. 

At last, it was time for gifts!  The Hawkins needed to head out, so Colby opened their gift first. It was a wrapped amazon box, but she instructed Colby to start pulling the little dollar that was peeking out of the middle of the box.  As he pulled, the dollars just kept on coming.  He was freaking out, and his little friend Ridge (in the background on this pic), was screaming, "What!! What!!" as those dollars just kept coming.  It was the cutest idea I've ever seen, and Colby jumped right up and tried to skate a few steps to hug Carter.  He then hugged Joanna and all the kids were gushing over how lucky he was.  (There were twenty $1 bills stuck together, but it seemed like SO much money as the bills just keep on coming!  I am definitely gifting this to another kid in the near future.)

A few of his friends gave him Pokemon cards from their personal collections, which was sweet because they are all VERY into trading cards after school. 

Brooke helped read the note from Auntie Mel Mel...

Watching kids at birthday parties cracks me up.  Always crowding right next to the birthday kid to get a good view of the gifts.  And Ridge's reactions were the best!  "You gotta invite me to your house someday, okay?"

After all the friends were gone and the sun was going down, Colby opened the stomp rockets the Peacocks gave him and started shooting them into the air.  They had little lights on them, so it was the perfect activity to do at dusk.  It was also the perfect Fall evening.  We really couldn't have asked for better weather or a better turnout. 

We loved celebrating with Colby and seeing him surrounded by family and friends that love him dearly!