The Presidents Party!

Finally - the post you've all been waiting for: Ellis' Presidents Birthday Party!

The rain ruined our plans for a nice backyard dinner, but we still had a lot of fun crammed in our house with a bunch of Ellis' favorite people!  He chose the guest list himself, mostly people who share his affinity for the U.S. Presidents.  So we had everyone from Mary (the former U.S. History teacher) to Caroline's daddy (history and trivia buff) to the McQuivey family (members of the Ellis fan club who all seem to know most of the presidents' names) to Hank (who knows little about presidents but can totally pull off the Abe Lincoln look).  It's always more fun to be around people who understand what makes you tick -- right?

I had a little too much fun with the food table.  Ben, Henry and I brainstormed a few ideas for presidential food . . . and then we got carried away!

Main course: President Roast-a-melts (roast beef & cheese sandwiches)

Jell-o Ford was a stretch (I really wanted to make the layered Jell-o!)

Barack-oli Obama and Benjamin Carrot-son

Don't forget the Ulysses S. Ranch (with a friendly reminder from Dubya)!

Array of chips and snacks

Lincoln Logs (Tootsie Rolls) or Harry Tru-mints

Wash it down with some Calvin Kool-Aid (Millard says, "Fill-more!")

Birthday cake time!

The moment Ellis had waited for all year (he LOVES singing Happy Birthday almost any day!)

Help from Mom with the trick sparkler candles (not the smartest idea for a 3 year old!)

This flag cake is what started the whole idea for the Presidents Party.

I'm kind of proud of it!

Marian, Caroline, Ellie, and Hank enjoy the goodies (I had red, white, and blue smeared all over my floors throughout the house!  Worth it for these guys.)

Deidre, Isaac, Becky, and Megan in their red, white, and blue

Best costume award goes to the McQuiveys: J.B., Logan, Soren, and Janessa!  Aren't they patriotic?

And Hank's Abe Lincoln costume was awesome too (wish I had a better picture!)

Quiz time!  We had two quizzes: a name-the-presidents quiz and another with presidential trivia.  Ellis took the questions very seriously.

Ben took it seriously as well!  He made sure no one cheated as they graded their trivia quiz.  The winners of this one?  Mary and Henry (Ellis was close)!

It's no question that Ellis was the winner of the name-the-presidents quiz!  He proudly called out the answers for everyone to hear.  This was his big moment!  We had some bonus questions about the General Authorities, which threw off the history buffs.  Ellis was not deterred.

Here's a little video clip of Ellis announcing the presidents to everyone.  He has come to recognize how AWESOME he is for knowing all the presidents, and he's pretty proud of himself when he shows off his presidents skills now.  And apparently he has some pretty decent nose-picking skills too (which I didn't notice until after I loaded this movie onto our computer!).

The casual observer might see this stash and think Ellis got overloaded with U.S. Presidents gifts.  If that observer could have a little peek into our home over the past two weeks since the party, they would see hundreds of "regular kid" toys going untouched on the shelves, and this stash of "president kid" toys being played with, lined up, scattered, and read over and over again.  He just can't get enough!

Thank you to everyone who made this 3 year old's birthday great!