Can we survive it? Yes we can! Bob the Builder birthday part prt. 2

I'm two days old from leaving the terrible twos (but don't worry, the terrible threes are the new terrible twos, so if you're still in the twos, don't worry, not much has changed for me either). We had Elio's party today, making use of the weekend for the celebration. And in true Elio form, it was his party and he cried if he wanted to. This is a kid who doesn't love confusion and fuss (although he loves the idea of a birthday party and all that comes with it in theory), so he was a little cantankerous. But nonetheless, I think he had a good time. So it's worth it.

You saw the first instalment of this party earlier. Nothing fancy or elaborate, just some simple toddler crafts and a ribbon pinata. The rest was just playtime. The weather forecast tricked me into believing it would be raining, so I ditched the idea of an outdoor scavenger hunt. Silly me. The sun was shining after all. You can't win for trying.

We started with a simple last minute craft. Literally I put this together last night based on a dump truck card I saw on pinterest. It worked well. We used scrapbooking paper because construction paper is now flimsy and poor quality (what is with that anyways??). I outlined the dump truck with a silver sharpie, and cut the parts out of craft foam. The kids used Elmer's white glue to glue the pieces on to the picture. The load was supposed to be Cheerios. By the time they got to the load, the kids were more or less tired of gluing. Nonetheless, very cute and VERY EASY.

Next up we did a little birdhouse thing. Ethan was planning on making these, but when you see them at the Dollar Store for $2, you have to give your head a shake and question whether or not the DIY is worth it. Bingo daubers are bar none my favourite craft supply for toddlers. They are easy to use and really only require gross motor skills. Even little Heidi, our youngest guest who is 18 months was very easily able to accomplish this on her own. 

The trouble with Bob the Builder is he is a little "5 years ago". We know and love him from hand-me-down DVDs and it isn't on that often anymore. So Bob themed stuff is hard to come by. But with a little help from an overhead projector, it's pretty easy to Bob-ify a generic construction party. Construction themed decor was simple- caution tape and black and yellow balloons and streamers. I got great ideas from my good friend Trisha on decor. Clever girl that she is had a similar party for her son, and came up with the road lines on the table cloth, and serving food in dollar store dump trucks. We were not having dry food (ie. chips and pretzels etc.), but rather crepes with fruit toppings, so I used plastic buckets and shovels for some of them. Cheap, thematic, super cute. I made little place cards for seating out of craft foam, shaped like road signs.  

So I think I'm good for birthday parties until January (sorry Ethan). I'm covered in nutella and bingo daubers, but I'm happy. The excitement is worth the effort for sure. 

Happy trails!

Let them eat cake! (Or maybe, let them eat one spoonful, then say they had enough...)

It's official. This morning Matteo turned 5. We survived a chaotic, albeit, very fun party. This was the first party where many parents dropped off their kids rather than staying. That adds an element of challenge too- I now have PROFOUND appreciation for the patience and talent of Matteo's preschool teachers. But, for the most part, everyone left happy, and it was pretty memorable.

It's funny, but one of the things I spend the most time on, and feel the most proud of is the cake for a birthday bash. I say it is funny, because you are talking to someone who, as a kid, would SOB over the prospect of going to a birthday party and having to eat cake. I loathed the stuff. My mum would say, "Just tell them you don't want any." But I would reply in tears, "But you always say I have to eat everything someone puts in front of me and they always put cake in front of me." I can still remember a milestone in my life- going to Shannon's birthday party and her mum had made a sherbert cake shaped like a watermelon slice, with little chocolate chips for the seeds. No cake, no icing. Heaven. At any rate, I spend a lot of time thinking about the cake. Maybe because I watch Cake Boss and naturally assume, I too am as talented as Buddy Valastro. This is never the case, but, I never seem to give up that hope. Usually, I send the kids to daycare while I bake and decorate the cake. Why? Well, ahem, the air is never bluer than when I bake a birthday cake. Things start to go south, and all of a sudden, my large vocabulary is involuntarily forgotten in favour of a myriad of expletives and horrendous expressions that would make a sailor blush. It's ugly (not to mention shocking coming out of a 5 ft tall elementary school music teacher). This time, however, I baked while the kids were in bed and my husband was on the couch with his ipod in his ears. And miraculously, only one cuss was let go, and it was not a major. Plus, it was smooth sailing- 4 hours top to tail. Here's what it looked like:

I like doing fondant. It is like playing with playdough. Once I figured out how to cover the cake, the rest is super easy. Plus, for an icing hater like me, you can get away with very little buttercream underneath. I always find that when doing a buttercream iced cake, you really have to use a ton to make it look right. Now, this cake is not huge. And I suppose I thought more would be consumed, so I decided I'd better make a small batch of cupcakes too. Enter Marvin Suggs and his Muppaphone. What?, you ask? This dude:

