“Never Laugh at Live Dragons.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
Back in June we celebrated one of our sons turning 18 with a dragon birthday party! It is so hard to believe that he is eighteen now… I was pregnant with him when I started this blog. He is our “middle child” – number five of our nine, so now more than half our children are adults. So hard to believe! Life is changing so rapidly…
He hadn’t had a themed birthday party in a few years – last year we were in Oregon over his birthday and celebrated at my parent’s home and the year before we celebrated by taking everyone to Silverwood (our very first time going to a theme park as a family). This year the oldest three had plans to be together down in Arizona and (other than ordering him some gifts) I hadn’t made any plans but wanted to try and figure out how to make it special.
Friday afternoon (his birthday was Saturday) the girls and I were discussing options on what we could do (despite the rainy weekend) and thought going to a movie might be fun. Mission Impossible was discussed. That could be a fun theme for a new adult! 😉 … but not appropriate for all the younger kids. Then one of the girls suggested the new live action How to Train Your Dragon movie. They said it’s one he had been wanting to see so that sounded perfect. Plus some of the gifts I had ordered him also featured various dragons!
All of our children are Tolkien fans, especially this particular son (he and his 20 year old sister read through The Simarillion over the summer), so I thought I could maybe round up a bunch of Tolkien dragon quotes and go from there!
After a couple hours of the girls and I discussing food and cake ideas, he came home from work and said “I know it’s probably too late, but have we ever done a dragon themed birthday?” The girls and I started laughing and told him that’s exactly what we were planning!
Anyway… here are some pictures from his special day!
How to Train A Dragon Movie
Fire Pizza
Originally I thought we’d head downtown for Fire Pizza (a favorite of ours!) but settled for wood-fired pizza at Vicino Pizza (also excellent!) right across from the theatre.
MARGHERITA – San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil, basil oil
IL NORCINI – pepperoni, house made sausage and speck, meat sauce and mozzarella
SPECK AND PEAR – house made speck, apricots, balsamic reduction, San Marzano tomato sauce, burrata, chives
SAUSAGE AND HONEY – house made sausage, jalapeño, honey, San Marzano tomato sauce, mozzarella, oregano
Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Movie Night Snacks
I did a little brainstorming then headed to the grocery store the night before his birthday. I planned to have lots of snacks and appetizers for a Lord of the Rings movie night at home.
Download my Dragon Party Food Labels
You can also download my Movie Reel Birthday Banner from our “Surprises” Birthday Party
- Dragon Fire Punch (Orange Punch)
- The Only Brew for the Brave & True (Root Beer)
- Dragon Veggie Platter (our go-to for St. George’s feast)
- Dragon Scales (Fiery Hot Chips)
- Dragon Claws (Bugles)
- Dragon Eyes (Deviled Eggs with Slices of Olive)
- Sushi Dragon Roll
- Dragon’s Hoard (Gold Coins)
- Dragon Eggs (Peanut M&M’s)
- Wyrms (Trolli)
- Minty Mountains (Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream)
- Middle Earth Cupcakes (made with the rest of the chocolate batter from small cake)
- Dragon & Lonely Mountain Cakes
Orange Punch
- 48 oz orange juice
- 2 liters lemon-lime soda, chilled
- 1 can (46 ounces) pineapple juice, chilled
- 1 quart orange or pineapple sherbet
Pour orange juice, soda and pineapple juice into punch bowl. Top with scoops of sherbet. Serve immediately.
I shared more details on how I made the dragon cake decorations here.
Map of Middle-Earth Cupcakes
To make the Map of Middle-Earth Cupcakes I printed a map and used a cupcake wrapper guide to cut them out, then just taped the edge together. Super easy!
Birthday Gifts
I printed an image of Dragons of Middle Earth to glue on to a gift bag…
…and also printed an image of The Green Dragon onto card stock to create a birthday card. (Click the link to download my pdf document.)
His gifts included the new LEGO Lord of the Rings: The Shire with the Sméagol & Deagol (Free gift with purchase!) I had been able to snag on release day, a couple hats featuring two of his patron saint from Dulia Saints, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to complete his collection of Tolkien Illustrated Editions (he got super excited opening these two books!), and a sweatshirt from Silverwood’s Stunt Pilot ride.
Dragon Birthday Cake
You can find my post with additional pictures of making his Dragon Birthday Cake(s) here.
It ended up being a BIG week for him! He finally got his driver’s license (my injury, surgeries and this long recovery has delayed so many things!), bought his own laptop and cellphone for college with some of his savings (he previously had a Gabb phone), and was awarded the Gregorian Scholars Honors Program and Scholarship as well as Early Assurance into the DPT program, and made the decision that he was GOING AWAY for college after all (originally he was looking at all his local options or an apprenticeship). We are so very proud of the young man he has become and how hard he has been working!
Happy 18th birthday!
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” – J.R.R. Tolkien
St. Michael, defend us in battle…
St. Joseph, Terror of Demons, pray for us!
St. Aloysius, patron of Catholic youth and students, pray for us!
St. Francis of Assisi, patron of animals, pray for us!
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