LEGO Birthday Banner

My daughter turned 6 awhile ago and for the first time ever we were able to have a family party. My siblings and parents as well as my husband’s sister and parents all live in different parts of the US and Canada so we rarely have family at parties.

When my sister gifted our family a sking trip to Canada over spring break I knew it was my opportunity to have family members at Caroline’s party.  We were lucky to have my sister, her boyfriend, my husband’s sister, her husband, and their two sons at the party. What? COUSINS at a party? Yippee!

Caroline wanted a LEGO party so that’s what we had in the hotel room.

Caroline and I worked to make this banner a few weeks before the party.

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We used felt we already had and cut out squares and circles that we then glued into LEGO pieces.

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I then made the girl lego head out of more felt.

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We glued the whole thing together and had a banner for the party – our only decorations.

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For the party we had LEGo bingo, a LEGO scavenger hunt, an awesome LEGO cake (made by her aunt and uncle), a race to build LEGO sets, and we  took a dip in the pool. It was about 25 degrees outside when we jumped into the heated pool – it was great….until we had to get out and run for the door absolutely freezing our tails off.

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Happy 6th Sweet Girl!

Happy Birthday

My husband’s birthday is today and I just want to give him a shout out.

He’s really the most caring, loving person I could have ever asked for to spend my life with.

He’s the best dad to our kiddos whether it’s helping with legos, going to Boy Scout meetings, checking math homework, building projects with them, reading aloud thick chapter books, cheering them on at games, playing board games with them, and just loving them no matter what.

We all love you Derek – happy 42nd!

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The – Shrek the Musical – Party

For my daughter’s 5th birthday party she decided on a “Shrek the Musical,” party. We found this musical on Netflix and she feel in love with it, watching it probably 20 times.

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In my opinion, this musical is FAB.U.LOUS! Go and put it on your netflix list right now!

For days after we watch it, I’ll hear my family humming the tunes or sometimes they bust out with the words. Alright, I’ll admit it, I sing and dance around the house to it as well.

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A Shrek the Musical 5th Birthday Party. Hmmm…I put my thinking cap on and came up with what I think was a pretty fun party. So here’s the party recap:

Caroline greeted her guests outside with some sidewalk chalk paint. Using cornstarch, water, and food coloring I used this recipe to make the paint.

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After everyone had arrived at the party, we went inside to watch our first clip of the movie which was the opening scene introducing Shrek. After watching the movie for about 8 -10 minutes we stopped and played, Stinky Shrek, our own version of hot potato. Several years ago my mom gave us a hot potato game with a built in beeper. I simply covered the hot potato in green fabric and we played Stinky Shrek – last person with the Stinky Shrek (hot potato) was the winner.

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We then watched another clip of the musical which introduces the donkey.

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After the clip we played – Pin the Tail on the donkey – a classic birthday game. I once again used our tracer and made the donkey out of construction paper.

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Next was a clip which introduced the gingerbread man and Lord Farquaad.

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Since I had enough to do to get ready for this party, I paid a friend who was just starting up a baking business to make sugar cookie gingerbread men for me. The kids enjoyed decorating their gingerbread men with frosting and candy. I had little baggies for the kids to take the gingerbread men home in but that did not work out since everyone wanted to eat their creation immediately.

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Next up was the musical scene which introduced Princess Fiona. Sutton Foster plays Fiona in the Netflix musical and she is just outstanding. She was nominated for a Tony for this role.

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To celebrate being a Princess like Fiona the girls made princess necklaces. The necklaces were plastic beads with large holes through the center. I also gave the girls a castle charm that they could place somewhere on their necklace. Since this party was for 4, 5, and 6 yr. olds I thought using a needle and stretchy thread might be a little difficult for them so I glued (using a glue gun) the needle to the piece of thread so the needle couldn’t fall off. I then glued a piece of fabric at the end of the thread so that the plastic beads wouldn’t come off on the other side. The girls really enjoyed making their necklaces. It was fun to see some of the girls where their necklaces to school the next week.

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The last musical scene the girls watched was Princess Fiona tap dancing with the Pied Piper’s rats.

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I decided to make tap shoes for the girls – the cheap way! I bought bottle caps at Hobby Lobby and glued (with a glue gun) them to a rubber band. I placed the hot glue in the bottom section of the bottle caps. The “tap shoes” were easy to put on since they just slipped right over their shoes.

At this time the girls also received their green  Princess Fiona crown – the same one Caroline had been sporting the whole party.

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The girls “tapping” like Princess Fiona in our garage.

