The robots! Maude and I made it our art night project to get these guys together. She had a lot of crazy junk lying around that she contributed and I saved toilet paper rolls and bottle caps and whatever else I could think might help for the month leading up to this...
Maude did these two guys. I love the star eyes and the silver guy's hat...
These were more of a collaboration...
Maude did this guy's face. I love all the little gears and gadjets....
This party was sort of a goodbye to the retro future room Bastien has had for the past 5 years. (He's transitioning to monsters right now... which is funny since that was the theme of his 3rd birthday party.) Anyway, I pulled out all the robots from his room to decorate the garage. I also brought out his robot bedsheets and he had some cool robot magnets for the fridge in the garage. I got busy doing who-knows-what-else, so Maude and KB and Zurico and Jason did all the decorating. They did a fabulous job as you can see. Thanks guys!
These awesome photos (as well as the other ones that look really great) were taken by our friend Garrett Hauenstein. It sure is helpful having talented friends, yes? I would recommend hiring him to cover any event you want to capture if you fear you won't be able to do it yourself. Well, let's just face it, a host never has time to take photos and they wouldn't look like this anyway, so keep him in mind. I found this fab robot wrapping paper a long time ago at Target, along with the plates and napkins and robot candles (on sale, whoo hoo!)
Maude got a MDF board and cut this shape out. Then she painted it with chalkboard paint and a few white details...Voila!
These were our little make-your-own robots. We bought some magnetic tape and adhered it to all the little doodads. That way, the kids could make up their own designs.
Trying on the robots...
You may have noticed the green in the background. It's an actual digital green screen, like they use for visual effects. We had intended to have the kids dress up in the robots and dance in front of the screen so I could try to play with it in editing. However, it's hard to direct kids and that many kids?! Well... Instead we just went straight to our Robot Freeze Dance!
This was supposed to be a contest. I bought some robot-themed prizes to give away. I didn't anticipate how difficult it would be to judge little kids. Man! I tried to pawn the judging off on some other unsuspecting parent, but alas... Our first round winner was Zooey! (kid in red) He won robot Shrinky Dinks. Remember those?
Next up, our all girls round. The winner was Shelly (girl in the middle). She was awesome!
Maude got a MDF board and cut this shape out. Then she painted it with chalkboard paint and a few white details...Voila!
These were our little make-your-own robots. We bought some magnetic tape and adhered it to all the little doodads. That way, the kids could make up their own designs.
Trying on the robots...
You may have noticed the green in the background. It's an actual digital green screen, like they use for visual effects. We had intended to have the kids dress up in the robots and dance in front of the screen so I could try to play with it in editing. However, it's hard to direct kids and that many kids?! Well... Instead we just went straight to our Robot Freeze Dance!
This was supposed to be a contest. I bought some robot-themed prizes to give away. I didn't anticipate how difficult it would be to judge little kids. Man! I tried to pawn the judging off on some other unsuspecting parent, but alas... Our first round winner was Zooey! (kid in red) He won robot Shrinky Dinks. Remember those?Next up, our all girls round. The winner was Shelly (girl in the middle). She was awesome! 
However, that meant the other girls were losers. Note to self: study up on early childhood development before planning future birthday parties. It seems this is not a good age for competitive games and it put a damper on the festivities. Since the boys were reluctant to have their own round, despite this awesome prize I found on sale at my favorite shop in Chinatown
I decided we would award the prize to the best parent.
I decided we would award the prize to the best parent.Congratulations Strummer's dad! You were really rocking those 80's Raybans.
Our little robot guys took a beating...Before...
...and After.
But they served their purpose, which was to have a good time.
...and After.
But they served their purpose, which was to have a good time.The kids drew some pretty cool stuff on the driveway with chalk....
and Bastien said his favorite part of the birthday was the pinata.
and Bastien said his favorite part of the birthday was the pinata.
(I love this picture, Garrett)
Then, it was time for cake...
Can you believe what an awesome job Maude did of putting these together?! All I did was cook a ridiculous amount of Betty Crocker cake. (That was when I thought I was going to try to do the cakes and I wanted to make sure I had enough for mistakes. )
Can you believe what an awesome job Maude did of putting these together?! All I did was cook a ridiculous amount of Betty Crocker cake. (That was when I thought I was going to try to do the cakes and I wanted to make sure I had enough for mistakes. ) Here you can see the cute little robot candles...
We asked him why he had his head in his hands and he said he was just covering his eyes for the surprise.
We asked him why he had his head in his hands and he said he was just covering his eyes for the surprise. What surprise? He'd already seen the cakes.
I hope he wasn't too disappointed when he took his hands away and it was still just cake?
Finally, I would like to share with you the two robots his friends made for him...
This one was from Eve.
This one was from Shelly.
This one was from Eve.
This one was from Shelly.
How much do you just love these?!!!
Bastien said maybe Isabella can have a robot party when she turns five.
I'd be down with that.
If you'd like to view the full album of pictures Garrett took at the party, here's the link.
