At the beginning, the parties were pretty much just for me.  As Ronin has gotten older, he loos forward to them almost as much as I do!

We are very fortunate to have a huge yard.  Being a July baby has its perks!  Ronin had done up a list of kids to invite (seemed to grow weekly) and I was on a mission to track down parents.  I even posted on a facebook group to reach out to some of his school friends who I didn't know!  So many of his friends were able to come and celebrate with him.  Ronin's Godmother was in Vegas recently and brought back a t shirt which he wore for the party.

Since their first season, Ronin has loved anything to do with the Vegas Golden Knights.  He rarely leaves the house without a hat or shirt with their logo on it.  He was a 'Golden Knight' for Halloween and wore the costume again for the game against the Calgary Flames.  His very favourite vacation was staying at the Excalibur in Vegas last year.

To incorperate the knights theme, I called some very talented people around Calgary.  Sweet Relief did the sugar cookies for the 7th year in a row.  She also made amazing chocolate covered oreos which were wonderful!  When I went to pick them up, my one year old baby was thrilled to have a stuffed cookie to enjoy on the way home!  We love Sweet Relief so much.

Decor was fun to do this year.  My mum had a sheild and a suit of armor at her house so I stole those.  Father of the year got Ronin a jersey so that was hung up too.  Balloons were done by the amazingly talented Lupita (follow her on ig lupitam2013).  She set up the backdrop to look like pillars of a black and gold castle.  The welcome pillars with also gold and black and had the golden knights logo on the top.  The cake, cupcakes and cake pops (yes, sugar) were all done by the lovely Rita of Cupcake Stories.  This woman doesn't sleep.  I don't know where she finds the time to do all the beautiful things she does.  She does a great job of gluten/dairy free too!

Dawn from Dirty Business Home Cleaning is a good friend of mine.  Not only is she doing a deep clean of my house (bit by bit) but she worked so hard cleaning up and helping me prepare the food.  Friends, if you're in Calgary and need a cleaner, Dawn is your girl!

Thank you to Jen of Bounce It for the Jenga, potty toss and the huge hockey shoot it game which the kids (and dads) loved.  Such a great local company who is professional, efficient and has great prices!  The knight theme was brought together by the medieval bouncy castle I rented from Astro Jump.  They were great to deal with from start to finish.  

Dark Age Creations came to show the kids a little bit about medieval times and they got to try on some armor!

I always struggle with goody bags.  Since our parties are usually a bit more of a family event, I never really know exactly who is going to show up.  I hate giving dollar store stuff out because we are trying to declutter our house and I don't want any other parents to have to deal with it!  That's why I'm so lucky to have Abeer who has been doing Ronin's facepaint at his birthday for all 7 years!  Because we had to change the party due to weather, Abeer sent her daughter to do the kids faces instead.  Well this young lady is an artist!  All the kids loved her.  We also had Jayn join us again this year who made sure each child had at least one (or two or three) balloon animals to take home.

As I mentioned, I am really trying to go through the house and clean it up room by room.  I am amazed with how much 'stuff' our son has.  We have duplicates of some toys, some never opened.  When I took the unopened boxes to the Children's Hospital, there was a little girl who donated her birthday money to the Kids helping Kids foundation.  I told Ronin about this and he was so excited to set up his webpage and made a goal of $300.  We felt an overwhelming sense of love as we saw the funds pass the $700 mark!  We will go to the Children's next week to give the cash and some more toys, so if you are still wanting to donate, his website is:


http://www.childrenshospital.ab.ca/site/TR/Events/General?pg=fund&fr_id=1110&pxfid=10460&fbclid=IwAR2Q5Xj0lCe4so03xr5n8gYlrLO0zwPToB7tTS3Ovhe5KY-_dYM-fjue3bE

Thank you to everyone for the love and friendship you showed Ronin on his 7th year!