kirstencan

Princess turns 9!

We only do 'friend parties' every other year - but that doesn't mean that you can't do special little details, right?  And I love special little details.

So how do you make a birthday awesome for a really cool girl who's turning nine?

*You fancy up her birthday crown with some embroidery and leave it near her croissant-with-nutella birthday breakfast.

*You leave her a note that sends her on a birthday treasure hunt.

*You make a birthday shirt!  She is learning French and is into all things French (I blame ballet) - so this year I thought I'd make her a 'neuf' (nine) shirt.

*You make paper party hats for her dolls - and slip them on while she's sleeping - so they can surprise her, too!

*You make a fairy ring cake - with toadstool cupcakes (inspired by Cathy!).

- and try hard to not let her little brother sneak a cupcake until after she blows out the candles.

*Two words:  roller skates.

*You let her talk on the phone to aunts and grandmas as long as she wants.

*You bring her cake outside and invite the neighbors to help sing to her.

*You can let her snuggle up and watch Return of the King after her little brothers go to bed.

*Oh, also, if you can arrange to have her piano recital and a dance performance on the same weekend, that's good, too.

All in all - a very sweet birthday for the most amazing nine year old I know.
Happy Birthday to my Princess!

A Super Party

Thanks for your birthday wishes!  Thursday's party went really really well.   It was fun - even for me!  We woke up to snow, but it soon melted and it was just cloudy the rest of the day.  A bummer for pictures, but better than snowing all day!

I ended up with a lot of extra invites - because the first place I printed them cut the sides off a little (beware printing photos with text!) and I had to reprint them.  What to do with extra cutie invites?

Look over the table under the balloons - a mobile.

This goes in the 'Oh yes, I did' category.  They're backed with scraps of paper I used for a party favor.  All the little flying supermonkeys make me smile.  It was a spur of the moment crafty idea but I'm glad I went for it!

Cupcakes (always) with superman wrappers and a superhero candle holder (wood peg person + drill + paint + sharpie).

Here's a super cool decoration - a superhero print from Regina!  She was nice enough to suggest a swap, and this came in time for the party! 

When the guests arrived we colored superheroes.  Everyone got a big (1/2 page) and a small one to color.  They are from this Small Object printable.  I just added masks, belts and capes (and ponytails for Princess) with a sharpie to turn them into superheroes.

Next we had a bean bag toss (the beanbags are pictured above) to 'earn' our capes and masks.  The boys loved the playsilk capes!  I dyed a bunch recently, and used the red, green and blue ones for the party.

Feel free to laugh at this next part.  Monkey really wanted to do a 'pin the superhero on something' game.  So I got out some posterboard and started sketching a city.  Then I added everything I could think of that would keep a superhero busy.  I couldn't decide if this was cool or dumb, but my boys LOVED watching me draw it, so we went with it.

Included disasters:

• Giant angry octopus
• Person trapped in burning building
• Bomb in need of diffusing
• Robber stealing money
• Villain with evil laser weapon
• Giant robot
• Meteor shower
• Cat stuck in tree

We thought of doing this with a blindfold, but Monkey would have none of that - so the kids just took turns sticking their little colored superhero to one of the problems and they all liked it.  We saved the city!

A celebration was in order.  Bring on Freeze Dance (the best party game EVER).  The house was a whirl of capes as everyone rocked out to the Ramones cover of 'Spiderman'.  We had made a mix cd of 'superhero songs' including 3 different versions of the Spiderman theme, some Danny Elfman score music from one of the Spiderman movies, one really old Superman song, a cheesy Batman... oh, and Underdog.

It was pretty awesome. 
Much giggling and rocking out.  And yeah, big sister is in there - cape, mask and all.  She loved it, too.

After presents and cake we let the boys loose in the playroom with the Legos.  Good stuff.

They were sent home with their capes and masks and goody bags.  The best part of the bags (I think) were the little blank books.

The original idea for favors was to make more superhero peg dolls, but I just ran out of time.  I threw in some other cheapo Spiderman junk instead.

The superhero stamp I made got used for the invite envelopes, the goody bag labels, the blank books, and on stickers for the cups on the table.

So that's about it - oh, not pictured, but there were also little signs that said 'POW!' 'WAP!', etc. just stuck here and there around the house.

I didn't keep track of the cost of this party as well as my others, but almost the only thing I had to buy were the silks and masks - so it was still really inexpensive.  The masks are just those inexpensive plastic ones from the party store - but I cut all the noses off to make it more superhero-like.

So that's about it - now the decorations are down, the new toys have (mostly) found places, and the print, mobile, and game poster are all hanging in Monkey's room - he loves it all and had a fabulous (if exhausting) day!

 

Supermonkey is four!

