Jacob's Diego Party in the Rainforest...... FOR REAL!

I think I can..... I think I can.... I think I can finally have this party........ that is if it will EVER STOP RAINING!! Planning a party like Jacob's 4th takes a lot of time, energy, thought and lots & lots of errands..... all that I can deal with. It's even kind of fun for me to come up with the concept and make all the things for the kids to enjoy. The rain however was no fun at all. By Sunday I had either changed the date or the time of the party 4 times!! That's alot of phone calls and a whole lot of running in the backyard to quickly pull up all the things that can't get rained on.

By Sunday, with the party scheduled for 4:00pm, I looked once more at the radar and it looked like 5:00pm would be our best chance for rain. I made ANOTHER round of phone calls and changed it to 3:00pm, hopefully to just miss the rain storm. Well, what do you know..... just like clockwork..... 3:00pm.... guests arriving.... AND SO DID THE STORM. Literally, 3:00pm on the dot. Oh well, guess that radar isn't so helpful after all.

It worked out fine..... we just reversed some activities.... ate cake and opened gifts first, and then, thanks to the good Lord above at about 4:00 there was a break in the rain and we ran outside for our Diego adventure. It was really wet and pretty muddy, but the kids didn't seem to mind at all. The big kids, Madison, Macy, Kate and Wheeler guided the little ones through the rainforest to find the baby animals that Diego said had been trapped in a net. They went through many adventures along the way.... jumping, climbing, finding treasure and a few nasty creatures.... it was a jungle out there!

Kate helping Mally make her mask

Holly, Walton, Madison and Baylor working on their projects

Making Baby Jaguar masks

That boy LOVES a glue stick

Baby Jaguar and Diego joining in the fun

Walton, Baylor, Mally, Jacob, Sarah Kate and Walker
after they made their Baby Jaguar masks

All the kids with their guides....
well, all except for Reese who came a few minutes later

Reese giving Jacob his present ......
Bakugan Battle Brawlers..... oh, how excited Jacob was!!

Jonathan helping Jacob get all his toys freed from their boxes

Bringing the party indoors because of the monsoon outside

My masterpiece..... well, maybe not a masterpiece.... but I sure was proud of it.
And as much time as it took (homemade from scratch),
I wanted to take lots of pictures of it

And the back of the cake

Yum! Yum! Worms straight from the jungle

My Diego cupcakes.... kind of cute..... kind of scary at the same time.....
Well, the kids seemed to like them

My little cream cheese snake dip.....
amazing how none of the adults wanted to eat it!

Jacob blowing out his 4 big birthday candles.....
and me freaking out that I'm about to have to cut that cake!

Owwww! That's hurts..... cutting into my hard work!

Elizabeth, Julee and Jodi hanging out waiting for the rain to stop

Here's Click showing everyone a picture of the baby animals caught
in a net in the Rainforest.... it was a trap those trouble-making monkeys,
the Bobo Brothers set out. The kids got their rescue packs full of items
to help them along the way and headed out the door to save the baby animals.

Here's the Alligator Swamp..... their first stop on their trek through the rainforest

Wheeler taking the kids through the swamp....
they'd have to stay on the rocks and make sure they didn't step
on the alligators to get through the swamp

Macy guiding the little ones through the Treasure Forest.....
they'd have to run through the tall grass and
look for golden coins of treasure on their way

Madison telling all the kids about
how to get through the Spider Cave

Inside the Spider Cave where the kids found lots
of icky bugs for the hungry spider to eat.... if we fed her,
she'd let us through the rainforest to get to the baby animals

Walton leaving the Spider Cave with lots of bugs for the big spider to eat

Now we're running through the Dangerous Dart Frog obstacle course.
I set out fake leaves with dart frogs on each of them that
they'd have to avoid as they ran through the course.

Kate helping the kids at Piranha Pond
(I glued magnets to each fish and to the fishing line...
when they lined them up, they caught a fish).
That gorilla sure is hungry.....
they'll have to catch some fish for him to eat

Then it was time to go to Quicksand Crossing.
Wheeler guided the kids through with a warning....
Watch out! Don't step in the quicksand!
And don't let that big snake bite you either.

What a big girl! Mally isn't bothered a bit by that big ole snake or a little quicksand

No doubt Walton would swing over that snake like a pro

Yikes! SNAKE GORGE! Look at that REALLY BIG snake!!

Walker braving the Snake Gorge

Oh no! The Bobo Brothers have all the baby animals in a trap in the tree --
we'll have to use that rope to pull them down and save them.

We did it!! We rescued the baby animals!!
Diego gives us some Magic Treasure Sand
for helping him rescue his friends.

Panning for gems from our Magic Sand

Everyone finding their gems from the Magic Sand

Look at my treasure!

Julee and Jodi helping Mally & Reese sift through the sand

Kate & Madison..... Great job girls! You really entertained those little ones
and made the party alot more fun for them



My precious boy, I think you had an awesome 4th birthday!
Thank you for being patient with Mommy this week with
all of her crazy mess and all the times I told you....
"no, don't touch that.... don't play with that... it's for your party."
I love you, sweet boy!!! You've made my life better than I ever could have hoped.