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Last up on the party agenda were cupcakes with Shrek character toppers. Normally I try and make a character cake for birthday but Caroline requested cupcakes so cupcakes it was. She helped me choose the characters she wanted on the toppers and we printed them right out.

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So that’s it.

A “Shrek the Musical Birthday” party for my daughter’s 5th birthday.

I think I enjoyed planning it as much as she enjoyed sharing it with her friends.

And seriously, go watch this musical, it’s terrific!

A Birthday Crown for Years

I recently made my niece a felt birthday crown.

Happy Birthday Addy!

As you can see below, she loved it.

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Without a doubt, loved it.

Alright, so maybe not a fan of the birthday crowns yet but I know around age 3 she will be rocking that crown for days and days before, during, and after her birthday.

The really cool thing about this crown is that the number in front is interchangable. So if I really wanted I could make her numbers up through to about age 34 and she’d have to wear it because I would be the crazy old aunt who insists on a picture every year of her in her crown. Thankfully for Addy I only made numbers up through ten.

I followed this tutorial to make the crown.

I first used their crown template and cut out two crowns in the same felt color.

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I sewed the pieces together by hand. Not because it was a point of pride but because I sewed all the parts of this crown while waiting at tennis lessons, swim lessons, piano lessons, and in the school car pool line.

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After finishing the main part of the crown, I moved onto the felt numbers. For most of the numbers I just eyeballed them when cutting out the felt.

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Since the numbers attach to the crown with velcro, I used this fabric fusion velcro on the back of the numbers and one piece placed in the center of the crown. This velcro is so easy to use because you just iron it into place.

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The final step was to sew the elastic into place. The tutorial I followed used a ribbon to hold the crown together but I thought the elastic would stay on better.

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As a final step in sizing I made sure it would fit my 4 year old who was more than happy to model for me.

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Crown are important in a girls life dear little Addy – hope you enjoy your birthday crown for years to come!

Sesame Street Scavenger Hunt

In one of the more ironic twists of my life, I am now babysitting for the middle school band instructor.

I know.

Maybe we should not let him or his wife know about all the band bashing that has been going on around here.

Let’s just say that I’m thrilled my son is “making music” and call it done.

The plan is for me to babysit them for 2-4 days each month.

The band director’s children!

The job is great because I can bring my daughter with me on days that she is not in school.

As I was preparing to babysit one day I made a Sesame Street Scavenger Hunt for the 3 year old and my 4 year old to play.

sesamestreetHuntThe girls each had one of the above boards and a crayon which they used to mark off when they found a character. I scattered the cut out characters around the house and let the girls walk around looking for them.

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They both loved the activity and played several times since I had brought several extra boards.

I knew Caroline would love it since she loved her Bad Guys Scavenger Hunt at her super hero party.

Click here to download this Sesame Street Scavenger Hunt

For this week’s babysitting entertainment I’m printing out 2 copies of the scavenger hunt board and we’re going to play memory.

Happy Scavenger Hunting!

A Sleepover Party for My 11 Year Old

I have to confess something.

I hate sleepover parties. Really hate them.

I know I should love them as a mom and love that my friends have kids who want to come to their house but alas, I hate them.

My son turned 11 over the weekend and wanted a sleepover party with his friends.

He requested a 24 hour party which I quickly shot down. No way Jose.

We compromised on a 4 pm to 10 am party.

At about 4:30 pm on party day, after the 5 guests had arrived,  my husband and I looked at each other and said, “Only 17 1/2 hours to go!”

In all actuality I think it is the stress of hosting 5, 11 year old boys who want nothing else then to knock each other over for the entire length of the party. Oh, and maybe the kids who only speak at one volume, LOUD, that tends to drive me up the wall too.

For the beginning of the party we took the boys to the park near our house where they played soccer, tag, basketball, and grounders (chase on the playground set, no one touching the ground, with the person who is “it” closing there eyes while they were chasing the others – basically a recipe for disaster.)

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Once it hit 6:30 and no one had broken a bone my husband and I called the party a success.

After pizza and a rousing , “Only 15 hours to go,” it was time for a video game tournament, ping pong, and cake.

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After coercing them into taking showers the boys settled on the couches to watch Goonies.

I remember loving this movie when I was younger.

What I didn’t remember were the drug jokes and curse words throughout the movie. Good chance I could receive a few calls from moms today.

After the movie we tucked the boys in at 11 pm and …wait for it……they feel asleep immediately.

