Bennett's 7th Backwards Birthday

At the end of September, our sweet Bennett turned 7 years old.  To celebrate, Bennett decided to have a "Backwards Birthday Party!"

What exactly is a "backwards birthday party?"  Well, it's a party where everything is backwards!

Guests were greeted at the door with "Goodbye!  Thank you for coming!" Balloons hung upside down and a "Happy Birthday" sign hung backwards on the window.

Of course, the first thing Bennett did at his party was the very last thing typically done at a birthday party: he opened presents...with his feet!

(This was a very special birthday for Bennett since Nana and Papa, Brian's parents from Missouri,  were able to be there for it.)

After presents were opened, everyone ate an upside down cake...

...UNDER the table!



To celebrate, we sang the "Happy Birthday" song...backwards.

After cake, we ate lunch: pizza...in a cup.  And we drank soda...upside down in a can.

After lunch, we played two games outside: throw the candy INside the pinata...and run a Relay Race backwards.

For the relay, all the guests were divided in to two teams and were told to run backwards as fast as they could.  It was priceless to see their faces when, in the midst of one team's joy of winning, we revealed a twist to any good backwards game: the losers won and the winners lost!

(Another surprise guest, our dearly loved babysitter Peyton, came in from Texas Tech to celebrate Bennett's birthday.)


As a party favor, each boy was given a strip of paper with backwards printed words and each was given a handheld mirror. The boys actually really loved this and thought it was really fun to be able to read backwards using a mirror.

As each child left the party to go home, Bennett made sure to say goodbye with a "Hello!  Welcome to my birthday party!"

Out of privacy for the children who came, I didn't post a picture of the little boys who attended Bennett's party but I did want to mention that, as 7 year olds, they really got in to this the party theme.  I most realized this when I gathered all the squirmy boys on the couch to capture a picture of them for posterity's sake and one of the little boys said, "since this is a backwards party, instead of smiling, I think we should all frown!"  And so they did. :)

Happy birthday to the little boy who truly turned our world upside down!  Bennett, we are incredibly grateful to have had you in our lives for seven full years!  Cheers to many many more!!