The Muppaphone. Matteo loves this as it sings one of his favourite songs, the Witchdoctor. And if you haven't seen this- you tube it. You won't regret it. Here's the cupcakes: 

 Here's my list of dirty little secrets: I don't make cake from scratch. If I'm going to spend the time on decorating the thing, I don't want to spend the time on baking it too. Plus, I discovered an awesome recipe for cake mix pound cake. It uses a package of instant pudding and produces the most delicious dense and moist cake- perfect for decorating. I also don't make my fondant. I have made my fondant, it isn't that hard. But it is time consuming. Plus when I stupidly dyed it toxic waste green by over doing the food colouring, and had to start from scratch, sending my husband out at 8 p.m. for more glycerine or something, I threw in the proverbial towel. I save my coupons from the craft store and refuse to buy the fondant for less than 40% off. I will occasionally colour purchased fondant myself. I'm getting more confident there. I dyed the lime green and the yellow on this cake. 

This party was a good one. Very fun. Man, was I glad I had lots of activities planned- that many kids left to their own devices in my very small house would have produced an explosion of toys and noise that would have turned your eyelids inside out. My favourite activity was the ribbon pinata- it was spectacular fun! Here are some photos of the day:

 A decorated house- ready for a party!

 My brilliant mum sewed this banner. It is cloth and I love it so much. She made separate Matteo and Elio banners- I just pin them on for the appropriate birthday. 

 My muppetly man models the shirts that I made for the guests instead of goodie bags.

 Love that kid!

 Good groceries as my sister says- waiting for feeding time.

 The finished ribbon pinata. I will always do this from now on. Try it- you'll love it too!

Craft station set up and ready to go. 

As much as I'm already thinking ahead to Elio's birthday in June, and I will admit, I am, I plan on doing sweet NOTHING tomorrow! 

Happy trails all!

A Very Muppet birthday- Part Two!

Phew. The kiddos are in bed, angels that they are, clean and well-fed. This leaves me with the house to myself to get organized (Ethan's out tonight, so it is pretty quiet). I think I'm getting there. Good grief. So much to forget- I'm terribly grateful that my head is, in fact, attached. It would just be one more thing to remember. I do believe that most things are organized for Matteo's little shin-dig. I think that all is left is the ever important cake. Not tonight. I'm too tired to take on that old chestnut.

Thankfully, I've got things sorted out for activities and crafts. It's kind of fun to do some sort of craft that the kiddos can take home don't you think? As much as I love crafting, I have yet to find many great projects for 4 and 5 year olds. I'm not patient, and I may, according to most, be a rather type A, neatnik sort of person. Ok. I'm just plain fastidious. This is what I came up with. We shall be making, Kermit the Frog door knob hangers. Kermit's simple shapes lent themselves so well to this one also. All it took was cutting pieces out of felt. The kids shall assemble and glue them on. I think they'll be cute. The door knob hangers I got at a craft store, on mega sale. Did I mention, I'm also really rather cheap? My ever-patient and indulging husband painted them with some leftover latex for me. Here's what it all amounts to:

I'm always at a loss for party games. Especially indoor ones. I seem to have a bazillion ideas of things to do outside. But unless building an ark is one of them (or perhaps shovelling the driveway this year), I'm often out of luck for usable outdoor ideas in January. Luckily, my kid loves to "pin the ____ on ____". For his cowboy party when he turned three it was "pin the tail on Bullseye the Horse". For his Cat in the Hat party when he was 4 it was "Pin the bow on the Cat in the Hat". This year's reincarnation: "Pin the nose on Beaker". My friend Alysn just did the same thing  (Pin the Hair on Rapunzel) for her daughter's birthday, and it was so impressive, because unlike me, she is a wonderful artist and actually draws the things! I'm always impressed by that. Me, I resort, like any self respecting, unartistic elementary school teacher, to using an overhead. And one wouldn't truly be an elementary school teacher without laminating it. Here's Beaker:

I did several decorations (Kermit, Gonzo, Miss Piggy and Fozie) in this fashion as well. Why bother you ask? Believe me, I've asked myself the same question. Well, I think I shall make a mighty muppetly bulletin board for my classroom later- may as well make things that can do double duty right?

I bought some little prizes for this game. Everyone will get one, the winning person shall choose first. When exploring www.ikatbag.com I loved her idea of a punch board to pick prizes. The idea is you have a board, with several holes cut out (her's looked like a cupcake). Across each hole you put tissue paper, and the kids punch their wee hands through the tissue to find their prize. What better way to feature that epic entrance sequence at the opening of the Muppet Show?! You know, the one with all the lit arches and all the characters in an arch of their own? Ok. I'm a mega nerd, I freely admit that. Check out the above website for good instructions. I made mine out of two diaper boxes (the ONLY think I will miss about not having a child in diapers should Elio finally decide to get on board my potty training band wagon). I stacked the boxes to make a shelf and just taped the prizes in place. Here's what it looks like:

 Thanks to the Family Fun website for the Muppet printables- the characters worked pretty well for this.