For those of you who have never hosted a sleepover you will not understand what a gift this is. No one had to utter 45 times, “Boy, it’s time to go to bed now.” Derek and I kept saying to each other, “Do you really think they are asleep? Can’t be. Are they planning something?”

At 7 AM my husband and I were awakened by what sounded like a herd of cattle coming downstairs.

We uttered, “Only 3 more hours.”

After a breakfast of pancakes, more video games, and ping pong we heard that wonderful sound we had been waiting for – ding dong! A child pick up 20 minutes early! At 10:05 when the last boy had been picked up Derek and I held are hands up in victory. Although only morning we climbed back into bed and vowed never to host a sleepover again.

We were feeling good and proud of ourselves until Andrew announced, “For my 8th birthday I’m going to have a sleep over too because that was so much fun.”

So now I’m standing firm on our vow.  We are not going to have another sleep over for at least 2 weeks. And for those of you counting, that’s only 236 hours till the next sleep over. Lord help us.

Cardboard Boxes – So Much Fun!

The last time I talked about Caroline’s super hero party it was concerning the scavenger hunt, bean bag toss, and the chest letters they received.

Today it’s, “Exploring the City!”

When I looked on pinterest for Caroline’s super hero party I came across party decor which had buildings with it. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun for the girls to be able to play in the buildings?

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Otherwise known as, “Cardboard Boxes are so Much Fun!”

One of the missions the kids had to complete was, “Explore the City.” This simply meant, bring out some cardboard boxes and let the kids have fun.

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A week before the party, the kids and I drove around gathering big boxes that had been discarded in the new subdivision they are building near us.

We then set up a painting station on our driveway and got to work painting the boxes.

I used regular house paint that we already had so the cost for this project was $0.  

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Caroline wore her painting outfit – yellow pants, old white shirt, and a pair of the boys’ old water shoes – always looks like she’s a retired Floridean 🙂

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Everyone got in on the action.

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Once the boxes were dry, my husband cut out doors and windows in each box.

And here are the final results –

Every Super Hero town needs a City Hall…

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the Movies…

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A Jail to put the bad guys…

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And the library!

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The cardboard boxes stayed in our house another week before they were completely destroyed.

Good fun!

Super Hero / Bad Guys Scavenger Hunt

At Caroline’s super hero training birthday party, the kids were required to complete 4 missions.

Each mission had one or two components. For example, there was an “Accuracy Mission,” since all super heroes need to have good accuracy when fighting the bad guys. A bean bag toss and a ping pong bounce game were played in order to test our little super hero trainees. Since they passed that mission, they received super hero cuffs – more on those another day.

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The 2nd mission, the “Eye Test,” consisted of two activities – Super Hero Bingo and Bad Guy Scavenger Hunt. Super heroes need to have good eyesight to spot the bad guys so these activities tested that.

The Bad Guy Scavenger Hunt was definitely a 4 year old favorite.

Each trainee was given a marker and a sheet containing 16, “Bad Guys.” I used characters they might know of instead of typical comic book villains.

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Click here for the Bad Guys Scavenger Hunt

The trainees were then asked to walk around our first floor to find the bad guys. They particularly enjoyed being able to mark off each character once they found a bad guy.

Before the party I had printed out large versions of the same characters on their scavenger hunt sheet and taped them around the house.

Mother Goethel from Tangled

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Can you spot Captain Hook?

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Syndrome from the Incredibles

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Once the trainees completed their eyesight mission –  bingo game and the scavenger hunt – they received a chest letter (piece of felt with a safety pin (with a flat back) glued onto the back.

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Man, four year olds are so much fun!

All 11 of the girls loved dressing up and were totally game for each mission.

Scavenger hunt for 4 year olds, mark that one down as a keeper!

 

A Wonder Woman Birthday Cake

Well, Caroline’s birthday party is over and I think it was a rousing success.

I’ll trickle the pictures throughout the week and maybe into the next (oh joy!) because:

1) I want to be able to share all the fun activities with you

2) My work hours are increasing slightly so I need some completed posts for the blog (not that the 8 – 11 year olds at work don’t provide plenty of material).

So up first today, the cake.

Caroline said she wanted a Wonder Woman cake for months and I really hummed and hawed about this. I mean, I’ve completed a fart cake for pete’s sake but this one gave me pause.

She said she wanted Wonder Woman’s whole body but I wasn’t sure I could do that.

In the end, I found this picture and tried to copy it.

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Caroline loved it.

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I think it looked more like a pornographic blow up doll.

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Not my best cake.

But in the eyes of a four year old it was perfect.