Wesley Hampton had an epic Nickelodeon-themed throwback birthday party this weekend, and the hilarious photos will give your inner-90s child the ultimate case of FOMO.
In honor of his 31st birthday, Hampton, who lives near Austin, Texas, invited all his friends over to chill out on his Big Orange Couch, chow down on some “Good Burgers” and avoid getting slimed as they tested their “Guts” in a series of games to ultimately win a coveted piece of radical rock from the infamous Aggro Crag.
“The party was my wife's idea,” the birthday boy told ABC News. “She wanted it to be a surprise, but she realized it was a bit more of an undertaking than she could manage alone so a couple of months ago she told me her idea and enlisted my help. She pretty much still organized and planned it all. I was just the manual labor.”
Although the party was inspired by the couple’s love for '90s era Nick TV shows, it also stemmed from one of Hampton’s favorite childhood memories when his school won the “Nick Takes Over Your School” contest.
“I got to do part of the ‘Guts’ course they set up on the playground, played dodgeball in PE class with Amanda Bynes and Michelle Trachtenberg and meet some of the other Nick stars of the day (Lori Beth Denberg, Larisa Oleynick and Darris Love to name a few),” he recalled. “My only regret is that Kenan and Kel weren't there. They're who I wanted to meet more than anyone else. I was told they were filming the ‘Good Burger’ movie at the time.”
The only problem with that awesome memory is that neither Hampton’s wife, Emily, nor his best friend were able to attend despite all growing up in the same town.
“The twist of the story is that not only did my friend Shaun miss out because he was still at our old school, but my wife is a year older than me and graduated from this school the year before so she missed out as well,” he explained. “So a lot of the inspiration came from the fact that we have that sort of shared history, even though we didn't know it at the time.”
The Nickelodeon-loving friends more than made up for it with his epic birthday party, though.
The guests showed up in costumes such as June and Henry from “KaBlam!," Little Pete from “The Adventures of Pete & Pete,” "Harriet the Spy," Ug from “Salute Your Shorts,” Quailman from “Doug,” and Chuckie Finster from “Rugrats.”
Kel Mitchell of 'All That,' 'Kenan & Kel': Where He Is Now Teacher's Harry Potter-Themed Classroom Gets Kids Off to a Wizardry Start in SchoolThey played a series of games throughout the party to compete for the ultimate prize — the radical rock trophy from Aggro Crag, which was every kids’ dream back in the 90s. Hampton made the trophy himself.
“Once people found out there was a piece of the Aggro Crag on the line they became a lot more competitive,” said Hampton’s wife, Emily.
And of course no throwback Nickelodeon party is complete without lots and lots of slime.
“My wife found a bunch of official recipes online,” Hampton said of the homemade concoction. “I guess the make-up changed over the years, but she used one that was vanilla pudding, corn starch, apple sauce, water and green coloring. It was cold, but didn't taste too bad.”
His wife had originally planned for the party’s guests to do a giant obstacle course in the backyard ending in a big slip-n-slide, but rain got in the way.
“My wife even bought a big inflatable pool and a bunch of ball pit balls so we could have people hunt for a flag in it like they used to do on ‘Double Dare,’” he said. “Unfortunately it rained pretty much all day, so no obstacle course.”
The weather may have dampened their plans, but certainly not their moods.
“We're lucky that we have a really great group of friends that are totally into the idea of theme parties,” said Hampton.
Take a look at his epic at-home Nickelodeon birthday ideas.