 Nothing scares me more than 4 and 5 year olds blindfolded with sticks, swinging at a pinata. It's terrifying. The Mexicans are a brave people. Not to mention, that is decidedly an outdoor game. Luckily, ikatbag had a solution for this too. The ribbon pinata. It is constructed out of cardboard with trap doors in the bottom. The pinata is divided into compartments in the inside- so that the game is longer than one lucky pull. You stick a whole bunch of ribbons that are attached to nothing in the doors of the pinata. Only one ribbon is firmly affixed to each door. Kids take turns pulling ribbons in the hopes of  finding the ones that will release the candy. No blindfolds. No sticks. It's genius. I made mine to resemble (and I use this term very loosely) the Muppet Theatre. Here's what it looks like:

 I haven't yet put in the blank ribbons or the candy.

 I used a glue gun to firmly secure the ribbons to the trap doors.

Done.

Last game. If there is time we will play pass the parcel. I bought some more el-cheapo prizes, and will wrap them in one present with several layers of wrapping. We will sing a song and pass the parcel. The child holding the parcel at the end of the song will get to unwrap a layer of the parcel and keep the prize they find. Every kid gets a layer to unwrap and a prize.

Phoof. That's a lot to get through. We will likely not do it all, and that's fine. I was a Girl Guide in my glory days: Be prepared. Old habits die hard.

Happy trails!

Muppets are great: Party part 1

I am about to become the mother of a 5 year old. Don't ask me how it happened. I blinked and Matteo went from this:

to this:

Woah. At any rate, I find myself planning another birthday party. It would seem that birthday parties have now become this overblown mega deal. Everyone seems to go to fancy indoor playgrounds, of gyms etc. And man is that expensive! (You want $300 for a 5 year old's birthday party?! Right. I'll just phone Switzerland and move some money around.) When I was a kid we'd rent a movie, eat hot dogs and chips, play outside and call it a day. So, I'm pretty much determined to avoid major production if I can. That being said, since Matteo's birthday party is in January and the weather forecast is usually Biblical rain, I'm not that crazy about a bunch of little kids running around my rather small house with no focus or plan. The theme birthday party seems to be a hit in this house.

I'm sad, or maybe happy, to admit that Ethan and I are the kind of parents determined to brain-wash our kids with all those things we are nostalgic about. Enter the Muppets. We started early on this one. By the time Matteo was 2, he was well acquainted with not only all the best characters from Sesame Street, but also a selection of favourite Muppet show episodes. The legendary episode featuring Paul Simon was, and still is, his favourite. It is so great- how many puns on "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" can you come up with. Matteo had about 10 by the time he was 2. I digress. We were so excited this year when the Muppets Movie came out. And we were even more excited when it was, in fact, completely wonderful. It delivered in a big way- somehow it re-introduced a whole new generation to the loveable characters without sacrificing their integrity (even if they are now owned by Disney). Here was born this year's birthday party theme.

I spent a good deal of time online finding great ideas for this one. I have to say, thank you big sister for the awesome find: if you haven't already, check out www.ikatbag.com . This woman is PHENOMENAL and has more artistic and creative capability in the fingernail of her left pinky than I have at all. Her site is chock-ablock full of great and creative ideas. I've used several of them for this party, adjusting them to fit our needs. Another source that was invaluable was http://familyfun.go.com/. This is the website for Family Fun Magazine which is so great and full of very feasible ideas that are usually made of very common, cheap and easy-to-find things. What more can you ask for?

So for the last couple of weeks, I've been sewing and glue gunning, getting ready for Saturday's party. Here's our party favour. I hate making goody bags. They cost a ton, and usually are just full of junk I wouldn't want kicking around my house. This year I decided to go a different route. I found a website that sold plain t-shirts for cheap ($3.19 per shirt- I know, right?!) and made each kid a Kermit t-shirt. Pretty easy, albeit, time consuming. All it took was some fusible webbing, fabric scraps, an iron and a sewing machine and after a few hours of work I had 9 lovely appliqued Kermit shirts. The template for Kermit came from a book that my Aunty Sandy bought for me (she is so thoughtful- always considers your interests when buying presents and seems to find the coolest stuff). My mum made a fantastic quilted wall hanging for Matteo using this book for Matteo's 1st birthday. It leant itself very nicely to this project too- from t-shirts, to crafts, to cake. Invaluable.

Here's what the t-shirts look like. Pretty cute I think. Plus, they are usable- a bonus in my book! Stay tuned for more birthday party madness: decor, cake and activities to come.