Isaac is 8 and it's a Chess Themed Party!

I can't believe Isaac is 8 already! It seems like time has just flown by and he's grown up so fast!  

After I had the cupcakes all set up and done Isaac wanted to move the "chess" cupcakes to make it look like a real game was being played. If you haven't guessed...chess was the theme of the party. 

With Isaac's birthday being so close to christmas we've always just had a family party. I've always promised the kids that they can have a friend party when they turn 8! So, we chose chess as the theme for the party because it's Isaac's favorite game and went with it! We borrowed my friend's HUGE chess board for the party! It was a huge hit!

Dad and Abbie blew up a few balloons but, with all the christmas decorations we kept the birthday party decorations to a minimum. 

We played guess who and chess at the same time. While the boys were learning the moves of each chess peice they got to play another game with it. When a chess peice was captured, the team got to take a guess to figure out the other's guess-who person. It was perfect because the boys learned the general rules of chess without having to get someone in check mate!(might have taken them a little too long) Then we played don't eat pete! Each of the boys took three turns! They were having such a fun time playing this game. 

The boy's expression when they tried to eat "pete" was so hilarious! I had only planned to play one, maybe two rounds but, the boys wanted to play more, so we played three rounds of "Don't eat Pete!" 

Then we played the chocolate, oven-mitt, dice game. If you got doubles, you put on the oven mitts and tried to eat the candy bar out of the wrapper. I was surprised that everyone got at least one chance at the chocolate bar since it's all by chance of "doubles" on the dice! 

Isaac was excited about the last activity which was to create your own chess peice. The boy's imaginations of a what they thought a cool chess peice looked like was endless....they had everything they needed to create a marshmallow, chess peice with all the fixin's! 

It was fun to see the boy's creativity! 

Some boy's had extra "eyes" to see other opponents moves or special cannons to blast the other peices when they were captured. So creative! 

This was Isaac's mythical chess peice. 

Some boy's chess peices had all sorts of powers to take other chess peices! 

Isaac blowing out his candles on his "chess" cupcake board. 

Opening presents...the boy's knew him well...he loved all of his presents! 

Abbie asked Daddy to re-lite her cupcake...she chose the "queen" for her cupcake. 

Of course, when Abbie had her re-lit, Isaac wanted to blow out a candle again! Too funny! 

The boy's each took their chess peice creations home with them to enjoy later! 

This cake is from the family party! We had this on his acutual birthday! Grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, and cousins were able to come celebrate! We had dinner...Isaac's favorite..PIZZA! We had it with an assortment of his favorite fruits: mangos, bananas, clementine oranges, raspberries and a fresh fruit dip. YUM! 

Then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream! Isaac got a new suit from mom and dad for his upcoming baptism! He's going to look sharp! 

Isaac, we love you so much! You bring such happiness, excitement and pure joy to our home! We love you and you are the best big brother! Happy 8th birthday!