Cruise's Wreck-It-Ralph Party

Cruise's birthday started at about 7:30 in the morning. I was so excited for Cruise to open his presents from Dave & I and my parents. After convincing him that it was okay to open some presents, I led him into our room where he discovered a brand new work desk and chair from Grandma & Papa Greer. He also got an obnoxious singing hamburger card to go with it. He has loved having the desk and is working much better with his ABA tutors since he has a desk that fits him so well. Thanks so much guys!

He then opened our presents which were the movie Hotel Transylvania (one of his favorites) and a Fix-It-Felix watch. He had decided he'd like a watch rather than a brand new bike. Yeah, I know. But of course, it had to be Fix-It-Felix, so thanks to Amazon.com, I was able to find one.

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This year, Cruise wanted a Wreck-It-Ralph party. I quickly found out that Wreck-It-Ralph products are hard to come by. But luckily I was able to find a few things to tie the theme in. And thanks to Etsy, I was able to get some super cute invitations.

Because I am hugely pregnant, I didn't have it in me to to the whole giant backyard birthday this year. So we decided it would be an appropriate activity (considering the theme) that we have the party at Chuck-E-Cheese. All that was left to prepare was the cake, gift bags and balloons. 

The cake Cruise chose was the Fix-It-Felix building from the movie. I bought some amazing square pans with 90 degree angle corners so I wouldn't have to sculpt out a bunch of cake. For the cake, I decided to just do the box stuff rather than from scratch since I had so many other things I had to make from scratch. I did chocolate and vanilla cakes alternating, and put a rice crispy treat base at the bottom to hold the weight. So there were a total of 5 layers. I made a chocolate buttercream icing for between the layers and all around the cake to hold the fondant on. I made marshmallow fondant in brown, white and blue a day ahead so it could settle in the fridge overnight. Everything else, I relied on colored piping frosting. The cake toppers were just toys I was able to purchase on Amazon.com (luckily) but don't ask me how much I paid for them. 

The total time it took to make and decorate the cake was about eight hours. It wasn't my best work, but I did the best I could considering I had two unattended monkeys running around the kitchen poking the cake and stealing all my tools (not to mention they ran off with the cake toppers and lost them outside at one point). 

For the party favor bags I had to get a  little more creative. I ordered some inflatable hammers from Oriental Trading Co. and then picked up some candy and bouncy balls at the nearest party supply store. But really, the hammers were the big hit. Also in the bags were a thank you card that were also done by the same person who did the invitations.

Chuck-E-Cheese turned out great. All but one of his friends were able to attend and he was just so excited to have them all show up. They all played games until their tokens ran out, and then we had pizza and soda for lunch. Of course they had to do the "show" where Chuck-E comes out and frightens all autistic children everywhere, but Cruise held it together really well. I was quite surprised, but then again, he'd been talking about this party for months. I don't think he was going to let it get to him. After the show, we cut up the cake and served it. Most of the kids didn't touch theirs since they were too busy redeeming their tickets and running around the building. We were finally able to wrangle them up for gifts. Cruise received so many wonderful gifts, all of which he plays with every day now (he likes to hide them in his desk). I am confident he got everything he wanted for his birthday and then some.

I love Cruise's face here. He is trying so hard to not freak out.

Later that afternoon, Grandma & Grandpa Ybarra came over to give Cruise his present. Since they too found out that you can't find anything Wreck-It-Ralph, they were genius and made shirts! One had Wreck-It-Ralph, another had Fix-It-Felix, and lastly, one had a picture of himself, Jett & Dave from a fishing trip. They also gave him some money for school clothes/shoes, so that will be so nice! Thank you guys! 

And as always, Cruise said it was "the best birthday EVER!" I love that kid.