This is the invite we sent out for Monkey's birthday.  He desperately wanted some type of Superhero party, which I was trying to talk him out of - but when I saw Regina's party I thought - now that's not so bad! I can do that kind of superhero!

Anyway, these printed great, and I did use my corner-rounder punch on the photos.  And I carry one around in my purse because it makes me smile!

--------
me: What was the best thing about being three?
Monkey: All of it.

me:  What will be the best thing about being four?
Monkey:  Still being cute.

Amen to that, my cute boy!  So now I have to go get our donut picnic ready, and then wish me luck as I will have 9 little caped boys running around my house this afternoon.

You know you'll be hearing more about that soon!

Happy Birthday to my sweet cuddly Monkey.  So glad we get to celebrate with you today!

Someone has a birthday coming up...

So I've been making these...

and these...

You can see where this is going, right?

Stay tuned!

33

Happy Birthday to me.

Monkey asked 'How old are you going to be?"

And when I replied, he said "But I don't want you to be a giant!"
because to him, apparently, he still associates getting older with getting taller.  And 33?  would be way tall indeed.

I will be spending the day hanging out, playing some Zelda (when I can get it away from Monkey, who is quickly turning into a gaming junkie), eating Thai for lunch (thanks, Mom!), and going to dinner with Aaron. 

By Ourselves.

I know - awesome. 

Oh, and opening presents! 

3x11

Birthday Day

Thank you for your birthday wishes for Thomas!

He opened his birthday shirt in the morning and was way excited about it, which made me happy.  I made it using fabric from a vintage He-man sheet (and stitched it up at dance).  I thought it would be fun to go 'digital' this year.

He showed it to everyone.  And on the way to school he was telling the neighbors to 'Say Happy Birthday to me!'

And he loved the Darth Vadar gift - one of his friends was a little scared of it, though!

The decorations were simple. I had bought this Star Wars panel fabric at Hancock's months ago - since you can't always find it - and put it on the table.  I'll turn it into throw pillows for the boys at some point probably.
 

The other decorations were some red balloons, and the birthday buntings.

The cupcakes were a total rerun idea - side sprinkles (like Monkey's) and Star Wars cupcake picks (I think this is the third time I've made these!).  But hey, none of the guests had seen them, so rock on.

I planned just an hour for the party.  While there are some amazing and involved ideas for Star Wars parties (if you haven't checked out this site, you should), I wanted to keep it simple.  At this age, Thomas mostly just wanted his friends to come over and play, so I didn't plan a lot of activities.  I was thinking four 15-minute segments:  play-doh (each kid got their own mini tub and a vinyl mat to keep), pin the x-wing fighter on the Death Star, presents, and cake.

As you can see, the Death Star was properly annihilated.

Anyway, nothing took as long as I thought, but that was okay.  I figured any extra time would be spent in the playroom and that's what happened.  They all got along so well, it was awesome.  And really?  You could tell they just wanted to play, instead of playing organized games, so it was great.

He had a great day.

(And for those who are curious:  I think I spent about $20 on this party.  The kids went home with Star Wars coloring books, crayons, playdoh + mat, and candy.  I got the paper products (black plates and cups) at the dollar store, the Darth Vadar napkins and goody bags I got (unopened) at a yard sale for 25 cents each, the coloring books were from the dollar store, too, and the crayons were 25 cents at a back-to-school sale in July.  Yup, I think ahead.  The vinyl was a remnant cut up, and I spent about $1 at the copy shop.   Not too shabby.  Oh, and the Darth Vadar cutout was only $20 at a party store - and we counted that as a gift - to put in his room after the party.)

Now we are six

A big day.
My little guy - on the verge of being a big guy.

(I love his chin.)

Happy Birthday to my Thomas - I love you so.  I'm so glad that I get to be your mom.  So very glad.

And I hope you like the life-sized Darth Vadar cut-out we got you. :)

(And thanks for checking up on him - turns out he had an ear infection, but is doing just fine since taking antibiotics - so bring on the Star Wars Party this afternoon!  More on that this weekend, I'm sure.)

Invitations - check.

Thomas turns six this week!  In honor of the event, he's having his first ever 'friend party'.  Yikes!  After Princess' party in June, he started saying 'Then it will be MY birthday and all the BOYS will come!'  So yeah, we knew we had to do a party for him this year.  But it will be small-ish and short-ish.

And Star Wars (of course).

Here are the invites I made and sent out last week: 

(They're lightsabers, for those of you who aren't In The Know).

My mom found the idea here and sent me the link - could there be a better invite for the target audience of 4-6 year old BOYS?  Nope.

I made an extra one to keep in the memory box, but Monkey had to have it.  And he had to have an envelope for it - 'Because I'm invited, too!'

p.s. after I published this, Thomas woke up with a mean fever.  Darn it!  I hope he gets better REALLY soon - his bday is Thursday.

