Donovan's DND 9th Birthday
Donovan’s DND Birthday! We had to be extra creative with Donovan’s party this year since we are still practicing social distancing. He absolutely loves playing DND, especially making characters, so we decided Eric would run a new campaign for Donovan with his best friend Hatcher. They got to make new characters, and they went for kitsunes! They can transform into foxes, they were thrilled! Donovan is a Soul Blade named Sense, which means he can summon soul blades in his hands. Hatcher is a ranger named Rusty that uses duel wielding with a trident and a dagger. He also has a puppy animal companion named Gus Jr. They spent several fun weeks rolling up their characters and deciding on their skills and abilities to be ready for the big day! Hatcher’s dad Alex rolled up a cleric named Mord to help out the party. They went into a dungeon and were attacked by gargoyles. Mord was grabbed by the gargoyles, flown to the ceiling and dropped. Everyone survived! Rusty summoned a celestial dog so every round Rusty and his dogs got to attack gargoyles. His own dog pack! Donovan summoned and threw soul blades at whatever gargoyle was near him, and after awhile he started flanking gargoyles to take him out. Mord the cleric kept everyone alive. =) After they defeated the gargoyles they were able to gather gems from the gargoyles and also got the dancing rapier and dagger of doom.
We got this fun shirt for Eric for Father’s Day but he needed it early =) He did an awesome job running all the DND!
On the morning of his party I went to pick up turtle donuts at our favorite special donut place. I dropped off half of them at Hatcher’s house so they could have a birthday donut break to have a break from the roleplaying fun. I also dropped off a couple of surprises. Both boys got little dragons that hold a new D20 dice for the game, and I got several different magic items so that when they found them in the game, the boys could have a real version! Hatcher got a doom sword, and Donovan got a dancing rapier! He was so excited! He used the rapier all day, play fighting, and for rolling dice. ;)
Allll the healing potions. A good excuse to taste every Gatorade Zero to find which ones are DZ’s favorites =) Grape wins!
Dancing rapier!
Sunday is his usual day for DND with Evan, so he got to continue the role playing fun! And he got an amulet that lets his character shape-shift into a wolf (a red stone amulet I got off of Amazon) and he found an electric greatsword! Soo much fun! Donovan and Evan are both rangers in this game named Arrow and Speedy.
Electric greatsword =)
While Donovan was playing DND, the girls and I decorated the game room for the rest of his birthday party fun! We turned it into a dungeon, complete with a cave canopy for them to sleep under, bedrolls, and torches. The torches were especially fun for me. I reused the puck lights I’d gotten for the camping stools, and used tissue paper and black paper and hung them on the walls. They were perfect for our family sleepover! I also got some blow up dice, a stuffed D20, and a blow up dragon/knight bop it toy that was great for using his new swords. We got out all of the dnd related games, like Above and Below, Legacy of Dragonholt, and some new Choose Your Own Adventure stories. After he was done with DND, he enjoyed some delicious burritos from Ted’s, we sang to him in a makeshift sombrero, and Serenity wrote a song about his birthday and sang it for him. It was so much fun!! Then we played some Above and Below. Later that night we also played Near and Far. It’s made by the same people but we haven’t played it much, but we managed to figure it out and had so much fun! Donovan got 42 points and absolutely stomped the rest of us. Super birthday win. After a while he realized he could use the blow up dice to roll for the game, and he started a complicated game of baseball using his sword to roll for his turns. And then for everyone’s turns. =)
Near and Far, Legacy of Dragonholt, Above and Below, Dnd books, and Exit the Game
Torch Run, Choose Your Own Adventure, Forbidden Desert, OOTS and Cauldron Quest
Dragon/Knight for sword practice
Torch Run
Above and Below
Donovan loved reading the stories for Above and Below, and since it’s his birthday he got lots of turns =)
We paused the games for some Ted's, DZ’s favorite restaurant! We had to DIY the sombrero =) Serenity wrote him a song and performed it at dinner =)
Learning Near and Far
He really didn’t want to go to bed, but finally agreed to try the Choose Your Own Adventure book that was based on DND. He escaped the dungeon on the first read-through and actually loved it!
Swinging by torchlight =)
We ran out of turtles so Papa saved the day by bringing donuts for the birthday boy’s actual birthday breakfast. =) Yum!
Morning snuggles =)
Aunt Jen, Casey and Barrett surprised DZ by delivering fun summer goodies for his birthday! It was so good to see them =)