Morning update - he woke up without a fever.  So, no school, but I think we're good.  Whew!

Party - Food & Activities

Alright, here's the conclusion of Princess' Chinese birthday party in case anyone's interested.

Our gathering activity as the party guests were arriving was playing with tangrams (an ancient chinese puzzle involving seven shapes).  First they tried to use all seven to make a square, and then they looked at this book (from the library) to get more ideas of things to make.  I wanted a nice clear printable for them, but couldn't find one.  This worked fine, though - they all had fun.  I cut the tangrams from red posterboard (they were supposed to go home in the goody bags, but I forgot - oh well!)

We had Chinese bamboo flute music playing throughout the party - from a cd we checked out at the library.  It really added a lot to the party.

Next we dipped things in chocolate.  A friend suggested dipping fortune cookies in chocolate as favors - we decided to let the girls make their own.  Each girl had a piece of waxed paper in front of them with their name on it, and when they were done making their treats we moved the papers to the counter to set, and then packaged them in their goody bags.

 

The girls said 'Oooh! Pretty!'  which is always nice to hear.  We had pretzels, marshmallows and gummy bears to dip as well - not many of those made it to the bags, though. ;)

Then we went outside to play Catch the Dragon's tail and Tsoo Tsoo.  This was hilarious - and the girls were running around and giggling and having so much fun - a joy to watch!

Back inside for calligraphy.  The girls tried to write their names in Chinese characters.  I printed their names (from here) for them to work from.  For 'ink' I just watered down some black acrylic paint that I had around (didn't want to buy a ton of black watercolors).

Next we had a chopstick relay.  Princess picked out these red + floral chopsticks (which went into the goody bags to take home) from the local Asian market, and sorted through the pompom box for pink, red and white pompoms.  The goal was to pass the pompoms from person to person down the line.  This was pretty funny, as most of the girls couldn't hold chopsticks correctly - but they tried, or used two hands.

After opening presents, we decorated cupcakes.  Now this part of the party was planned back in February, when I was in charge of a church cookie-decorating activity that ended up getting canceled.  Instead of returning all the frosting, sprinkles, Valentine's Day (red/white/pink) m&m's, and red hots that I'd bought, I just kept it all for Princess' birthday - after checking all the expiration dates! 

So, yeah, perfectly coordinating m&m's!

 

Each girl got their own cup of frosting and knife, little individual truffle cups for sprinkles, and shared the bigger cupcake liners (which held the m&m's and red hots).  This is how I did the Valentine's Day cookie-decorating party for Thomas's class in February and it went really smoothly, plus I'm sure it was more sanitary, what with all the finger-licking going on.

 

I originally wanted to use take-out boxes for favors - as I'd seen them at the Asian market for cheap.  But when I went back... of course they were out.  I used these red lunch-type bags instead, which ended up working great to hold their calligraphy and chopsticks.  I was going to punch holes in the bags and tie them with strips of pink fabric but ended up scrapping that idea.

A couple of final notes - I loved this party.  The girls had a ton of fun, and so did I.  But I had a lot of help.  Aaron took the day off so that he could help me set up and take the boys to the park for the first half of the party (they were surprisingly well behaved for the second!).  My mom and sister came up to help, and were SUCH a help (worker bees!).  Clearing the table between activities and setting up the next one, melting the chocolate, filling the bags, etc.  Thank you!

We decided to have the party on a Friday afternoon, when all of the girls get out of school early.  So the party was between meals.  I didn't really feel like doing a whole meal - but if we had the menu definitely would have included eggrolls and stir-fry.  This way I saved myself a lot of energy and money.  And speaking of money, the entire party cost me less than $30.  Rock on.
.......

More about the party:  decorations, outfit, write up on Apartment Therapy: Ohdeedoh 

Party - Decorations

Well, the decorations for Princess' Chinese party are what turned out best of all - thanks in large part to my friend Whitney, who let me borrow her paper lanterns.  We missed you, Whitney!

I made tissue paper flowers to hang with them - so pretty and fun to make!  Finding a decent supply of pink tissue paper was surprisingly hard - so I have 3 different colors of pink and some red flowers.

I painted the banner (which supposedly says 'Happy Birthday' - but I'm sure I didn't do it 100% right!) and the umbrella is on top of the cabinet.

On the table and on the mantel were vases of 'cherry blossoms'.  I cut out lots of pink tissue paper blossoms and glue-gunned them to branches.  I haven't thrown them away yet - they're pretty!

 

I had a couple of small white lanterns already, so I decoupaged some of the tissue paper blossoms to one of them, and let Princess paint the other (with watercolors - she did flowers and butterflies on hers).  We may hang them in her room now.

Did I mention that most of this is still making my house pretty?  It's hard to want to take it down!

More about the party:  outfit, activities, write up on Apartment Therapy: Ohdeedoh